Auto Racing: Foxed by a Rabbit

AUTO RACING

For more than a decade, the sleek, sturdy creations of Italian Automaker Enzo Ferrari have practically owned sports-car racing. Going into last week's 2,000-km. (1,243 miles) Daytona Continental, "Il Commendatore" had won ten manufacturers' championships in twelve years. It was a fine way to make enemies, among them the Ford Motor Co., which broke into its bulging piggy bank last year to develop a racing sports car of its own: the prototype Ford GT, a rakish, rear-engined coupe with 385 honest horses stuffed into a 40-in.-high package. Bursting with pride, Ford shipped its GTs off to Europe to teach old Enzo a lesson. In four races, not a single GT even managed to cross the finish line.

Car-Killing Duel. For last week's Continental, Ford turned two prototype GTs over to Carroll Shelby, the brash Texan who designed the Ford-powered Cobra, a solid contender in production-class races last year. Shelby spent 1,000 hours preparing for the race, figuring gear and axle ratios, tuning engines, using computers to help adjust the suspension to the track conditions at Florida's Daytona International Speedway. In the time trials, Mexico's Pedro Rodriguez won the pole position by clocking 113.7 m.p.h. in his V12 Ferrari prototype, and Shelby decided he needed a little strategy too. His plan: turn California's Dan Gurney loose in a Lotus-Ford sprint car as a "rabbit" to lure the Ferraris into a car-killing speed duel.

By the 17th lap, one of the three team Ferraris was already out of action. On the 64th lap, Rodriguez' V12 Ferrari prototype was hitting 150 m.p.h. when the tread peeled off a rear tire and flailed the underside of the car, smashing the battery and exhaust pipes. Ferrari mechanics slapped on a new wheel, and turned the car over to Britain's Grand Prix Champion John Surtees. But the rear axle snapped on the 116th lap.

Champagne & Beer. "Fine, fine," murmured Shelby as Gurney's Lotus-Ford blasted round and round the 3.81mile track, trailed by the lone remaining team Ferrari and a phalanx of Fords. He flashed a signal to the GTs and Cobras: EZ—slow down. On the 137th lap, the last Ferrari's clutch failed. Job done, Gurney's Lotus also pulled into the pits, with a sick engine.

Alternately swigging champagne and beer, Shelby watched Texas' Lloyd Ruby sweep past the checkered flag in his blue-and-white Ford GT. A Cobra finished second, a Ford GT was third, and another Cobra was fourth. The winning GT's average speed for 1,243 miles was a record-smashing 99.9 m.p.h. At long last Ford had beaten Ferrari, and a U.S. automaker had scored its biggest victory since Jimmy Murphy won the 1921 French Grand Prix in a Duesenberg.