History repeats itself at Sebring

The Aston Martin Racing team scored a tremendous double podium finish at the opening round of the American Le Mans Series at Sebring, Florida on the weekend of the 18th/19th March.  The DBR9 finished second in class and fourth overall in the gruelling 12 hour race.

This race holds particular significance for HWM Aston Martin as one of our founders, George Abecassis, scored Aston Martin's most successful overall result in 1953 where he raced to second overall with co-driver Reg Parnell.

The pair drove one of two Aston Martin DB3s in the race, while the second was driven by Geoff Duke and Peter Collins.  Rival Briggs Cunningham loaned the team equipment for the race, and helped them to acclimatise to the featureless circuit, laid out on a former World War Two airfield.  The track was marked out with hay bales and old oil drums.

Duke and Collins led the race, the first event of the new FIA Sports Car World Championship, in their DB3 when the car collided with a Jaguar XK120 driven by Norm Christianson, forcing retirement.  The Cunningham C4R, driven by John Fitch and Phil Waters, battled with the second Aston Martin for most of the race, never more than lap apart and for most of the race only seconds seperated the two.

The result was decided when the Aston Martin hit an oil drum, causing enough damage to drop a lap behind the winning Cunningham.