Lot of Porsche buzz online about the upcoming ALMS winter test at Sebring. Nick Tandy has already been confirmed to drive the Falken Tires Porsche GT3 RSR, and Jeroen Bleekemolen has also just tweeted confirmation of a drive with Alex Job Racing in their ALMS GT3 this year.

In the midst of the excitement around their upcoming event, Sebring tweeted this great Porsche 906 pic with the text: “I would say this photographer got pretty close to the action at Sebring ’67.” I loved it: the sliding Carrera 6 must have clipped that tyre by microns. Clearly whoever was driving knew their Porsche well! I set out to find the driver.

First place to look was an entry list for Sebring 1967 and the drivers of car 49. Car 48 was the MG of Timo Mäkinen and 50 was another MG. All the 906s were up in the 30s, including one with Hans Hermann and Jo Siffert, but there was nothing for car 49.

A quick look on the Sebring Facebook page showed the same pic, but a few people dating it to 1966, when Siffert and Charles Vogele drove Charles’ 906 with number 49 to sixth overall. But that car was red. I dug around a bit more and found a few pics of the Sebring 1967 4-Hour, but this was another dead end.

Weighing just 600 kilos and with perfect balance, the 906 Carrera 6 with eventual fuel injection was successful into the 1970s as the 906E, so I looked at later years. Google didn’t help much, so I switched to the next most powerful search engine: eBay.

A quick search on ebay for 906 Sebring threw up this pic from 1969. Checking an entry list from 1969 confirmed a Porsche 906 raced as number 49, driven by Dr. Merwin (Merv) Rosen and Dave Morrell.

A quick google for Merv found a hardcore Illinois racer and an SCCA legend in his Porsche 906, with great results all across America. I also found an email address and have sent him a message: would be cool to hear more about his career. Merv if you’re out there, please say hello!