Racers in the Sun

In Buenos Aires last week, competitors in the Argentine Grand Prix took part in one of the hottest motor races on record. As the temperature soared to 104DEG in the shade, drivers wilted like limp lettuce, and some dropped out to recuperate from heat exhaustion every few laps on the burning 2.4-mile track. Cars changed hands so often that a partisan crowd, rooting for Argentine Favorite Jose Froilan Gonzalez in his Italian Ferrari, often found itself cheering his teammates, France's Maurice Trintignant or Italy's Giuseppe Farina.

British Champion Stirling Moss, driving a Mercedes-Benz, stopped to tinker with his fuel pump, was promptly grabbed by a couple of athletic male nurses, shoved onto a stretcher and carted off to an ambulance. "I'm O.K.," Moss protested. "Be quiet, boy," said his Spanish-speaking nurses, who could not understand him. Moss got a quick cooling-off with ice packs before he finally escaped back to his car.

Winner was durable World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio, who managed to remember protocol, staggered from his Mercedes to the microphone and dedicated his victory to President Peron. "Here is the best present I will ever make you," said the President as he handed the drooping driver a Coca-Cola.

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