Sebring International Raceway - Historical (1952)

1961-03-25 Sebring Ferrari 250 TRI 0792TR Hill Gendebien

The Sebring 12-Hour Florida International Grand Prix of Endurance for the Alitalia Group took place on 25 March 1961, on the

Sebring International Raceway Sebring International Raceway is a road course auto racing facility in the southeastern United States, located near Sebring, Florida. Sebring Raceway is one of the oldest continuously operating race tracks in the U.S., its first race being run i ...

, (

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, United States). It was the opening round of the F.I.A. World Sports Car Championship. This was also the second round of the F.I.A. GT Cup.

Report

Entry

A massive total of 74 racing cars were registered for this event, of which 67 arrived for practice. Only these, 65 qualified for, and started the race.

Qualifying

As was the normal for Sebring and because they was no qualifying sessions to set the grid, the starting positions were decided according to engine size with the 4.6 litre

Chevrolet Corvette C1 The Chevrolet Corvette (C1) is the first generation of the Corvette sports car produced by Chevrolet. It was introduced late in the 1953 model year, and produced through 1962. This generation is commonly referred to as the "solid-axle" generati ...

Don Yenko Donald "Don" Frank Yenko (May 27, 1927March 5, 1987) was an American car dealer and racecar driver best known for creating the Yenko Camaro, a high-performance version of the Chevrolet Camaro. Biography Early life Yenko grew up in Bentleyville, P ...

and Ben Moore being given first place.

Race

Most of the 40,000 spectators expected

Phil Hill Philip Toll Hill Jr. (April 20, 1927 – August 28, 2008) was an American automobile racing driver. He was one of two American drivers to win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, and the only one who was born in the United States ( ...

to win the race in his Ferrari 250 TRI/61, provided the car lasted the distance.

Stirling Moss Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss (17 September 1929 – 12 April 2020) was a British Formula One racing driver. An inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, he won 212 of the 529 races he entered across several categories of comp ...

had a bad start due to his

Maserati Tipo 61 The Maserati Tipo 60/61 (commonly referred to as the Maserati Birdcage) are a series of sports racing cars produced between 1959 and 1961 by Italian automobile manufacturer Maserati for privateers racing in sports car events including the 24 Hours ...

having problems starting as the battery was flat. It took the Englishman over six minutes to coax the car into life. However, after driving flat out for two hours, he handed the car over to

Graham Hill Norman Graham Hill (15 February 1929 – 29 November 1975) was a British racing driver and team owner, who was the Formula One World Champion twice, winning in and as well as being runner up on three occasions (1963, 1964 and 1965). Despite ...

. During the third hour, the car was withdrawn as it exhaust system fell apart. After 12 hours of racing, the race was won the Sefac Automobile Ferrari of Phil Hill and

Olivier Gendebien Olivier Jean Marie Fernand Gendebien (12 January 1924 – 2 October 1998) was a Belgian racing driver who was called "one of the greatest sportscar racers of all time". Rally racer Gendebien spent some years in the Belgian Congo. On his return ...

, two laps clear of their teammates.

Giancarlo Baghetti Giancarlo Baghetti (25 December 1934 – 27 November 1995) was a Formula One driver who raced for the Ferrari, Automobili Turismo e Sport, BRM, Brabham and Lotus teams. Baghetti is one of only three drivers to have won his first World Champions ...

Willy Mairesse Willy Mairesse (1 October 1928 – 2 September 1969) was a Formula One and sports-car driver from Belgium. He participated in 13 World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 19 June 1960. He achieved one podium and scored a total of seven champio ...

Richie Ginther Paul Richard "Richie" Ginther (Hollywood,''Richie Ginther Enters Times Grand Prix'', Los Angeles Times, September 13, 1960, Page C1 California, August 5, 1930 – September 20, 1989 in France) was a racecar driver from the United States. During a ...

and

Wolfgang von Trips Wolfgang Alexander Albert Eduard Maximilian Reichsgraf Berghe von Trips (; 4 May 1928 – 10 September 1961), also known simply as Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips and nicknamed 'Taffy' by friends and fellow racers, was a German racing driver. He w ...

. The winning cars, completed 210 laps, covering 1,081.6 miles after 12 hours of racing, averaging a speed of 89.861 mph. The podium was complete by another Ferrari of

Pedro Rodríguez (racing driver) Pedro Rodríguez de la Vega (18 January 1940 – 11 July 1971) was a Mexican sports car and Grand Prix motor racing driver. He was the older brother of Ricardo Rodríguez. Both brothers started racing at an early age, first on motorbikes and ...

and his brother

Ricardo Ricardo is the Spanish and Portuguese cognate of the name Richard. It derived from Proto-Germanic ''*rīks'' 'king, ruler' + ''*harduz'' 'hard, brave'. It may be a given name, or a surname. People Given name *Ricardo de Araújo Pereira, Portugue ...

who were a further lap behind.

Official Classification

''Class Winners are in Bold text.'' * Fastest Lap:

, 3:13.2secs (96.894 mph)

Class Winners

Standings after the race

* Note: Only the top five positions are included in this set of standings. Championship points were awarded for the first six places in each race in the order of 8-6-4-3-2-1. Manufacturers were only awarded points for their highest finishing car with no points awarded for positions filled by additional cars. Only the best 3 results out of the 5 races could be retained by each manufacturer. Points earned but not counted towards the championship totals are listed within brackets in the above table.