Best and worst memories

[rickslick]

I'm 52 years old now and have been to probably 45 Sebrings.
My father took me and when I was old enough to drive, started taking friends up there.

Worst memory.......It was about 1966 ( I guess) when a car drove through the fence and killed a couple of spectators.

Best memory......In about 1973 saw a young couple screwing out in the open field on just a blanket  just before sunrise on Saturday morning.

[Misplaced Floridian]

First year, 1967 - been to maybe 10-12 Sebrings since.  (Was hard to make it back while on active duty in the Navy for 21 years.)

Worst memory:  1995(?)  Bonfires were still legal after the race.  Had a big one by F-Troop, when it was small & just starting people got it into their head to 'fire jump' over the bonfire.  Size kept growing, people kept jumping.  Couple couches and a couple sets of scaffolding later, fire had to be at least 12-15 feet across, one guy tries to 'fire walk' over the fire, slips and goes face down into the middle of the fire.  4 or 5 of us managed to get to him & pull him out, had no hair left & exposed skin was a mess, but paramedics were there fast & took him away.

Best memory:  Last year.  Hadn't been to Sebring for 11-12 years, the Wife gave me a ticket & airfare as a Christmas present.  Started surfing the net and came across SebringFans.com ... signed up and started talking to people here.  When I got to Sebring, no matter where I went, I knew someone through this forum.  Was the best time I had at Sebring, ever.  You always meet your neighbors when camping there, but this time I knew people all over the track and met a lot of them ... too many to mention for fear of leaving some out.

[Turn1Vet]

Best: Standing on a scalfolding on the corner where F-troop camps, operating the spotlight for the guy with the fishing pole,with beads attached to the line in 2003.

Worst: Not sure the year but witnessing the death of a BMW driver who went straight off in turn 2 and struck a bus/ Also the porsche driver who had a heart attack and crashed into the turn 1 wall killing him. (not sure the year either, i know i was a young teenager)

[311unity13B]

worst year: 2004 i think it was, saw a guy fall off the back on a pickup and shatter his head open, boom, dead...and the driver of the truck took off, but i heard he got caught at the gate

best year, first year, 2003

[racerboyadam]

worst year: 2004 i think it was, saw a guy fall off the back on a pickup and shatter his head open, boom, dead...and the driver of the truck took off, but i heard he got caught at the gate

Was this the one in the Paddock or in Green Park?

[311unity13B]

worst year: 2004 i think it was, saw a guy fall off the back on a pickup and shatter his head open, boom, dead...and the driver of the truck took off, but i heard he got caught at the gate

Was this the one in the Paddock or in Green Park?

in the paddock, he fell off right in front of me, people were trying to give him CPR and i ran and got a cop right away

[natefromohio]

yeah i saw that then. Not you running to get a cop but i do remember the guy falling off and the truck speeding away. Definitley not a good time

[racerboyadam]

yeah i saw that then. Not you running to get a cop but i do remember the guy falling off and the truck speeding away. Definitley not a good time

Yeah, he almost hit several people on the way out too.  I remember that very clearly. 

[KTJeffries]

Sadly, that guy was good friends with a lot of people I know. That was a very sad day. I know a few people who haven't been back to Sebring since.

[gulf917]

Best: So many to choose from. This year will be my 30th consecutive year. So my number one memory is spending time with my dad who took me to my first race in 1977. He and I have been to every one since.

having a beer with Craig T. Nelson and Johnny O in the paddock when Craig raced and owned his screamin eagle team.

catching up with friends that i only see once a year

getting to sit in a porsche 962

watching a porsche 917 run on the track during HSR races

the year of the monsoon 96?...when the Friday afternoon race was under red flag for most of the 3 hour race...then they decided to give em the go...needless to say, after sitting in their cars for two hours of parade laps, the guys were hungry...turn 1 saw more wall slams in one lap than ten years of of collective races. no one was hurt..

the year Lorenzo Lamas drove his Hawaiian Tropic Camel Light into the turn 1 wall, got trapped in the car when it burt into flame...he finally got out but i think i have it on video...right in front of us...

The '93 Mud pit...i was in a yellow jeep and we are actually on a dvd that one of the sebringfans members made a few years ago...that was an amazing, amazing...mud pit

Worst Time: Maybe the moonsoon year...it never stopped raining...thank god we had a motor home..but still it was miserable...at least there was beer.

[Turn1Vet]

that rainy firestone firehawk race in 96 was a blast. we could see the cars start to hydro plane just after the bridge and they could'nt do anything about it. I think they replaced like 3 or 4 concrete barriers in turn 1 that year.

[311unity13B]

the monsoon in 2003 was nuts

[Bosco]

First year: 1968

Best memories:  The impromptu Gentlemens Club complete with stage set up in the infield in the late 60's and early 70's, complete with some wonderfully talented amateur dancers.

The fast but fragile Greenwood Corvettes

Hershcel McGriff screaming up the pit straight with no body work on the front of his early 70's ZL1 camaro

The 80's and 90's GTP cars

Being able to race the 12 hour course the last fifteen years with SCCA and V8 STockCar and winning GTA class in my ex ASA series stockcar this June.  Hopefully more memories like that to come.

[pureadrenalin]

worst year: 2004 i think it was, saw a guy fall off the back on a pickup and shatter his head open, boom, dead...and the driver of the truck took off, but i heard he got caught at the gate

First(best so far)year 2004, working with a team, but it was still awesome.

Worst year, the same, only due to the aforementioned quote. We heard the sirens when working on the car in paddock, figured it was a fire of some sort, only to find out it was that. It was quite sad. If I remember correctly, that wasn't the only spectator that was killed that week, or nearly killed.

[racerboyadam]

If I recall reading it in the paper, there were two people killed that year.  Truly a sad year for Sebring.