Death in the Afternoon

Auto road-racing is an old fever with Europeans. Americans have found it less contagious, but since the war a lot of them have been getting the bug. Last week some 125,000 people piled into Watkins Glen, N.Y. to see the Third U.S. Grand Prix--and the first race ever sponsored in the U.S. by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile. They took home memories of flashing, underslung, overpowered sport cars roaring down the straightaways at 130 m.p.h. They also took home memories of death.

Foreign-make cars dominated the field of 26 that lined up for the start of the 99-mile grind. French Bugattis and Italian Ferraris, British Allards, Jaguars and Healeys roared over the tortuous 6.6-mile course. Here & there, for the people who were attuned to the pitch, could be heard the deep-throated rumble of a souped-up 200-h.p. Cadillac engine under some of the strapped-down hoods.

An Allard with Cadillac engine was the combination that Erwin Goldschmidt was counting on. It got him off well. During the first lap, 34-year-old Driver Goldschmidt, a prosperous Manhattan insurance broker, worked up from his 26th-place starting position to third.

A shocked cry went up from the crowd as the leaders roared to the end of a straightaway and into a graveled S curve at a 100-m.p.h. clip. One of the cars just ahead of Goldschmidt, a red Ferrari driven by Veteran Racer Sam Collier,* suddenly spun out of control, whipped halfway through the curve, plunged down a 6-ft. embankment, spun end over end three times. Driver Collier was flung free but died an hour and 20 minutes later of a crushed chest and head injuries.

Goldschmidt and the rest of the field continued without interruption, down through the main streets of Watkins Glen, over a stone bridge in the state park, across railroad tracks, through hazardous short turns, over roads of macadam, concrete, brick and dirt. By the end of the second lap, heavy-footed Erwin Goldschmidt had the lead.

No one ever caught him. He won the race by a full minute. His time: i hr. 22 min. for an average speed of 73 m.p.h. Second, for the third year in a row, was Connecticut Sportsman Briggs Cunningham in a Healey-Cadillac.

*One of two racing sons of Barren Collier, onetime Manhattan advertising executive. The second: Miles Collier, winner of last year's Grand Prix.

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