Jeff Allison sent VeloceToday.com a 2024 calendar featuring photographs he took at the Sebring 12-Hours from 1959-1963. He produced the calendar because Pete Lyons no longer offered his Can-Am calendars, and he needed to fill the space previously occupied by Pete’s calendars for years. Looked like fun so we asked for more. He complied, and we are simply amazed at the quality of the photos taken by Allison at a very young age with very primitive equipment. We are happy to present a much larger selection of Allison’s Sebring photos sans calendar. Ed.
Story and photos by Jeff Allison
Growing up in Orlando, Florida into the early 1960s, I went to SCCA regional and national races in Florida at Bartow, Cocoa-Titusville, Daytona, Dunnellon, Geneva, Pensacola and Sebring while in high school and college. I lived ninety miles from Sebring where international teams, cars and drivers gathered every March for the 12 Hours of Sebring – an endurance race held on a former US Army Air Force WW II B-17 bomber training base outside Sebring, Florida. The 5.2-mile road racing course was defined by rubber pylons and bales of straw on the rough concrete and asphalt runways, taxiways and access roads. That’s me loitering in front of legendary Corvette driver Delmo Johnson’s encampment in the crowded paddock.