Twelve-Hour Test

"I waved him by just before we hit the curve, and the next thing I knew--vvrroooom--and he was long gone. He beat me to the next curve by 100 yds."

That was the tribute of Briggs Cunningham. No. 1 man in U.S. sports-car racing, to the Italian Lancias last week, after a practice spin against them in his Chrysler-engined Cunningham Special.

Cunningham was not as resigned as he sounded. On the eve of the International Twelve-Hour Endurance race at Sebring,

Fla., everybody acknowledged the overall speed of the Lancias, their tremendous acceleration, their cat-quick cornering ability. Last fall they swept from one end of Mexico to the other to finish 1-2-3 in the Mexican road race, with an average speed of 105.1 m.p.h. for the winning Lancia. What was in question was the Lancias' ability to survive a twelve-hour endurance test, without a chance for major repairs, over a 5.2-mile course, with tantalizingly brief straightaways and curves up to 135DEG.

In the field of 58 starters, the Lancias got off fast. Three of them, driven by three of the greatest names in racing--Italy's Alberto Ascari, Argentina's Juan Manuel Fangio and Italy's Pierro Taruffi--were leading 1-2-3 after two hours. The fourth Lancia, driven by Dominican Playboy Porfirio Rubirosa, was well back in the pack. The Cunningham Special, driven by Briggs himself, was fifth.

But Sebring's zigzag course had already taken a breakdown toll of cars--among them two British Aston-Martins and a Cadillac-Allard--and soon flagged down more. Fangio's Lancia went out with what the Lancia pits called ignition trouble (the word went round that it had really suffered a broken gearbox or a snapped rear axle). Midway, Taruffi's Lancia (No. 38) held the lead, but Ascari's Lancia was out with clutch trouble.

As the field roared into the last hour, only 28 cars were left. A Cunningham-owned Ferrari was out with a bad oil line; Cunningham's Cunningham drove up for a pit stop, and when water was poured into the radiator, it came out the exhaust pipe: the engine had blown a gasket. Cunningham looked at the steaming water from the exhaust and walked away, laughing. ("What else can you do but laugh when that happens?")

It looked as though it was the Lancias' day, after all. Taruffi's No. 38 was well out in front, nine full laps (46 miles) ahead of the next car. In second place, but hopelessly behind, was Briggs Cunningham's third entry, a little (1.452 cc.) Italian Osca alternately driven during the day by Britain's Stirling Moss and Connecticut's Bill Lloyd. But with only an hour to go, Taruffi's Lancia ground to a halt. In the Cunningham pits, where the Osca driver could see it when he flashed by, they held up a sign: "NO. 38 SICK." And No. 38 was sick. There was still a chance that Taruffi's mechanics could get it started again. Striving to remain eligible, Taruffi himself pushed the car an agonizing 1 1/2 miles to the pits. But it was no use; the Lancia never got started. Cunningham's Osca, brakes and clutch almost gone, held on to take first. It had covered 884 miles in twelve hours, at an average speed of 73.6 m.p.h. Porfirio Rubirosa's Lancia, its gearbox all but wrecked, finished second. Said Winning Driver Bill Lloyd: "Nothing surprises me in an endurance race."

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