Tune-up For An American Assault

For a dozen years the citrus-ringed central Florida town of Sebring has been the focus of a kind of Marshall Plan in reverse. Europe has sent its fanciest cars and fastest drivers to the prestige-rich 12-hour race at Sebring to educate the Americans in road racing. By now the U.S. has a strong corps of native drivers, but at building its own road racing cars it has been pitifully backward.

Last week's Sebring 12 hours, however, proved that Europe's missionary work had brought real results. Never mind that Italian Ferraris and German Porsches screeched away with Sebring's top prizes; they always have. The lesson of Sebring 1963 was that the U.S., although still underdeveloped, might show teacher some speed one of these days.

Consider the evidence:

1) The home-built Chevrolet-engined Chaparral of Texan Jim Hall actually sprinted ahead of the Ferraris at one point—on merit, not by a fluke—and led the entire 65-car Sebring field for two dazzling laps before, lamentably, the water hose worked loose and the car retired. Two laps is not much, but never before had an American car led so potent a field.

2) The Ford-engined Cobras of ex-Texan Carroll Shelby, now of California, hissed along so venomously that two of them, while healthy, outsped all the equivalent Ferrari rivals.

3) A theoretically outclassed Corvette Sting Ray, after nine hours of cut and thrust, popped up in fifth place among the Ferraris. Then, sadly, as if shaken by its audacity, the Corvette flipped its lid—blew a cylinder-head gasket.

By all means, let old Enzo Ferrari justly collect his bravos. He swept positions one through six, and that's not bad even for Ferrari, whose championships in sports car racing are past counting.

Outright winners John Surtees of Britain and Ludovico Scarfiotti of Italy were masterful, the fourth-place car and Grand Touring winner, driven by Americans Roger Penske and Augie Pabst, was "perfect" as Roger termed it.

Let no due credit be denied Porsche, which took Sebring's other major prize—the GT trophy for middleweight cars—on the impeccable maneuvering of the U.S.'s Bob Holbert and Don Wester.

But, after years of famine, Americans can unashamedly relish their own Sebring cars—and now look forward to classic victories by home-built machinery.