12 Hours of Sebring - 1970

The Alfa Romeo Spider, driven by Paul Spruell and Harry Theodorocopulos was withdrawn after
75 laps with electrical problems.

The 1970 12 Hours of Sebring was the first race in the 1750 Spider Veloce . Our pit assignment was between the Autodelta Alfa Type 33 of Mansten Gregory and the Ferrari of Mario Andretti. My crew, Norman Ward, Pete (that's Pete gassing us up above) Benbow, and I (that's me under the hood of the Spider) had the pleasure of getting to meet Mario and most of the Autodelta team. Alfa Romeo had furnished the Autodelta prepared engine for this venture and Don Black, the competition director introduced me to Carlo Chiti, the Autodelta boss. Co-driver, Dr. Wilbur Picket, and I ran well up in the GTU field until the notoriously rough Sebring track shook the starter apart. The replacement unit suffered a similar fate and since the rules would not allow a push start, the race was over for my new race car. However, this car was ultimately the deciding factor in Mario Andretti winning this race.

Late in the afternoon Peter Revson attempted an inside pass at the wide 90 degree right hand turn that connected the two long back straights on the old Sebring course. The tiny white Porsche 908 roadster appeared out of nowhere as I was almost on top of that right hand turn at about 60 MPH, Revson got on the binders an instant too late and got pinched at the apex. The Steve McQueen/Peter Revson machine suffered a broken left front headlight and the Alfa a caved in passenger door. Word ran through the pits, and one of Mario's crew passed it on to Pete, that Revson was on his way to our pits to "discuss" the incident, but he never showed. Later I had the misfortune of running into Steve at the latreen, and to my horror he recognized me. As we were walking away, I smiled and awkwardly mumbled "sorry Steve". He blinked his eyes twice, broke into that grin just like that cool, laid back kid in The Great Escape and mumbled back: "no sweat". . That night Steve and Peter were forced to change the headlight. While they were in the pits Mario took the lead. Their heroic eleventh hour attempt to catch Mario fell an incredible fifteen seconds short when the checkered flag fell. Steve's car went on to be the camera car in the filming of LeMans. The Sebring 1750 Spider Veloce became an SCCA National Champion and continues racing into the 21st century. All body panels have been crashed and replaced but the passenger door continues to be repaired .

All black& white photos credit Sebring 12-Hour Race 1970 by Robert C. Auten
and the magnificent photography of Harry Hurst.

The McQueen-Revson car in for fuel during the night. (note the damaged left front headlight)

<< Masten Gregory-Tony Hezemans Alfa Romeo T33-3 finished third overall, one lap back of Andretti and McQueen Our Alfa Spider pit assignment is the empty pit stall in the background.  We were at tech inspection when this photo was taken.  The next pit assignment beyond was the Ferrari of Mario Andretti and Nino Vaccarella.