Report 1958 12 Hours of Sebring

1 report

1.1 entry
1.2 qualifying
1.3 race

report
entry

a massive total of 73 racing cars registered event, of 70 arrived practice. these, 65 qualified for, , started race. these new rules, , maserati on brink of financial crisis, scuderia ferrari head italian challenge. ferrari had 6 of 250 trs in florida, of 3 works machines phil hill/peter collins, mike hawthorn/wolfgang von trips , luigi musso/olivier gendebien. opposition no longer come maserati… aston martin.

david brown sent 2 aston martin dbr1s on england stirling moss/tony brooks , carroll shelby , roy salvadori. there supported george constantine , john dalton, in db2/4. on entry list quick looking jaguar d-types though coventry marque bit out-classed now. ecurie ecosse had 2 d-types ron flockhart/masten gregory , ninian sanderson/ivor bueb. jag entered briggs cunningham himself , walt hansgen. cunningham brought along 2 jaguar engined listers ed crawford/pat o’connor , archie scott brown/hansgen. 3 cars listed alfred momo being entrant.

qualifying

because there no qualifying sessions set grid, starting positions decided according engine size 4.6 litre chevrolet corvette c1 of jim rathmann , dick doane in first place. next corvette of john a. kilborn, fred windridge , dick thompson. in fact corvette’s held first 3 places.

race

day of race sunny , warm, start of race of shambles drivers posed tradition le mans style start, ready sprint cars, while others still ambling across track. prompted false start, had line-up again.

from third place of grid, jim jeffords expected quick off line, , indeed wheel problem stopped him out on circuit, , end of lap one, crossed line in last place.

the aston martins set pace moss going out in front. hawthorn second in works ferrari, salvadori in other aston on tail. soon, salvadori moved past hawthorn make aston 1-2. listers, going in opening laps, gendebien tried force ferrari past scott brown, on managed climb right on of lister. both drivers hopped out , removed ferrari , belgian took pits repairs while lister retired. other lister, managed 6 laps before jaguar engine went , jaguar-powered cars out of race lap 55.

as hill/collins ferrari, made cautious start american behind wheel. crew decided easy on gearbox , brakes worked hard @ sebring. in fourth @ end of first hour, moss/brooks leading salvadori/shelby , hawthorn/von trips. easy pace allowed private 250 tr of richie ginther , johnny von neumann fourth hour later. pair of astons , trio of ferrari held top 5 spots first 4 hours. other works ferrari of musso/gendebien started recover encounter.

it change in fifth hour of race when both astons had gearbox troubles, forces them retire. hill , collins had progressively worked way through second , took on lead not moved. half-way mark, there 4 ferraris in top 4 , remained way next 5 hours. hawthorn , von trips out on lap 159, neumann , ginther @ lap 168. hill , collins still kept steady pace, musso/gendebien car moved second porsche 718 rsk of harry schell , wolfgang seidel third. surprisingly, little lotus eleven of sam weiss , david tallakson had got fourth overall.

and that’s how race finished, scuderia ferrari of collins , hill, winning ahead of team-mates musso , gendebien. car number 14, took impressive victory, completing 200 laps, covering 1,040 miles after 12 hours of racing, averaging speed of 86.501 mph. second place went second ferrari, albeit 1 lap adrift. podium complete works porsche of schell , seidel 7 laps behind winners. phil hill , peter collins had established ferrari 250 tr main sports car championship contender, second straight victory in series.