Runaway at Daytona

For a plain-talking Texan who has spent years poking around the innards of high-compression engines, Carroll Shelby, 43, can get pretty tense. Whenever he thinks about Enzo Ferrari, which is often, he also thinks about the annual 24-hour Le Mans race-and what happens to his blood pressure then is not good for a man who has a bad heart.

Two years ago, Shelby took a team of Fords to Le Mans, managed a fourth-place finish behind three Ferraris. "We threw a scare into Enzo," he crowed. "Next time we'll have his hide." But last year Ferraris swept the first three places at Le Mans, and only one of Shelby's Fords even finished the race.

Twice bitten, thrice cautious. "We're in better shape than we've ever been" was all that Shelby would say last week on the eve of the new season's first big sports-car race-the 24-hour Daytona Continental. Gone were the six Ford GTs that competed at Le Mans last year, replaced by five $100,000 Mark II prototypes, each only 40 in. high but with 475 honest horses under its hood. The cars had undergone seven months of testing: each engine had been run for 48 hours on a dynamometer, computers had been' used to check temperature and suspension data, and each car had been "run in" for 72 hours at Daytona and Sebring. "For the first time," said Shelby, "Ford is really serious about long-distance racing."

Endurance & Speed. Ferrari himself never goes to races, but twelve of his creations were entered in the Continental, including the car that won at Le Mans last year and a 1966 4.4-liter prototype. Then there was the homegrown Chevy-powered Chaparral II, which boasted such refinements as automatic transmission and a pedal-operated stabilizing fin. With Phil Hill, the ex-Grand Prix champion, at the wheel, the Chaparral turned in a 116-m.p.h. practice run, and more than one sportswriter picked it to win.

Practice was one thing; the race was another. At Daytona as at Le Mans, the accent was on endurance as much as speed, and the Daytona International Speedway's 3.81-mile course qualified admirably as a car killer. Cars had to decelerate violently to as low as 25 m.p.h. for the hairpins-"Miserable, slippery little curves," said No. 1 Ford Driver Ken Miles-then accelerate, if they could, to 195 m.p.h. on the long straights and high-banked (up to 31DEG) curves. Slower cars were cautioned to stay low on the banks, out of the way.

The Ford team's strategy called for

Miles and Co-Driver Lloyd Ruby to cover each lap in exactly 2 min. 4 sec., averaging 110 m.p.h., while the other Fords maintained a slightly slower pace. At that rate, Shelby figured, each of the Mark Us would need new front disc brakes during the race. So his pit crews practiced until they could change both brake units and four tires, fill the sump, pump in 42 gal. of gas and clean the windshield-all in 41 min.

One-Two-Three. Just as some of the experts predicted, the Chaparral spurted into the lead on the first lap. But eight laps later, Driver Hill was in the pits, complaining about a suspicious noise-gas sloshing around in the tank. Imagination turned to reality when the Chaparral's steering froze and the suspension collapsed with eleven hours still to go. One Ferrari dropped out with transmission trouble, another with a broken generator, and only four were still operating by noon on the second day. The Fords were running one-two-three and the only real challenger was the 1966 Ferrari prototype, driven by Mexico's Pedro Rodriguez. Rodriguez gave it a try-passing Dan Gurney's Mark II Ford into third place. Gurney swiftly turned in a 116.5-m.p.h. lap, and Rodriguez dropped back to fourth. At 3 p.m. when the checkered flag fluttered, Miles and Ruby, in No. 98, were 30 miles ahead of the pack, and the order of finish was Ford, Ford, Ford, Ferrari, Ford.

Maybe it wasn't Le Mans. And maybe, as some Ferrari fans insisted, old Enzo had only sent his "second team" to Daytona. But for the first time ever, a U.S. car had won a 24-hour endurance race. Even Luigi Chinetti, the Ferrari team manager and a naturalized American, felt a certain glow. "I am happy for my country," he said.

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