Sebring International Raceway

Your stats are unbelievable for a guy from Toronto.

Three-time IMSA champion, 24 hours of Daytona winner, two-time Le Mans winner, 12 hours of Sebring winner, six-time NASCAR winner, and 20-time...

Trans Am winner, Hall of Fame in Trans Am, Hall of Fame in Canada.

I mean, it's pretty impressive.

We'll start with IndyCar.

They tested at Sebring International Raceway in Florida on Monday and Tuesday with Alex Palou and Alexander Rossi in the new IR28 car so it could simulate being on street courses, since Sebring is very bumpy.

And obviously, you can't test on a temporary street course in the off-season when the street course hasn't, isn't having the race that week.

You can't just call up the construction workers and be like, "Hey, um, can you build Long Beach real quick for the weekend just so we can test on it?" Like, that ain't happening.

Good God

... at Sebring.

[laughs]

I did see that.

Oh

... than the Thunder Roadsters.

Um, and but were still I think something like 15 seconds off Sebring lap record pace-

Wow

Wow.

And so IMSA and Sebring International Raceway are going all out to make a major celebration in 2027.

Nice.

Uh, been helping them try to source some cars to display.

Now, Max has tremendous success in, in karting, and already his reputation i- is big.

And he moves into car racing in 2014, and one of his first race outings, in fact, his first single-seater racing outing is in the Florida Winter Series put on by Ferrari, and the first event for this is at Sebring in the USA early in the year.

Now, one of his rivals among various future other Formula 1 drivers, Lance Stroll's there, Nicholas Latifi there, is there, is a certain Ben Anderson, our colleague at the race, who was doing, uh, the first event at Sebring for a feature.

And Ben has a, a very revealing story because he crossed swords with Max on the track, and we thought it was worth dropping in because it's, uh, an unusual early tale in which both Max and Jos play a part.

So I was invited to do the Florida Winter Series in January of 2014.

You know, that time in Florida, it's, it's good weather, so you're not kind of flatting around a wet circuit in the UK.

You're actually getting to compete on interesting tracks in the States in, in good conditions.

I got to do Sebring, which I think was round, round one.

Uh, they completed what is a pretty unprecedented sweep of IMSA's Endurance Crown Jewels.

That is, uh, Daytona, Sebring, and Road Atlanta in one single season.

Um, Vanthoor, in his final stint, I mean, all weekend, but final stint, absolutely incredible.

Um, a masterclass.

... as world-class drivers.

So, uh, great, great to see, uh, the IMSA season come to an end, uh, in, in such a good fashion.

Yeah, and Jack won it through, like, mega consistency, was I think second at Daytona, third at Sebring.

Started off the season with just a run of consistent podiums before getting the win in Detroit, the win at Watkins Glen, then had, like, a real horror show at, uh, at Road America.

That begins June 26th through the 27th.

august 7th through 8th and then september 18th through the 19th wraps up triple crown number two and again uh waiting on the locations for the final two events of the 2027 florida winter tour they did confirm months ago that they will open up with a temporary circuit at the sebring international raceway on january 22nd through the 24th but Dates for the final two events are on February 26th through the 28th and March 12th through the 14th.

So if you kind of look at USPKS schedule, Rob, that USPKS is kind of sandwiched in between those two Florida winter tour dates.

It is.