| With Eight Victories in the Famous 12 Hour, He Has More than Anyone March 15, 2021 By David Phillips IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – When it comes to picking a favorite win in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts, Johnny O’Connell is like a father picking a favorite child. No can do. It’s not like he’s lacking in choices. After all, nobody has more wins at Sebring International Raceway. Not Mario Andretti, Phil Hill or Hans Stuck (three), not Rinaldo Capello (five). Not even Tom Kristensen, whose Sebring tally includes six overall victories and one class win. O’Connell’s record is something of a mirror image of Kristensen’s, with one overall win among his total of eight class (count ‘em, eight) triumphs spread between Nissan (three) and Corvette (five). And that’s fine with him. “Out of them all, you can’t pick one,” he says. “Of course, the overall win (in 1994) meant a lot – but the overall win guys are just in the fastest car. Every win is equal to me, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a class or an overall win at Daytona, Sebring, Le Mans … you win your class and that’s a win. “If there’s one thing I do take pride in, it’s that I know it irks Tom Kristensen that I have more wins than him there!” If Hollywood were to recycle the title of the cheesy ‘70s television show “Eight is Enough” as a Sebring biography of O’Connell, they might tweak the title to “Eight is NOT Enough.” Because, when it comes the Sebring, O’Connell’s memory bank tends to favor the near misses rather than his amply stocked trophy case. “I don’t remember the ones that I won so much as the ones that got away,” he says. “When we first raced the Corvette C6 there, we had a great car and a great battle with the (Aston Martin) ProDrive guys. “But that’s the one where I lost the front brake rotor going into Turn 17. I actually consider that to be some of the best driving I ever did, not to completely auger in. Call it divine intervention, but literally the day before the race I had stood in that corner and asked myself, ‘What would I ever do if I had the brakes fail here?’ And then I visually went through my mind what I would do. I just started throwing down through the gears – bam, bam, bam – to get the car to spin. It saved me from an enormous impact. “Then there was … it must have been ’93, it was pouring rain and I had this amazing battle with Hans Stuck. That was so-o-o-o much fun! We were going back and forth, and he finally pulled away ‘cause my windshield fogged up. I found out later he had a stick with a rag on it that he could use to clean his windscreen so he could see!” As much as the wins in the iconic race, O’Connell remembers the drivers with whom he shared the victory stand at Sebring. “I was blessed,” he says. “I got to win with a lot of great drivers. That to me makes it memorable. In the Nissan days with Steve Miller and John Morton, those were special. The ones at Corvette with Ron (Fellows), (Oliver) Gavin, (Jan) Magnussen, (Antonio) Garcia – some pretty stellar guys.” So many, in fact, they all run together. “I don’t know whether we won at Sebring with (Scott) Pruett or not,” he continues. “No, that was ’01. We won Le Mans with him. But getting to work with so many people. “And when I think of Sebring, I think of the fans. How spectacular they are and how well they always treated me.” And when he thinks of Sebring a little more, the man who has done as much to promote the Corvette brand as any driver since Tod Stiles or Buz Murdock (if those names don’t ring a bell, search “Route 66 TV show”) finally does home in on a particularly memorable victory. “It’s funny, you can’t pick one,” O’Connell repeats, returning to a familiar theme. “The Nissan wins were awesome. Then Corvette, Corvette was snake-bitten at Sebring for a long time. So that first win for Corvette Racing in ’02, that one with Ron and Oliver meant a lot. If I had to pick one, now that I think it through, that might have been the one. I really wanted to get that first win for Corvette Racing, and we got it.” That breakthrough triggered a landslide of success, as Corvette Racing has since garnered 10 more wins in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring – as well as a victory in last year’s Cadillac Grand Prix sprint race at the track. Corvette will go for another win with the mid-engine C8.R at Sebring this weekend – with Sebring’s most prolific winner cheering them on. |
