Nine-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen will serve as the Grand Marshal for next month’ss Super Sebring event and will wave the green flag for both headline races.
Kristensen will start the FIA World Endurance Championship 1000 Miles of Sebring on Friday, Mar. 20 before doing the same for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on the following day.
The Dane is the most successful driver in Sebring 12 Hours history having won the race outright a record six times between 1999 and 2012.
As grand marshal, Kristensen follows in the footsteps of his former Audi LMP1 co-driver Allan McNish who served in the role for both the WEC and IMSA races last year.
The duo contested the 12 Hours together seven times, winning overall on three occasions along with Rinaldo Capello.
“It’s a great honor to be named Grand Marshal for both events and I can’t wait to be back at Sebring,” said Kristensen.
“The particular challenges of this historic track are still clear in my mind, and the event always has such fantastic competitors and fans.
“I consider myself very lucky to have won the 12-hour race seven times [including once in class] and have so many great memories of incredible battles over the years.
“You have to be tough to win at Sebring – both the car and the driver – and the slogan ‘Respect the bumps’ is one of the truest in all motorsport.”
WEC CEO Gerard Neveu said that he was “delighted” at Kristensen accepting the invitation to serve as grand marshal while IMSA president John Doonan described the 2013 WEC champion as the “perfect example” of a driver to have found success in both ACO and IMSA-rules racing.
Super Sebring will mark the first joint race event between the two major sports car sanctioning bodies since their announcement to create a common prototype platform.