30 Years Ago: Sebring 1987

The 35th running of Sebring’s 12 Hour classic in 1987 proved to be a Porsche parade at the front of the field. With eight Porsche 962 GTP entries, it was clear they were the favorites to win.

The Porsches showed their strength early with Chip Robinson, co-driving with Al Holbert, winning the pole position at 120.33 miles per hour. Bobby Rahal and Jochen Mass, also in a 962, qualified second fastest.

Rahal had won the Indy 500 the previous year, but very few fans know of or remember his spectacular accident during practice at Sebring in 1986. The BMW March 86G he was driving became airborne and crashed. The BMW team withdrew all three cars after the incident.

The Protofab Camaro, Roush Mustang and Dan Gurney’s Toyota Celica team were the top qualifiers in the GTO class, while the GTU category was going to be a duel between several Mazda RX-7 and Porsche 911 entries.

The Robinson/Holbert Porsche dominated the early stages of the race, with only the Dyson Porsche 962 of Price Cobb and Vern Schuppan managing to take the lead briefly.

Holbert and Robinson built a healthy lead, but turbo problems shortly after sunset allowed the Rahal/Mass Porsche to take over. They held on for a two-lap margin of victory. It was the 12th consecutive win for Porsche at Sebring.

To this day, Porsche remains atop the manufacturer performance leaderboard at Sebring International Raceway with 18 overall wins, 65 class wins, and nearly 1,500 more laps led than second-place Ferrari.

The GTO win went to the Prototfab Chevrolet Camaro driven by Greg Pickett and Tommy Riggins, who finished a remarkable fifth overall. Bobby Akin and Bruce Jenner finished second place in GTO aboard the Roush Mustang.

Al Bacon and Bob Reed won the GTU class in a Mazda RX-7, one lap ahead of the Porsche 911 driven by Bill and Gary Auberlen with Karl Durkheimer. It was Bill Auberlen’s first Sebring start- he now has 23 career 12-Hour appearances, second only to Hurley Haywood and is entered for this year’s contest with BMW Team RLL.

In the Lights class, John Higgins, Charles Monk and Howard Cherry drove a Porsche-powered Fabcar to victory.

The 2017 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida is set for March 15-18. The race will be televised on FS1 starting at 12:30 p.m. ET and flag-to-flag streaming coverage is available on IMSA.tv. beginning at 10:30 a.m. ET.