The Rolex 24 At Daytona-12 Hours of Sebring Double of 1996

Subtitle:Pace, Taylor Double Up In Oldsmobile

Twenty years ago, Jim Pace and Wayne Taylor did a unique double, opening up the 1996 IMSA World Sports Car Championship by winning the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Twelve Hours of Sebring in an Oldsmobile-powered Riley & Scott Mk III World Sports Car.

“It’s been 20 years, but it seems like it was only a few months ago,” said Pace during the recent IMSA February Test. He was onsite testing the No. 50 Fifty Plus Racing BMW Riley in preparation for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida on Saturday, March 19.

“It was the first time for an American-built chassis to win at Sebring during the IMSA era,” Pace added. “The guys on the team still talk about it. What was most memorable was the team chemistry. It was a new team, a relatively new car with the Riley and Scott MK III in its second year, and the first time to have the Oldsmobile Aurora engine in it. It was very unproven and untried. Back in those days, we didn’t have the pre-event testing we have now. It was Bob Riley’s brilliance and Mark Scott’s tenacity, along with the team they put together headed up by Wayne Taylor.”

Taylor and Pace were joined by Scott Sharp at Daytona, in a race remembered for the late-race charge by then-unknown Massimiliano Papis in the Momo Ferrari 333SP. Papis came up 65.518 seconds short but earned the nickname “Mad Max” – given by television commentator Bob Varsha. It was the closest finish in the history of the event up to that time.

Didier Theys won the pole in the Momo Ferrari also driven by car owner Gianpiero Moretti, Bob Wollek and Papis, and was joined on the front row by Taylor. The two teams put on a terrific show, swapping the lead 17 times. Both teams encountered various mechanical problems during the event, but kept rebounding each time.

While Papis made the finish exciting, Taylor said he was never worried about being caught during the two-hour sprint to the finish.

Pace’s personal Daytona highlight came during the nighttime hours of the race.

“My favorite memory was in the early morning hours when the caution came out,” Pace said. “I was in line behind the safety car, with lapped cars starting to get waved by. Mark Scott came on the radio and said, ‘When you get behind the pace car, flash your lights.’ That meant we were P-1, the first time that happened for me at Daytona, and it was a really cool feeling.”

For Sebring, Sharp had a conflicting Trans-Am race, so 1995 Sebring overall winner Eric van de Poele co-drove with Taylor and Pace in the same No. 4 while, blue and yellow Konica Danka Olds R&S Mk III.

If the Oldsmobile was strong at Daytona, it did even better at Sebring.

“The car was much more suited for Sebring than it was for Daytona,” Pace said. “The Ferraris were so much faster on the banking at Daytona, but when we came to Sebring, we were more evenly matched.”

Papis won the pole in the Momo Ferrari and was joined on the front row by the Scandia Ferrari 333SP – van de Poele’s 1995 ride – driven by Michele Alboreto, Mauro Baldi and Andy Evans, with Taylor qualifying third.

The battle for the lead included three different cars in seven of the opening eight hours. In Hour 9, Baldi had an incident with a lapped car while under pressure from Taylor for the lead, which sent Baldi’s Ferrari to the pits for extensive repairs. That opened the door for the Oldsmobile, which led the final four hours and won by four laps.

“We had a fabulous car for Sebring,” Pace recalled. “We called up near the front, we had good luck during the race and ran well. Near the end, during my last stint before I turned it over to Wayne for the finish, I remember seeing the scoreboard coming into the old Hairpin, and I remember seeing the No. 4 in position No. 1. That’s a good memory.”

They became the third team to win both Florida endurance classics overall driving the same car, joining John Paul Jr. and Sr. with Rolf Stommelen in 1982 in a Porsche 935; and A.J. Foyt and Bob Wollek in Preston Henn’s Porsche 935 in 1985. The only drivers to win both races overall in the same car in the same year since then were Moretti, Theys and Baldi in 1998 in the Momo Ferrari 333SP.

Sebring was another “double” for the Pace family.

“My brother Will was driving in the GT2 class in a Porsche with Andy Pilgrim and Larry Schumacher,” Pace said. “They started at the back of the pack after having engine trouble, but drove a good race and wound up winning their category. That was a huge moment, the first time brothers each won their class at Sebring. It was a highlight for my 90-year-old grandmother, who stayed up late watching the race on television, and then told her Sunday school class that her two grandsons won at Sebring.”

Pace also won the Camel Lights class at Sebring in 1991, co-driving a Buick Kudzu with Charles Morgan. For this year’s classic, he will co-drive with Dorsey Schroeder, Byron DeFoor and David Hinton in the No. 50 BMW Riley.