SVRA Sebring SpeedTour with Trans Am, Part 2.

A race report and photography by MRA Racing Images and Marley Mae Motorsport as noted.

Sebring SpeedTour Trans Am Race Day

23 February 2025

At 8:45 AM I was pulling into the track, about the time the IGT cars were called to the grid and were lining up for the International GT endurance race.  During the weekend I parked in the golf cart lot. This is just on the other side of the fence from the staging area. The top qualifiers were donning their helmets and climbing into their cars. I was snapping over the fence to capture these moments, anticipating the call to start engines.

The roar of racing machines quickly transformed the silence as the racing machines got ready to do battle around the track.

At some point during that first race I ran into Marley inside turn 17b. Marley is a photographer that I recently met online, and whom I knew would be covering the event.  I introduced myself, and after a bit of talking I discovered that she was without a vehicle due to unfortunate circumstances. Offering the right hand side of the cart Marley accepted the ride for the day.

Scenes from the staging area captured by Marley Mae Motorsport
before the IGT Endurance Race.

International GT endurance race Sebring SpeedTour 2025

The front of the pack looked very familiar by this time in the weekend. The usual suspects–Tuaty, Pank, Merritt, and that Lamborghini, piloted by Seth Henry at the start. A pro driver change later in the race would put Wyatt Foster in control from the designed-in pit stop to the end of the race.

As the pace car peeled off and the field led by Tuaty hit the starting line. The Lamborghini immediately made some moves tucking in behind Lukas Pank at turn 1, flying up the inside as Pank took the lead. By the next time around he was in second with Tuaty not far behind and fighting off Merritt. By the third time around he was past Pank and into first position.

At the end of the race, Foster crossed the line first ahead of Michael Merritt. However, on the revised results sheet it was Lukas Pank in P1 followed by Russell Farhang in second. Marc Julien in the #87 2014 GT3 Cup car bringing in P3.

I suspect that there may have been some penalties assessed after the race switching up some of the podium finishers. For instance, on the results sheet emailed to me following the race, Merritt was shown at the bottom as a DQ. On the revised results sheet published later and shown on the SVRA website, he is now shown in P6. Seth Henry / Wyatt Foster are shown in P1 on the initial results sheet, but 13th on the revised sheet. The only other change was a drop of two positions for Steven Thomas / John Dean in the #710 2020 Porsche Cayman from P9 to P11.

IGT Endurance Race Victory Lane Celebration.

Trans Am Race Sebring SpeedTour 2025

Once we covered the victory lane ceremonies for the IGT race, the Group 6/12a Sprint Race #2 was underway. We stuck close-by, covering some of it from the closest turn, 17b. We then we set out for the first turn in advance of the Trans Am race. Shooting from this location for the past two days, I knew that we needed to get situated in a photo hole well before the start of the race. 

Two photo holes were available, which dovetailed perfectly with our plan.  Covering the start of the race into turn 1 was on my short list of shots to achieve. Along with some exhaust flames, shots inside the hairpin (turn 7), and some high-speed, slow-shutter pans. 

As Paul Menard led the field down the front straight, we readied ourselves for that first dive across the start/finish line. Chris Dyson was beside him and gave him a tap as they began negotiating the curve in front of us. Andretti, Drissi, Crews and the rest of the field were coming up just behind them in a flash of power and speed working their way ever forward, intent on grabbing that first position.

Paul Menard brings the field through turn 1 at the start of the Trans Am Feature Race.

Capturing exhaust flame shots.

We spent the opening laps shooting through the photo holes. Then started moving down-track to get some pans before carting off into the turn 3 area.  We came away with some excellent exhaust flame shots, courtesy of the #21 car driven by Humaid Masaood.  I hadn’t expected too much from Trans Am in the way of flames, but apparently some of them still breathe like dragons. We caught one of the best displays I’d seen all weekend, at least up to that point.

Fire-Breathing 900hp Dragons caught by Marley Mae Motorsport.

As the race progressed, we continued on toward turn 3, stopping about halfway, just past the large banner strung over the track. I would call it turn 2, but it’s really just a wide sweep to driver’s right, and not really much of a “turn”. We shot for a few minutes and ran into Jeff, another photographer who told us that we could get some really good exhaust flame shots at the entrance to T3.

Sebring Photo Tower

He was right. In fact, several cars gave us plenty of flames until we were confident that we had it covered.  Masaood’s car again produced the best display. We drove on to the hairpin turn, directly across from the hotel and underneath the blue photo tower structure.  The weather was beautiful, partly cloudy, so the skies were immaculate for photography. 

I zoomed out at times just to catch more of it and to add some context in the shots, using the hotel and the trees to the side of it.  From here, we were just a few feet away from the cars as they sped by. Because of this, I went to the 24-105mm lens and continuously varied the focal length from shot to shot. I thought about getting up into the photo tower, but my knees were still tender from an incident a week earlier. I decided to let Marley have that honor.  She pulled some excellent shots from above, and I was happy just to stay at ground level.  Perhaps next time…

There were still opportunities for more flame exhaust shots. Mostly from that same #21 Allgram Ford Mustang, but the #49 in the SGT class gave us a look a time or two. Lee Saunders’ #84 Dodge Viper let out flames on a few laps but I was unable to catch those.

