How do you get to Sebring?

[Lorry]

Are there any organised tours? or is it a matter of flydrive and booking a hotel nearby.  Is it a Friday to Monday, or is there practice too?  Is there anything else worth seeing/doing?  How do I find out?  All ideas gratefully welcomed.

[Paddy_NL]

was looking at cheapflights.co.uk, but it looks like a package might be a better deal

GBP 450,- return is not very cheap

[Andy Zarse]

Just looked at flying to Atlanta in October for the Petit. £330 return from Gatwick on BA. Not bad I reckon.

[Lorry]

Just looked at flying to Atlanta in October for the Petit. £330 return from Gatwick on BA. Not bad I reckon.

Whats the gameplan from Atlanta airport?

£330 is the trainfare to Glasgow, or the plane fare to Tampa next March

[Fax]

Come on Andy (and Mark, Rick, etc.) book that flight to Atlanta.  Your presence is going to be sorely missed at Road Atlanta if you guys give it a pass...And you know you'll be hating life if Aston wins and you missed it.
Fax

[smokie]

I've been to Sebring three times now.

The track opens on the Wed before and there is plenty going on, both on and off track, to keep you amused the whole time.

I've always left (at least) the weekend before and each time have ended up in Daytona for a few days.

I'm not aware of any packages. I've always booked flights through Air Miles, using some Air Miles to reduce costs a bit). I've flown into Tampa twice and Miami once - not much to choose, except there is a fairly high surcharge on car rentals from Miami.

You can buy the race ticket on line (www.sebringraceway.com) and collect on arrival (Will Call). (Just an aside - it would have been cheaper for me to book BA from Muncih to Miami via Heathrow than direct from Heathrow to Miami!!)

Camping at the circuit is, well, camping. We have some great friends out there who assist with some of the more difficult things. And of course an increasing numbers of CA members from the UK will be there...

For the "holiday" part of my trip I've usually just found a hotel wherever I happen to be, except this year, when we were able to catch a few days of Daytona Bike Week and booking was essential (and quite dear). I understand Bike Week is adjacent to Sebring weekend again in 2006.

I *think* my costs for 2005 were arounf the £1100 mark, for 10 days away with hire car, race tickets, the lot. Of course if you want to just go to the race and can scrounge lifts etc then the cost is really quite reasonable. The dollar was very cheap this year.

[Matt Harper]

Just looked at flying to Atlanta in October for the Petit. £330 return from Gatwick on BA. Not bad I reckon.

Whats the gameplan from Atlanta airport?

£330 is the trainfare to Glasgow, or the plane fare to Tampa next March

Road Atlanta is about 35 miles north east of downtown Atlanta. The airport is about 10 miles south of downtown.
Best bet is to hire a car at the airport and head for the track. I'll be blazing through Atlanta on the Friday - on my way to the circuit from central Florida. I could scoop you up, if I'm not loaded-up with other CA members who're planning to be over for the Petit. It's a great event - get over here for it if you can.

[Canada Phil]

Hi Lorry,
             Smokie has pretty well covered it. The 12 hour is Saturday with a full set of support races on Friday. Practice and qualifying starting on Wednesday morning. No races on Sunday just packing up and moving on. I recommend a car and seeing some of the state of Florida. March is a nice time to visit. Find the cheapest airport and plan your route from that Tampa and Orlando about 1 1/2 hours from Sebring. Miami more like 4 hours. Petrol is cheap and no mileage charge on the cars.
Camping is the way as in Le Mans supplies are readily available and loan of equipment can be arranged closer to the time.
Road Atlanta is also very nice in October.
Canada Phil

[Lorry]

Many thanks to all for the comments. 

I've been looking at sites for flights, cars, flydrive hotels etc, and it doesn't look difficult or expensive, but couldn't quite fit in the camping bit, (and this does avoid driving) as tent/bed/cooker is a bit heavy as hand baggage.  At worst, "Carrefour will provide"

The two major issues now (other than she who must be obeyed) is cold beer.  Warm Budweiser  ugh!

[Andy Zarse]

Walmart will provide and it's half the price of Carrefour too. The CA campsite set up is pretty organised, the US contingent, Pidge etc, bring gazebos cookers and all the other crap needed. You just need a tent and sleeping bag and maybe a chair. They sell ice on the site. It's all very do-able.

[jpchenet]

As Andy says, we got things from WalMart.

About £5 for a half decent folding chair. I bought a new tent for about £20. Rolling Igloo Cool Box £30 (has been used many times since as we took the wheels and handle off and brought it home filed with the tent etc as checked in luggage) Take your own sleeping bag. Hopefully the rainy weather experienced this year will not return in 2006!!! Filling the igloo with ice from the hotel before we hit the circuit lasted about 3 days so no warm beer!!!!!

[amazing 1]

The group from TURN 10/TEAM IMPALA is always willing to help in any way possilble.Well almosy any way.

And I promise no more Becks Non/alcoholic.


Did I mention I met JPChenet at Sebring!!!

[Canada Phil]

Hi Lorry,
            Standard operating procedure for visiting Florida by air: Fly to airport where you pick up your car parked right outside the terminal (as it should be)drive to WalMart/ Grocery store where you pick up a cooler and the pre chilled Beer to go in and lastly the ICE which goes on top. Drive to your motel/camp ground and PArty On. Bags of Ice are available at petrol stations food storesn and onsite at any venue. American Beer must be cold to drink.
Canada Phil

[chop456]

The convenient thing about Sebring is that all surrounding airports are equally inconvenient.    It's really in the middle of nowhere, yet in the center of everything.  Nothing is close, including hotels.  (Not including the chateau).  This means you can fly to just about anywhere - whatever's cheapest.  Compare distance to savings for a risk vs. benefit.

I don't know what the UK equivalent to Expedia is, but keep checking it for rental car rates.  If you're traveling with only 1-2 people, rent the smallest, cheapest car you can find.  I've yet to end up with the car I reserved.  You always get something bigger.  2 years ago, I reserved a Hyundai Accent, but ended up with a Ford Taurus.  While still unpalatable, the 4-day cost was $70.  This year we reserved a Dodge Stratus and by dumb luck ended up with a minivan (which we needed).  4-day cost - $95.  A 4-day camping/parking pass is $10

Shared cooler/grill space wouldn't be a problem, I'd imagine, nor would a borrowed chair.  Just make arrangements in advance.  A stop at Wal*Mart (white trash hell) for food and beer and you're set.

I'd suggest a trip to the Petit as a test run. 

[downshift62]

The last few years I have flown into Tampa and rented a car, which is not bad at all.  That way you get to experience exotic Zolfo Springs on the drive over  .

If you are going to do fly, drive and camp, it's not much more than an hour difference to fly into Tampa, Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, or even Miami or Ft. Myers.  Sebring is equally in the middle of nowhere from all of those places.  Get a few togehter and split a rental car. 

I have found that flyaway camping works well by packing gear (tent, sleeping bag, rollaway, etc) in a hard sided golf bag carrier.  It's on wheels, the airlines can handle it and during the week it even makes a workable cooler in a pinch.

My suggestion is to take a few extra days and spend it on the Gulf coast in St. Petersburg, Clearwater or Sarasota.  They all have excellent white sand beaches.