Start of the 1000 Miles of Sebring Photo by Marius Hecker/AdrenalMedia.com
HORSEPOWER HOMECOMING
With the 1000 Miles of Sebring, the FIA World Endurance Championship returns to where it started. Written by Andre James Introduced to the world in 2012 as a replacement for the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) allows manufacturers and private teams to compete against one another in nine endurance races around the world, including the revered 24 Hours of Le Mans. A point system, similar to FIA’s other world championships, is employed to award four World Championship titles and five FIA Endurance trophies at the end of each season. Each WEC race features four categories: Le Mans Prototypes (LMP1 for manufacturers, and LMP2 for teams independent of manufacturers and/or engine suppliers) and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE Pro for teams with professional drivers, and LMGTE AM for teams comprised of amateur 58 slmag.net
drivers). Generally produced specifically for competition in the FIA WEC, Le Mans Prototypes are closed cockpit cars with no production minimums, while the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars are two-door, street-legal cars that are available for sale through the manufacturer’s dealer network. The 2018/2019 WEC ‘Super Season’ of eight races kicked off last May at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the Belgian Ardennes. This past March, the WEC returned to where it started—Florida’s historic Sebring racetrack—the oldest road racing track in America, and the site of the very first FIA WEC race in March 2012. Run on the former Hendricks Army Airfield WWII Airbase, the notoriously bumpy 17-turn, 3.74-mile multi-surface course was first used for a 6-hour race at the end of 1950. The 1000 Miles of Sebring, time-
