1961 12 Hours of Sebring race. With the help of Bill Warner, the Founder of The Amelia Island Concours D’Elegance we pieced together a little information about this particular car. It is a Porsche RS61 driven by Bob Holbert and Roger Penske for Hubert Brundage/Brumos Racing of Jacksonville. It finished 5th. overall in the race and first in the sports class under 1600 cc, completing 199 laps. The cars that finished ahead of it were all Ferraris.
As a side note, Bill was also at this race, and at the time in his late teens. Bill also photographed the same car with his “Trusty Yashica D.” The photo below is Bill’s take on the same car in the pits at Sebring.
At the risk of getting too auto geeky with all of this I wanted to take this one more step. Only 14 of these cars were ever made by Porsche, all between 1961 and 1963. One sold at auction at The Amelia Island Concours D’Elegance in March of 2010 to legendary race car driver Sir. Sterling Moss. The final auction price, $1.7 million dollars. That is one nice car…
(Note: I’ve seen conflicting dates in quite a few sources on the year this car won at Sebring. I’ve gone with 1961 but I’ve also seen 1960 listed.)
An update from Bill Warner, “The Porsche that won Sebring in 1960 was the factory RS60. A Brumos RS60 finished second. Different cars from 1961”. Thank you Bill for the clarification.
Tags: brumos, brundage, car, porsche, racing, Sebring
My dad was in the hearing aid business off of Hogan St. and was asked if he could rig a communication system for the Porsche team pit and car which he did for the 24 hour race. I attended the race with my dad as a 10 year old so this photo would be about the same time. Was told at the time this had not been done before at Sebring? 1960 or 1961?
You are correct in that this particular entry is from 1961.
The Brumos entry of 1960 was Numbered 44 for the race, serial number 718-52, driven by Al Holbert and Roy Schecter. It finished second behind the factory entry, numbered 42, driven by Herrmann and Gendebien.
Vance Reed
I always was curious about the history of the car. I bought the car from Brumos Porsche right after the race. I raced the car in the 1961 and 1962 seasons. It was a beautiful car and fun to drive. My first race in the car was at Meadowdale, then Indianapolis Raceway Park, some local tracks in Kansas and Oklahoma, and at Continental Divide Raceway in Colorado. 1962 mostly local Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Elkhart Lake Wisconsin. In the 1961 season, FM was less than 1500cc and it was in 1962 FM went to less than 1600cc. The car was amazing to drive. In retrospect, if I had been Brumos Porsche, I would not have sold the car to me. I was not able to campaign the car like it deserved. Besides, I was a snot-nosed kid from Kansas but it was great fun.
Ed, Thank you for your addition to the lineage of this car. It is always great to get more of the stories that help bring the images to life. Bob Self/Vintage Jacksonville
Hello Ed,
Fantastic story. I have an old photo that appears to be of you in the car at an unknown track. Just curious did you ever have a roll bar installed in the car?
The Porsche that won Sebring in 1960 was the factory RS60. A Brumos RS60 finished second. Different cars from 1961.
The first picture is on the grid and includes Siegmund Mayerlen, Paul Kuntzmann and myself. It was a LeMans start with the drivers running across the track, jumping into the car, starting the engine and driving away. Not everyone fastened their seat belt. There was no barrier between track and pit lane at that time. We always installed new plugs before the start and the engine was not run again until the start.