Sebring 2024?

ViperMikeee

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Is there an event going on at Sebring again this year? I believe there was one last year but I missed it. :(
 

str5010

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Do you mean Viper Racing League? They are running there again during Winterfest January 18-21. You should visit their website or follow Viper Racing League and/or Viper Racing History on Facebook/Instagram for events.
 

2013GeeTeeS

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I don't have Facebook but am semi local. I'd be interested in coming down. I take the RV down for the Trans Am series.
 

Tom and Vipers

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Ah... Sebring:

When I bot my 2000 GTS new, having spent recently the very most by far on a used car ($7k), I drove it with 90 miles from near Pittsburgh to FL starting out in a snow storm. My intent was to stay 2 weeks but it ended up something like 7 (or 9). My pathetically meager plans went out the window when I went to see Doug Levin. He got me started on a chain of events which turned out to be epic. Thank you Doug! (he was still hobbling around after that terrible crash.)

The Sebring Endurance race was quite the experience. I wonder if they still have The Zoo where a melting *** of red necks, crazies and madmen start RVing months before the race. Their "homesteads" would be complete with old tires and junked refrigerators by race day. A Viper buddy told me one time he was there, there was a live sex show on top of one of the RV's. (!)

I started out as a typical tourist at the race, then decided to walk around the course for good viewing. They had pedestrian bridges over the course which were tunnels so you couldn't see anything (otherwise everyone would be on the bridge to watch the race!)

My expedition to explore the far end of the course brought me to the bridge that went into The Zoo. I was shocked when I stepped out of the tunnel into a swirling purple vortex of depravity and delight!

There was garbage and litter everywhere, tons of news papers were blown up against the chain link fence. Newspapers? Why would there..... Oh wait.... Those aren't newspapers, they're pronography! Tons of it. But not the type we're familiar with. This stuff was the crummiest, seediest stuff written on newspaper print - far below the brothel fliers in Las Vegas or Reno. Where on the planet did they get this stuff? And tons of it!!!

Against the fence there was a lawn chair with a rather impressive mannequin of what looked like a New Orleans VooDoo lord, sitting, with a blow up inflatable sex doll, upside down with here crotch in his face.

These boys at Sebring sure know how to roll.... There were pickup work trucks with couches on the latter racks and "kings" sitting there like The Duke of New York! Yeah Baby! (Austin)

Seeing this alternate universe, I was now hell bent on driving my new Viper around in there since I was about to begin my phase of "driving my Viper where no other Viper will ever."

Nothing happened.

I don't have pics.

But Sebring was.... oh wait!
I was part of a Viper group and we did a parade lap.
Wanting to open up on the back straight, I waited to be last out so I could dilly dally.
All was to plan except the jamoke in front of me spun out on the entrance corner to the straight.
Fortunately, I had done a day of shifter carts at Racer's Country Club in North Miami which transformed my driving skills to a new level (I drifted my new $75k Viper around the 270* entrance ramp to 826 (I think) when leaving) and I was able to avoid a collision with those new skills. Had to go off road and dragged dirt on the course. I don't think we were near any heavily spectated areas to add to the embarrassment. I wonder what the racers thought of us Viper Fools? A good laugh? or?

It wasn't that long ago, but is a distant memory as if someone else's. **** Father Time....
 

bstaneland

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Ha, that was a good read @Tom and Vipers

Brought back my interesting memory of the 07 Sebring IMSA race and the zoo…

Middle of the night and me and my 2 friends decide to go for a stroll - evidently ended up walking through what you described… RVs that made Cousin Eddie’s Christmas Vacation heap look decent, toddlers wandering around aimlessly with and without diapers on, monster Jeeps being driven around as if they were golf carts with people packed on every type of way to sit, hang, dangle from, and then we hear a guy with only shorts on through a megaphone on full blast (loud enough to be heard over the many different stereos)… “y’all better not come back, this here for white people”

The 3 of us comprised a white guy, a brown guy and a black guy.

