The Big If

"It's a tough field," said World Champion Racing Driver Juan Manuel Fangio. as he looked over his competition at Florida's "International Twelve-Hour Grand Prix of Endurance." "But if my car holds up I can win."

The rapid Argentine was being remarkably casual with a big if. In all the Grand Prix circuit (including Le Mans. Italy's Mille Miglia and Britain's Grand Prix at Silverstone), no course is tougher on cars than the 5.2-mile tangle of flat-turn runways and taxiways at Sebring's abandoned airfield. Drivers have to hit the brakes and shift down at least 19 times for each lap (there is one tight hairpin without sign of bank and a wicked assortment of other unbanked turns). Clutches, gearboxes and brakes take a frightful beating.

Slip-Stick Specialist. Fangio's swift, shovel-nosed, 34-liter Ferrari had all the power and acceleration a skillful driver needs, but its conventional drum-and-shoe brakes were not designed for that demanding course. The best of Fangio's competitors had cars that seemed better fitted. Former British Champion Mike Hawthorn was at the wheel of a big (20 cc. more displacement than the Ferrari), D-type Jaguar fitted out with husky disc brakes, a type relatively unaffected by heat. Current British Champ Stirling Moss was driving a light (2.9-liter), cat-quick Aston Martin, also with disc brakes. Both British teams were superbly organized in the pits. The Aston crew came complete with a practical physicist. Working with his slide rule, so the impressed pitmen said, the visiting scientist could calculate within two laps just when a tire would blow.

The rugged course took a toll of men and machines even before the race. A tiny (1.1-liter) Lotus bounced off a hay bale in a practice run and cartwheeled out of a sharp left turn. Its driver escaped uninjured. The oversize (4.4-liter) Ferrari belonging to Chicago's Jim Kimberly threw its flywheel.

Old Master. Under the bright morning sun, 60 drivers sprinted across the wide runway to clamber into cars for the Le Mans-type start. First away was Connecticut's John Fitch, in the most powerful car in the race, a 5.1-liter Chevrolet Corvette (four other Corvettes started out but two failed to last). But the blue-and-white American entry was quickly passed by Hawthorn in his grey D-Jag. Behind him was Moss in his Aston Martin. Fangio, the balding ex-bus driver who was the pampered protege of Argentina's deposed Dictator Juan Peron, ran an easy third.

The first big break came in midafternoon. Driven too hard in an effort to push the leader, Moss's Aston Martin quit, its gearbox a wreck. The race settled down to a duel between Hawthorn and Fangio. But after seven hours, Hawthorn's Jag began to lag. Desperately its mechs labored in the pits, but they took too long. Fangio got the lead for keeps, and during the final five hours gave a demonstration of an old master at work.

Rolling wide into the turns, he would sweep to the inner edge of the track, then drift wide again as he blasted out into the brief straightaways. Each lap he picked up precious seconds. At 8 in the evening, Hawthorn's Jag coasted into the pits. "Brakes!" said the disgusted driver; the sleek grey car was through.

Spitting Sparks. Fangio and his co-driver, Eugenic Castellotti, roared steadily on. Behind them, car after car dropped out with mechanical troubles. Argentina's Carlos Menditeguy turned over in his 2.9-liter Maserati, and was rushed to the hospital with a fractured skull.

With only 45 minutes left, the Ferrari's worn brakes were spitting sparks--but they had lasted long enough. At the final pit stop, Co-Driver Castellotti offered the car to Fangio, but Fangio magnanimously waved him on. "Eugenic, you finish," he said. "You've earned it." Then the world champion lit a cigar, slapped a battered canvas hat on his head, and settled back to watch his Ferrari slide home a winner.

With an average speed of 84.066 m.p.h., it had covered 194 laps and a record 1,000.08 miles. Second: Fangio's teammates, Luigi Musso and Harry Schell, in another Ferrari. Third: a D-Jag driven by Indianapolis' Jack Ensley and Indianapolis 500-mile Champion Bob Sweikert. Fitch's Corvette, only U.S.-made car in the first ten, came in ninth.

Fangio's fine performance, in addition to capturing $3,000 first prize money, earned third place for "index of performance," a complicated calculation by which achievement is measured against theoretically possible performance. First and second: two 1.5-liter German-made Porsches.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.