The last of the MCO outbound CA mob (Rick and Janine) will be wheels-up and homeward bound in about 20 minutes. At risk of rubbing faces in it, this was probably my most enjoyable 12 Hours of Sebring. By the look of things, plenty of others felt the same way.
My man-servant and I arrived at the circuit unusually early this year - I have finally abolished my day-fag status and can hold my head up at Turn 10. Friday night was a particularly pissy-kacky do, Seth's "Liquid Meth" shots, competing with the Tropicoma for bragging rights. Sadly, for each shot that Seth dished-out, he necked one himself, so by and by he became quite incapable of anything verging on coherent. The Turn 10 slide-show was utterly spectacular and a very jolly evening was had by all.
Race day was warm and sunny. It was also loud, drunken and laughter-filled. The food, drink, hospitality and friendship was genuinely a thing to behold and those crazy 'mericans (Jupiter John, Randy, Greg, Lee, MiCarr etc. etc.) make this race so much more fun - particularly for those who travel from overseas to see it. Kudos to you all guys!
For my part, it was a real treat to see so many old friends and to collect such a vast quantity of tea bags from people who clearly do give a rat's ass about me. I'm very, very grateful. I also got to snag all the left-over liquor that can't be flown back to Blighty - so thanks for all that too. I hope all that everyone who made it over had a good time and that you'll all be back again soon.
Special thanks to Rick for helping me with my erection (tent) on Friday night, La Bomba for a piss-funny drive around the car park and to Penske for giving us a race that wasn't a foregone conclusion.
Finally, one of the coolest things I've seen in a very long time (well - a year, actually) was at races end, on the cool-down lap, when Johnny O stopped his C6R on the track across from Turn 10, spooled-up the motor so that it was bouncing on the rev limiter and put down a f*ck-off smokey burn-out right through the curve. Pure class from a team that recognises it's fan-base. Awesome sh*t.
