Sebring, March 20, 1999
Ferrari defeat in the legendary 12 Hours Race
Fangio II walking in uncle Juan Manuel’s footprints
The new works cars are dominant
Broken gearbox for the successful Doran Racing Team
Early drop-out for Doyle-Risi
Ferrari defeat in the legendary 12 Hours Race
After the various Ferrari-teams had been so successful in American motor
racing during the past years, they suffered a defeat on March 20, 1999 when
only one of the five 333 SPs which had been entered in the legendary 12
Hours of Sebring finished the race. The 333 SP s/n 018 of Doyle-Risi Racing
finished 6th, missing 19 laps on the winning BMW V12 LMR. The Ferrari –
driven by Alex Caffi, Wayne Taylor and Juan Manuel Fangio II. - had had to
fight several problems, including a flat tire. During the race, the car had once
even been on 3rd position.
Fangio II walking in uncle Juan Manuel’s footprints
Juan Manuel Fangio II, the nephew of the five times Argentine Formula One
World Champion, was very happy about the fact that they finally made it to
the finishing line. Fangio, aged 42, had ended his racing career - which
includes several IMSA championship titles with Toyota and a Champ-Car
entry for Dan Gurney in 1998 – last year, but he could not stand the
temptation when Doyle-Risi Racing asked him to join the team. Up to that
time, he had never raced a Ferrari in which his legendary uncle had become
Formula One World Champion in 1956. In the same year, his uncle had won
the 12 Hours of Sebring as well in a Ferrari (one of a total of twelve wins for
Ferrari in the famous American race). However, after this year’s 12 Hours of
Sebring, Juan Manuel Fangio II’s career will be definitely over; a possible
entry in the 24 Hours of Le Mans was botched because Doyle-Risi Racing
failed to enlist at the ACO for the event in time!
By the way: The Ferrari of Taylor/Caffi/Fangio II with race number 12 was the
only car except the works BMWs which made it to the top of the score
board during the event: In the third open practice session, one of the three
pilots set a lap of 1:54,212 on the 5,95 kms long track in Central Florida.
Okay, one should provide the background information to this humble
success as well: The BMW did not take part in this very session...
The new works cars are dominant
While the Ferrari and the Riley & Scott had been dominant in January during
the 24 Hours of Daytona, it quickly became obvious that the aged
machinery will have no chance against the works cars of BMW and Audi
which had their debuts in the 12 Hours of Sebring; the Ferrari were missing
up to four seconds per lap to the German high-tech products.
Mauro Baldi, who shared Doran Racing’s 333 SP s/n 026 with Didier Theys
and Fredy Lienhard, said that one really feels the 333 SP’s age; the
advantage of the five years old car was its reliability. Unfortunately one had
not been able to profit from this advantage at Sebring.
Broken gearbox for the successful Doran Racing Team
Bad luck for Doran Racing who had been victorious at Sebring last year
together with their main sponsor Giampiero Moretti (MOMO), despite of the
fact that the hard concrete surface of the airfield is everything but optimal for
the Ferrari.
Both cars of Lienhard/Theys/Baldi (r#27, s/n 025) and
Matthews/Kendall/Dismore (r#36, s/n 026) dropped out within a very short
time in the fifth and sixth hour and were eventually listed on 44th and 45th
position. Gearbox problems had forced the two 333 SPs of the 1999
evolution to give up.
Early drop-out for Doyle-Risi
Except the fact that one of their cars made it to the finish, the Doyle-Risi
Team was hit by a similar fate: Their 333 SP s/n 017, painted in the green
color of the Italo-American chain of restaurants named "Olive Garden", was
the very first car to give up the race. The Ferrari, which had been meant to
be driven by Max Angelelli, Didier de Radigues and Anthony Lazzaro, only
spent 56:24,013 minutes on the track prior to pulling into the pits in clouds
of smoke.
And what happened to the fifth Ferrari which had set out to face the hardest
race of the world? The elderly 333 SP s/n 004 of Dollahite Racing, driven by
Bill Dollahite himself, Doc Bundy and Mike Davies, dropped out in the fourth
hour, heavily smoking likewise as Doyle-Risi’s s/n 017.
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