Brandon Jones in car #31 produced the best flame shot of the day, captured by Marley

More Pyrotechnic Displays…

Trans Am Series Classes.

The Trans Am series runs hard and fast, and has historically contained some of the greatest names in racing, including this year’s Grand Marshall, Lyn St. James. Within the Trans Am umbrella are several classes including TA, the high performing tube-frame 900 hp top class with a top-end speed approaching 200 mph. TA2 is just under that, still with a tubular chassis but engine power is around 490 hp.

Other classes include the GT class. A production based class for entry level racing. The SGT class, which is more for higher performance vehicles, still more or less production based but with a little more flexibility in that regard.

The XGT (Xtreme Grand Touring) class. This was brought into existence in 2020 for FIA Group GT3 cars with expired homologation certificates. During the race, these 5 classes run togeether, and as with road racing such as IMSA there is an expected difference in speed between them.

Something to note, the XGT cars can really give the TA cars a run for their money. In fact, 4 of them were in the top ten finishing positions for the 2025 Sebring SpeedTour. Paul Tracy finishing 6th ahead of Brandon Jones in the #31 car.

Paul Menard #3 took the win from the pole, setting a new Trans Am track record of 1:57.629 in the process. Adam Andretti held down P2, and Amy Ruman filled out the podium in P3. It was a race with a lot of action, but the day wasn’t over. We still had other classes yet to race.

Sebring SpeedTour Victory Lane

Catching the TA podium was nice a nice moment after the race. We rolled up just in time to watch Ben Cissell interview the top 3 finishers. Menard’s winning Mustang was parked just in front of the stage in typical SVRA fashion looking great in the foreground. 

Sebring SpeedTour Spirit of SVRA

A special award was presented this year called the “Spirit of SVRA”. The award was given to Tim Scopes and his 1957 Lotus Eleven. What a beautiful car with classic green with yellow paint scheme and a sleek body style. I took the chance to take a close look at his car in the pit area, I was very impressed. I believe it is a most deserving award as it is presented in recognition of cars that embody the heart of U.S. road racing history, and the Lotus 11 certainly pulls its weight in that respect. Made from components of the 1989 Porsche 962 24 Hrs of Daytona winning car, the trophy looked great on Tims car.

Sebring Hendricks Field

Marley wanted to capture the “plane” shot on her Sebring list. You can take this shot on the east side of the track, looking toward Hendricks Field. Two good spots exist for this shot: a high-speed pan shot of southbound traffic coming off turn 13 and a fairly head-on shot taken with a zoom from the side of the Carousel.

We went for high-speed pans but were surprised to find two fuel trucks partially blocking our view of the plane. As we discussed it, the trucks suddenly moved as if on cue. I remember thinking, ‘we must be livin’ right’, and Marley got her shot.

Historic Trans Am feature race #2

On track at the time was the Historic Trans Am feature race #2. Lyn St. James gave the command to start engines, and the field of 20 or so muscle car beasts were off and running. The race was only a few laps long. Capturing our shots we hurried back to get to victory lane before the racers arrived. In fact, we barely made it past the pit access road with seconds to spare before it was blocked, and were set up just in time for the drivers to pull up and step out.

It was quite fun watching these modern day drivers climb out of mid-60’s to early 70’s monster muscle cars. I asked Steve Eftimiou about how they were handling on the track? His response was that they have a lot of power but not much braking, right on the edge of control. A few minutes later on the podium stage he said, “You can’t ask for anything better than a car that can’t stop and can’t turn.” I suppose that’s how it should be.  There’s a quote by Mario Andretti, “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”

Andy Lally Trans Am Series President

Sebring SpeedTour Mitchell Memorial Race

The next race was the Group 5a, 7, PSSA, and “Group 11 J.R. Mitchell Memorial Race”. The grid rolled out with Travis Engen out front in that beautiful silver Audi R8. Followed by Wayne Williams in his bright yellow Radical.  Behind him was someone I have seen race before, Ralph La Macchia in his 2008 Mazda Elan DPO2. We didn’t venture far from the podium area, opting to shoot the race from the inside of turn 17b which is less than a thirty second walk from it. After the race ended, and we covered the podium I figured that I had enough, and so I packed it up, turned in the cart, and that was the end of it for me. I felt confident that I had that event “in the can.”

Sunday images taken by myself and Marley at the Sebring SpeedTour:

Future Motorsport Photographic Assignments

The next SVRA event for me will be the NOLA SpeedTour at NOLA Motorsports Park. I will also be covering the HSR Sebring 12 Hour Classic and will attend, but not cover, the St. Petersburg Grand Prix in St. Petersburg, Florida.  There might be a “postcard” of that from Mark Robertson, my sometimes shooting partner and who will most certainly have his camera for that.

As far as the SVRA, you can catch all of their action from past events on youtube, and when an event is live you can go to the SpeedTour website and watch live. In addition you can find all of the past race results. Also list of upcoming events, and more detailed information about each group of racing, the criteria for them, as well as other programs that might be going on now and in the future. 

The SVRA website is: www.svra.com

The SpeedTour TV site is: https://www.youtube.com/@SpeedTourTV/streams