– Classic Race Cars and Retro Civilian and Military Aircraft Return to Sebring International Raceway, February 12 – 15, for 2026 HSR Season-Opening Race Weekend
– Full Weekend Features Classic Airplane Arrival Parade Friday and a Non-Stop Lineup of HSR Feature Races and Season-Championship Rounds Through Sunday
SEBRING, Florida (February 5, 2026) – The Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) Sebring Pistons & Props, presented by Alan Jay Automotive Network, kick-off the 2026 HSR racing season next weekend at Sebring International Raceway, February 12 – 15. The must-attend event once again celebrates Sebring’s rich sports car racing heritage and notable aviation history with four days of on-track action and an airplane “fly-in” and weekend display of retro civilian and military aircraft from the World War II era and last half century.
The HSR Sebring Pistons & Props honors the legendary 12 Hours of Sebring sports car race, which runs for the 74th time next month, and Sebring International Raceway’s patriotic aviation history. Hendricks Field was a World War II era civil and military airfield on which the famous 12-hour race has been run for nearly three-quarters of a century.
A debuting Pistons & Props plane scheduled to appear is a Beechcraft T-34 Mentor owned and piloted by Bob Hahnemann, who could be the first HSR Pistons & Props participant to take part in both the winged and four-wheel activity. An accomplished pilot and sports car racing competitor, Hahnemann is listed as a co-driver with his son, Matt Hahnemann, in Friday afternoon’s B.R.M Chronographes Legacy Enduro in their 2007 No. 111 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup car.
Just after the race, Bob will taxi along the final half of the 3.74-mile Sebring circuit from nearby Sebring Regional Airport in the T-34, joining a quality lineup of other must-see airplanes and accomplished pilots in a parade to the paddock. Stationed at the Sebring circuit’s false grid area, the planes will be on display and available for viewing from Friday at 4:30 p.m. EST through the late morning on Sunday.
The Beechcraft T-34 Mentor was a post World War II trainer that was a learning workhorse for thousands of cadets for more than 25 years, used in the Air Force until the 1960s and a go-to in the Navy well into the 1970s. The senior Hahnemann and his partner Len Tucker purchased the plane four years ago from legendary NASA astronaut pioneer and American United States Air Force (USAF) Colonel Frank Borman, Commander of Apollo 8, which was the first mission to fly around the Moon. Colonel Borman – who passed away in 2023 – flew the Mentor out of Billings, Montana (pictured at top) then at the age of 92. Also a test pilot – and a former President of Eastern Airlines – Borman put his own high-performance enhancements on the T-34, installing a Continental IO-550, which was the largest engine you can put in a Mentor. The twin “SU” lettering in the plane’s nickname also continued Borman’s tradition – for the fourth time – of using the first letters of his wife Susan’s name on his aircraft.
On the HSR competition side, a highlight of the overall stout entry list is a nice turnout of entries in the HSR Sasco Vintage Cup for Groups 2 and 3. Home to small-bore racing machines that deliver big-time competition, Sasco Vintage Cup features some of the most unique and eclectic cars in competition at the HSR Sebring Pistons & Props.
One particularly rare entry is the Olthoff Racing 1960 No. 26 GSM Dart (pictured above and below) driven by Englishman John Spiers, who will actually take ownership of the quick little roadster by the time next weekend’s on-track activity begins.
The GSM was built by the South African-based Glass Sport Motor company from 1959 and – after a company move to England – through 1962 and was an early lightweight production sports car, generally used for racing. Featuring a fiberglass body, GSM cars arrived on the automotive scene only a few years after the Kaiser-Darrin and the first Corvettes hit the American market as fiberglass sports cars.
Olthoff Racing team principal Dennis Olthoff, a South African native, currently owns the car, but Spiers is acquiring the open-cockpit GSM after racing it in HSR last year at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR) and the season-ending Pistons & Props race at Sebring last December. The No. 26 has been modified to feature a full flip-top front end and lefthand drive. Power comes from a Ford 1600 Kent engine – produced in Kent, England – with twin side draft carburetors.
Spiers will battle with a top trio British-built Ginettas, including frequent HSR race winner and podium finishers Hervey Parke in his 1965 No. 11 Ginetta G4 (pictured below) prepared by Michael’s Vintage Racing. Michael Oritt wheels a similar 1961 No. 82 Ginetta G4 while Thomas Grudovich completes the quick Ginetta contingent in his 1966 No. 425 Ginetta G4.
Another favorite small-bore British contender could be the comeback story of the weekend. Accomplished HSR driver Kenneth Greenberg was uninjured in a heavy accident in Turn 1 in last December’s season-ending HSR event at Sebring, but his Air Power Racing 1964 No. 234 Morgan 4/4 (pictured at bottom) was nearly a total write off. Weston Farmer and the team at Air Power quickly went to work non-stop and Greenberg and the Morgan are entered in the Vintage Cup sprints and B.R.M Legacy Enduro next weekend.
Farmer reports a lot of man hours are still ahead before traveling to Sebring next week from the team shop in St. Augustine, Florida after the Morgan’s frame was destroyed and even the engine block was cracked in the incident. The team bought a similar 1967 Morgan chassis as a donor car, and the roll cage was completed last week. Oil lines, fuel lines and electrical are going in this week and a rebuilt engine arrived ready for installation on Tuesday.
For complete information on the HSR Sebring Pistons & Props, presented by Alan Jay Automotive Network race weekend, including the event schedule, entry lists and ticket information, visit the Official Event Page here.
About HSR: An International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) property, Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) was formed in the mid-1970s with an event at Road Atlanta. There was one goal then and it remains true today: to celebrate the racing cars from the past. As a “time machine” of sights and sounds, HSR provides a venue for competitors and spectators alike to share in the wonderful history and excitement created by the cars that competed at race tracks around the world. HSR currently sanctions eight vintage and historic racing events at some of the world’s most renowned race tracks, including Road Atlanta, Sebring International Raceway, Daytona International Speedway and more. The complete schedule and full event information can be found on HSR’s website at www.HSRRace.com. Look for the HSR Channel on YouTube and follow HSR on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/HSRrace/
