48 Hours At Sebring – Volunteers Needed

The 48 Hours At Sebring Club race committee has begun making plans for the 2017 race to be held February 2 thru 5 2017.

It’s time for all Gold Coast and Suncoast members to start planning how they can get involved. It is your opportunity to give back to your region and be involved with the most successful Club Race in PCA and help rase money for region activities and The Ronald McDonald House charity. Start making plans and reservations to make it a weekend of fun and excitement.

Where will you be? What will you be doing? What could you be doing that would possibly equal spending a weekend at world famous Sebring International Raceway with about 500 Porsches? Talk about a car show: this is the largest Porsche only racing event in the world – in fact, it is the largest single marque automobile racing event in the world! How could you miss it, especially when it is almost in your back yard!

Last year’s 23rd annual event was a great success: we had over 450 participating Porsches. Now, its the time to start planning on how you can assist in this great event. Make hotel reservations for the days you plan to attend. Pick from the available assignments listed below. This is a joint event consisting of friends from Gold Coast Region and Suncoast Region, the 24th edition will be even bigger and better. The 48 Hours at Sebring has grown into the largest PCA Club Race in the country. We expect to sign up over 350 racers and Advanced Solo drivers in the first two days of registration. This means we will need volunteers to help us run this huge event more than ever. Why should you care?

If you are a PCA member that has been standing on the sidelines, wanting to become involved, but unsure of actually attending your first event, this is a perfect opportunity to see what PCA is all about, and meet a group of really nice people! You will be asked to work for a few hours at a job that is actually more fun than work, you get a nice T-Shirt, free lunch and free Friday night beer and wine party. You also just might meet someone who just won the Daytona 24 Hour race, or past winners of Daytona 24, Sebring 12 Hour or Le Mans 24 Hour, or maybe someone who has won them all. For sure you will not find a better gathering of Porsches and Porsche people anywhere.
The Club race raises thousands of dollars for Ronald McDonald House each year and provides the Gold Coast and Suncoast regions funds to support Socials, Drivers Ed and AutoX programs and help local charities.

What can you do to help?

At Track Registration We need 4 or 5 people to assist with getting the driver’s checked in, this is an indoor siting job that begins at 7:00 AM Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The first couple of hours are the busiest so you need to be a morning person.

The Grid, we have a lot of people returning from last year to work the grid, but we still need a few more for each day. You need to be in good shape as it entails a lot of standing and walking. Your primary responsibilities are.

1. Helping get each car in its assigned spot based on information on a timing sheet provided by Timing & Scoring.
2. Doing a quick check of the car to make sure that it is not dripping any liquids, engine & trunk lids are closed and secured.
3. Checking the driver to ensure that he or she is buckled in, with helmet on and secure.
4. Direct traffic at several locations to assist racers to the grid or back to their paddock area after each run..

Timing and Scoring, we need about 5 volunteers each day. You will assist the stewards in identifying the cars as they go past the start/finish line to verify that their timing equipment is working properly. You will also assist in the preparation of the timing sheets for distribution to the grid. This is a nice comfortable inside job but it is the heart beat of the race.

Tech and Scales, we need a volunteers each day to help check the Advanced Solo group cars for tire pressure, Torque lug nuts and check helmets, brake lights. Thursday and Friday are the busiest days for tech. Scales are open Friday through Sunday. The race cars are weighed on the scales to make sure they are the proper weight for their car and class. Volunteers are needed to push the cars on the scales.

The Corners, we need volunteers to assist the SCCA corner-workers at each corner. This is truly where the action is! Working the corners is a fun and action packed assignment. Each corner throughout the track is manned by 1-2 professional SCCA corner workers. For each corner, we assign a maximum of 2 volunteers to assist the SCCA corner workers. We have many volunteers who return each year and request a specific corner or corner worker. It’s amazing how much you can learn while watching skilled drivers go through a corner lap after lap. There is no better way to get closer to the action unless you are actually driving!!
The responsibilities for the corner are:

1.You are an extra set of eyes and ears for the SCCA corner worker, helping observe the activities on the track;
2.In the event of an incident the corner worker may ask you to hold or wave the appropriate flag.
3. You may be asked to assist with any reporting of an on track incident.
Notes.
At no time would you go over the wall!
Long pants and closed-toe shoes are required.
Please do not wear colors that would be confused as a flag, for
example red or yellow. White or the 48 Hour t-shirt are perfect.
Pit Marshalls, This is a Sunday-only job which starts around 10:00 AM with a meeting with the race steward.
This position is needed during the Enduro. Each driver is required to make a 5 minute pit stop during the each Enduro. We need at least 12 people to observe the pit stops.

The responsibilities for Pit marshals are,

1.Observe and report to PCA scrutinizer any spilled fuel etc.
2.Observe and report any crew member over the wall without proper equipment
3.Make sure that the maximum number of crew over the wall is not exceeded.
4.Enforce all rules as instructed by PCA Scrutinizers. Notes.
Long pants and closed-toe shoes are required.
Training will be provided by PCA officials.

Miscellaneous Positions.

We need other volunteers to help with the Friday and Saturday night activities This is where we raise the most money for the charities. We need a few other volunteers to take on whatever task that may come up.
To Volunteer go to www.48hoursatsebring.com click on Volunteers, Volunteer-signup (2017)

For more information please contact Jerry Daily [email protected] or David Herndon [email protected].