Cars that did not start

Porsche last Sebring victory

The third race of the 1988 Championship was the third round of the Jaguar-Porsche battle. It was to be one of the best field in years. Porsche, which dominated the series since the beginnings of the GTP era, had found a challenger. However, they outnumber their opponents in a four to one proportion. The track had been modified and was now 6,610km long. It seemed that, in spite of all the changes, not every one seemed willing to come and destroy his car. But Jaguar was here, with an all-star lineup of drivers. Jan Lammers, Davy Jones and Danny Sullivan drove the car #61 and Martin Brundle and John Nielsen the #60. Seven Porsche 962 were entered, with many talented drivers at their wheels. The rest of the GTP field was made with a single March 86G Buick for Whitney Ganz-Doc Bundy and Bill Cooper, a Spice Pontiac Firebird driven by Steve Durst-Mike Brockman and Jeff Kline, an old March 84G Chevrolet for Bill McDill-Richard McDill and Tom Juckette, a Phoenix Chevrolet for John Gunn-Gary Belcher. Gianpiero Moretti had entered two March 86G Buick that were still uncompetitive. The Chevrolet Corvette GTP driven by Sarel van der Merwe and Elliot Forbes Robinson could be an outsider. Fourteen Lights cars would be having a hard fight, as well as eighteen GTO cars and sixteen GTUs. As you can see, it was a very well balanced field, and plenty of close racing should be expected. The practice sessions would enable the Porsche to boost up and Chip Robinson took the pole in 1m55s846. This practice pole time was quite astonishing, as Chip Robinson broke the previous record by no less than seven seconds! Quite unbelievable, but it seemed that the track coating was more efficient that year, and surely less new. Even the Lights were clearly faster, the Ferrari Alba was four seconds quicker than the previous year. The Merkur driven by Lyn St James-Deborah Gregg and Pete Halsmer was the fastest GTO qualifier, slightly ahead of the Corvettes and the sister car, while the best GTU car was already the Amos Johnson-Dennis Shaw car. A well driven Pontiac Fiero was just behind. Two Dodge Daytonas were entered and could be dangerous, as well as the new Chevrolet Beretta driven by Tom Kendall and Max Jones. The practice sessions would be saddened by the death of Bob Copeman, who hit the wall after turn one and was killed after losing control of his Porsche 911. The weather was not very shiny and rain showers flooded the track during the friday session. Water puddles had to be swept by corner workers. But it was to be shiny on race day and the start would take place with a twenty minutes delay. Right from the start, three drivers would fly away from the others as Price Cobb, Chip Robinson and Hans Stuck would put up a fight. The race was to be stopped after three laps when a Porsche Fabcar took fire in turn one. After three laps, the field was out again and the groups that were previously built again looked the same. Martin Brundle(Jaguar XJR9) had pitted to replace a tyre due to a puncture, he would restart dead last! The big field of 65 cars looked like rush hour at 5PM and many collisions were to happen in the early stages of the race. Willy T Ribbs(Toyota Celica Turbo) retired after sixteen laps when hit by another car. Later, Jim Rothbarth(Porsche 962) was hit by Scott Pruett's Merkur. The GTP Porsche 962 would be sent afloat and would fall down in the space between the track and the spectators. No one, even the driver, would be hurt in the course of this dramatic action, but the Porsche was destroyed. After one hour, it was the Rob Dyson-Price Cobb-James Weaver Porsche 962 who was on the lead. They were a few seconds ahead of Chip Robinson-Al Holbert(replacing Derek Bell, who was undisposed), Klaus Ludwig-Hans Stuck and Jan Lammers-Davy Jones-Danny Sullivan. The second Jaguar would retire on the thirty first lap with Martin Brundle driving. Then Chip Robinson would hit the wall after an off-course, he would lose twenty minutes to come back to the pits and thirty five minutes for suspension repairs. That left four cars for the win. The Dyson Racing car battling with the Bayside Racing car. Third was the Jaguar driven by the John Nielsen-Jan Lammers-Davy Jones-Danny Sullivan quatuor. The Joest car was a good fourth with John Winter-Paolo Barilla-Frank Jelinski after a very careful start. Then Rob Dyson would stop with gearbox problems. The remaining Jaguar would stop for the same reason a few minutes later. The Holbert Racing car dropped from the race after less than five hours with an engine failure. It would be the very last race for Al Holbert as a race driver as he would be killed a few months later in a plane crash. As the night fell on the Sebring circuit, the Hans Stuck-Klaus Ludwig car was a clear leader. The Joest car was seven laps down and had not suffered any trouble but was clearly slower. The gaps were now too much for the following cars. Price Cobb, Rob Dyson and James Weaver drove to a third place finish, eleven laps down. They were followed by two other Porsches, the AJ Foyt-Hurley Haywood and the Jim Adams-John Hotschkis car, but they were fourteen and fifteen laps down. Next came the GTO winning car, the Protofab Chevrolet Corvette driven by Wally Dallenbach Jr and John Jones. They finished just ahead of the first Jaguar, who had a very disappointing race.

Wally Dallenbach and John Jones won the GTO class and finished 6th overall

They finished one lap ahead of the Lyn Saint James-Deborah Gregg and Pete Halsmer Merkur. The Tiga Buick driven by Tom Hessert and David Loring won the Lights class and the Team Highball Mazda RX7 driven by Amos Johnson and Dennis Shaw. Amos Johnson and Dennis Shaw clearly dominated the GTU class and won easily on their Mazda RX7 Copyright Mark Windecker Porsche had once again set its mark on the Floridian race. It was to change later as Nissan began to dominate the series later in the year.