Sebring International Raceway was originally part of a training base for WWII pilots. When the base closed after the end of the war, entrepreneur Alec Ullman came up with the idea of converting the old runways into a new motor racetrack.
In the popular Broadway musical—and later movie—Brigadoon, a small, enchanted Scottish town is invisible to the rest of the world except for one day every 100 years, when it throws a massive celebration that can be seen and enjoyed by outsiders.
It is fantasy, of course, but something rather similar occurs each March when the Central Florida city of Sebring is transformed from a low-profile community of just under 10,000 to a raucous party town peopled by an army of sportswriters, television crews and 120,000 fans of one of the wildest sports in the world: motor-racing. The occasion is the annual “Mobil 12 Hours of Sebring,” the oldest motor race of its kind in North America. This year, the race will celebrate its 55th anniversary on March 14-17.
The story of how this small Florida town ended up as the site of a world-famous racetrack is one of those legends that, like so many tales about the growth of Florida, began during World War II.
Read the entire article in the January 2007 issue
True Tails is a series written by Amy Robinson for Vero Beach’s dog lovers. Ask Amy about your dog’s behavior by clicking below.
Facebook Comments