The Gentleman from Indiana

Almost all the drivers in Florida's Grand Prix of Endurance (TIME, April 2) knew just what to expect in their twelve-hour race on the runways of Sebring. They had run the car-killing course before, in the race for points that count in computing the world championship. There was one man, though, who came mostly for the ride. Last year's Indianapolis-500 winner. Bob Sweikert, wanted to see what this closed-course road racing was all about.

Tough as it is, the big spin in the Indianapolis "brickyard" avoids the car-killing problems of Sebring's abandoned airfield. In the 500-mile grind, all the turns are to the left, and cars often have their engines canted to put more weight on the inside wheels. There are no gearboxes, no tricky downshifting to decelerate for the curves. Sweikert was attracted to Sebring as a place to try new techniques.

In his sleek grey Jaguar-D, Sweikert learned fast; he decided to use an old Indianapolis trick: he had the Jag's torsion bars adjusted to allow him to skid through turns without riding the brake pedal. He paid careful attention to hints handed out by World Champion (and eventual Sebring winner) Juan Manuel Fangio. And he made a point of not pushing it to mechanical breakdown. As a result, he finished third.

More important, when he finished, he was at least a limited convert to Grand Prix road racing. "I liked it at Sebring," said he. "Those drivers are all gentlemen. If you came up behind a slower car and they saw you--they have rear-view mirrors, which we don't at Indianapolis--they moved out of the groove, let you go by and gave you a wave. Up here we're courteous and we're gentlemen, but moving out of the groove?''--his face showed dismay--"we don't do that."

Sweikert has too many commitments to push his road-racing luck any farther this year, but in 1957, he said, "I will devote the whole year to Grand Prix races. I'll run at Indianapolis all right. But that'll be all." Determined to give his Sebring mentor, Juan Fangio, a fight for the world championship, Indianapolis Gentleman Bob Sweikert evened things up last week by offering Fangio a crack at the 500-mile title, invited him to race at the brickyard this May in one of Sweikert's two entries. Fangio said he would like that, but he also had some commitments.

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