1955 SEBRING Program Cover

The cars are lined up on the grid. It seems so casual compared to racing grids today or even what Sebring grids looked like in a few years.

Harry Woodnorth - Rees Makins  300SL heads back to town  after practice.

Tech inspection and the rare blue A6GCS Maserati of Thomas Friedmann waits in line

Ed Crawford's blue & white Porsche 550A arrives. Crawford & John Urbas would finish 14th

The Stirling Moss-Lance Macklin 100S Austin Healey passes the Siata of Austin Conley.  The Healey was 6th OA

Porfirio Rubirosa's Ferrari Mondial sits in the hot Florida sun.  He crashed but his girlfriend fixed it with $100 bills. The Polo player was indeed “a player”.

BARC driver Bob Bucher and Vic Forno brought this Jaguar to Sebring. The field was so huge that despite Bucher being fast enough to qualify, other entries were accepted before his and the car never raced.

Practice is over and the #19 D Jaguar is headed back into town for the night. Mike Hawthorne and Phil Walters drove this car to the overall win.

What appears to be the Phil Hill/Carroll Shelby Ferrari Monza also heads back to town. Behind are #4 Kurtis Kraft driven by Sam Hanks, #3 Cad Allard of Walt Gray, #1 Kurtis Kraft of Jack Ensley and the modified #2 Nash Healey LeMans.

Closing in on start time, Gentleman Jim Kimberly strolls across the front straight in his bright red coveralls.

The race is about to begin. Drivers stand across from their cars waiting for the starting gun.

A long shot of the huge field that appeared in 1955, By now Sebring was an Event that drew tens of thousands of spectators.

They are off and running to their cars in the LeMan start. Note the turquoise T-Bird next to the red Van Beuren special from Mexico.

The race has started on a gorgeous Saturday morning. 12 long hours await the 80 cars that started the race. The garments of the spectators gives a fantastic look into how folks dressed in 1955.

A wild situation in the first 3 laps of the race. The Renault spins and flips, an ambulance is brought out, Bob Said hits the ambulance a lap later, then a small fire starts in the very same area.

The Renault of Jean Redele sits wrecked on the inside of the track. Bob Said’s Ferrari is out of the race on the far side after colliding with an ambulance that was sent out to the Renault accident.

Probably taken in practice, this is the Fiat Abarth 207A of John Bentley and Jim Magee. The car well but was disqualified for illegal refueling. Bentley ran out of gas on the course, ran back to the pits for fuel, then back to the car. When officials found out, they DQ’d the car despite it having completed 150 laps.

The winning #19 D Jag of Phil Walters and Mike Hawthorne speed past one of the many Amoco fuel signs. Who knew in 1955 that someday all fuel would be unleaded.

The maroon Mercedes 300SL of Chet Flynn and Ed Munoz was racing under the flag of Venezuela. Why?

The new Lotus IX of Bob Xamuelson and Norm Scott looked great but crashed and did not finish.

#18 Jaguar of Bob Grossman and George Rice was entered by Dolph Vilardi and finished 26th.

Jake Caplan has the #14 C Type in the pits. He co-drove with Russ Boss to 14th. The #2 Nash-Healey LeMans of Charlie Cowden and Andy Rosenberger completed only 14 laps.

A long string of cars passes the pits. Hard to believe the race attracted 124 entries so long ago. The sport was healthy.

Harry Woodnorth and Rees Makin would take this 300SL to 21st overall. Woodnorth was a legendary exotic car dealer from Chicago. He was the car dealer to the stars, including Muhammad Ali.

This XK-120 of Fred Dagavar and Al Gartz only completed 73 laps but was running at the end of 12 hours.

We think it’s Bob Said scowling at the camera as he drives the #27 Ferrari Monza somewhere. The car was in an accident after 3 laps.

BARCBOYS is not sure where these photos of lovely ladies working and reading while the Ferrari is being maintained, came from. But we thought they were interesting enough to include !

A plug change on the Said Ferrari Monza attracts the attention of some interested folks.

There was no #29 MGTD in the race, but what the heck.