Run for the River

The torrid, jungle-edge Mexican town of Tuxtla Gutierrez, 100 miles from the Guatemalan border, was abustle last week. Sleek sport cars, ranging from burly Mercedes-Benzes and lean Italian Ferraris down to the tiny French Gordini (a Simca-developed racing car), were tuning up for the third annual Pan American border-to-border road race. In addition to the 37 sport-car drivers entered, 64 more were ready to try their luck in a separate division for modified U.S. stock cars. Ahead of the racers lay 1,946 miles of torturous mountain roads and sun-baked desert in the "run for the river," the finish at the Rio Grande city of Juarez, across the U.S. border from El Paso.

The sentimental favorites were the Italians, who finished one-two in Ferraris last year. They had sent a strong team, including World Champion Driver Alberto Ascari and Giovanni Bracco, winner of this year's famed Mille Miglia. But the betting favorites were the Germans and their hotshot Mercedes-Benz racers, which finished one-two in last summer's Le Mans 24-hour race. Headed by Engineer Alfred Neubauer, the Germans arrived weeks early with 24 mechanics and a truckload of spare parts, then drilled like a football team. Daily driving sessions were followed by nightly blackboard drills, and each mile of the course was memorized.

Up in the Mountains. The first leg of the five-day race ran through sand-dune country up into high (10,000 ft.), treacherous mountain passes to the Indian town of Oaxaca. Italy's Ascari skidded off the road and cracked up his Ferrari; the surprise first-day leader turned out to be the little (1 1/2-liter) French Gordini, driven by an ex-motorcycle racer named Jean Behra, who set a blistering average of 89 m.p.h. Only 5 min. 37 sec. behind the Frenchman was Italy's Bracco, with Germany's Karl Kling, greying veteran of prewar races, right at their heels.

The killing pace on the next leg to Puebla and Mexico City nearly killed France's Behra as his Gordini smashed up on a tight curve and plummeted into a deep ditch. Behra was dragged out of the wreck with compound fractures of nine ribs and severe facial injuries. Bracco's Ferrari took over a slender three-minute lead, but breathing down his neck were the three Mercedes-Benzes, now bunched, paced by Kling. German Coach Neubauer, sending platoons of mechanics up to the next stopover, was exultant: "We are out of the mountains now. When we hit the flat, the race will be all ours."

Down to the Plains. As it turned out, Neubauer's brag was a little premature--only a little. With the three Mercedes chasing the speedy red Ferrari up over the 10,000-ft. pass to Toluca, down to Mexico's farm belt and into the dry cactus plains, Italy's Bracco lengthened his lead over Kling to seven minutes, left the other two Mercedes half an hour behind. But on the afternoon lap of the next-to-last day, Bracco's luck finally ran out. The clutch of the Ferrari burned out, and the Italian watched in helpless rage as the three Mercedes-Benzes roared by.

The final day was a Mercedes parade. Veteran Kling drove his lightweight (under 2,000 Ibs.) aluminum-bodied racer at a 160-m.p.h. clip over stretches of the final lap. Kling's overall average: 102 m.p.h., shattering the 1951 Ferrari record of 88.09 m.p.h. Hermann Lang, Le Mans winner, brought his Mercedes in second, followed by Luigi Chinetti in a Ferrari. The stock-car race was even more of a runaway for the 1953 Lincolns (see BUSINESS). The 205-h.p. Lincolns, mounting four-barrel carburetors and heavy-duty shock absorbers, were led by A.A.A. Champion Driver Chuck Stevenson with a 90.96 m.p.h. average. Lincolns finished 1-2-3-4. Only 39 of the 91 starters finished, but in contrast to the mayhem of the past two races, only one driver, Mexican Santos Letona Diaz, was killed.

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