Needless to say, we promptly exited the area and didn’t wander back. And no, we weren’t actually offended - it was mostly funny sprinkled with a little bit of scared lol.

Side note: this was also the year of the *famous* final lap battle between Melo (Ferrari) and Bergmeister (Porsche) that I was fortunate enough to catch firsthand from the outside of the final corner.
 

2013GeeTeeS

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I have heard similar stories. lol Friends of mine burnt a couch at the corner of turn 7.
 

Tom and Vipers

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Thanks guys for adding to the "Sebring Experience!"

Yeah Baby! Burning couches and toddlers running amok is a pretty good image! (I just want to know how the piles of garbage and junk accumulated) LOL, just thought: burning that couch: that was "cleanup!" Or perhaps Sebring's: BURNING COUCH (they couldn't find a man.)

bstaneland, since you mentioned the makeup of your party (and it's pretty much common knowledge to regulars - and not tourists), I have to add this part of the "Sebring Experience!" I'm there with a friend and wife (me first and last time, them regulars) and we're walking around and she says, "1" and I think nothing of it. Then about 10 min later she says "2". This time I noticed it but said nothing. Then a "3" after another bunch of minutes. They're having fun with me, my friend finally says, you know what she's doing? I say No obviously. He says, she's counting black people.

Wow. I would never have noticed it. But now I did.

That was in 2001 I believe. A generation has passed, I wonder how it's changed. Considering what they had going on there in The Zoo obviously for generations, I doubt it would die quietly. I did try to walk the place at night hoping to see some T&A but it was pitch black and near impossible without a flash light. I got the impression everyone was already tuckered out from all the daytime shenanigans (they probably get a bright and early start considering the race.)

But then I wonder what the place is like a day or a week or a month before the event? THAT could be insane!

RE: DAYTONA: Was there on my epic trip and wow, do bikers LOVE Vipers! For a day or 2 I thought I was the only 1 there, but on the last day I saw another Viper. But speaking of Vipers and Bikers. My 50 year old friend rode bikes his whole life and then got his first Harley. He was really pissed because if he had known what a chick magnet they were, he would have started with them instead of CZ's, Bultaco's and MAKO's. My experience with Viper (and confirmed by a lawyer acquaintance who was bedding young girls in his office and the cops thought he was working late ! LOL) is girls aren't attracted to them. One he was seeing had no appreciation for the $70k BMW he had in the 1990's and even remarked why he didn't have a Corvette! (!) At Daytona, it was clear the Viper would be THE car for a Cougar - she could have her pic of any male or any age. NOTE: The only car I ever owned that got me in contact with girl parts was my 1974 Datsun pickup - and that happened when I was 69. Gotta pay attention to those Truck Girls. She saw me driving around town in it and said, I have to meet that guy.

RE: BURNING MAN: I visited Carson City NV every year for about 30 years starting in 1986. And was about 3.5 hours away. I would have loved to go, but not as a tourist, only if with someone who knew the place. I talked to Ted May a couple of times about it - he said it was the one thing he took off for no matter what. I was tempted to ask him if I could go with him but by the time that happened, I was just too old, tired and worn out. Heard it said, "Taking your wife there is like taking sand to the beach!" It must have been great in the downlow days. A few years ago, Red Rock got a new sheriff who was hell bent to wage his own War on Drugs. *** is wrong with people? Give them a gun and a badge and before you know it, they're full-fledged "Nazis."
 

2013GeeTeeS

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I would like to come down for the gathering next weekend. Is there spectator section, where do I park my Viper? I'd love a ride along if I could get it. lol
 

Oreca2000

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I'll be bringing my new (to me) yellow '95 to the 12 Hours of Sebring this year if anyone wants to join!
 
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2013GeeTeeS

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I'm still trying to make the Trans Am weekend but just had a conversation about the 12 hour.
 

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