Word: ferraris
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...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 (1½-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...
...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 Mercédès-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...
Down to the Plains. As it turned out, Neubauer's brag was a little premature-only a little. With the three Mercédès 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 Mercédès half an hour behind. But on the afternoon lap of the next-to-last day, Bracco's luck finally ran out. The clutch...
...Ferrari held the lead until the 16th lap, when Wacker, president of the S.C.C.A., gunned the Allard in front. On the 21st lap Spear, 36, driving all out, took the lead. Wacker made one more bid. For a good part of the final lap, the Allard and Ferrari ran wheel to wheel on the two-lane road until Spear pulled ahead to win by a couple of car lengths. Time for the 100 miles (25 laps): 1:11:42, an average of 83.6 m.p.h...
Future Plan. Spear, a hulking (6 ft. 2 in., 240 Ibs.) racer, has only been at it for two years. This was his first important victory. Credit, he confesses, should go to Mechanic Alfred Momo, 56, a Ferrari specialist and former Italian air-force man. His winning 4.1-liter Ferrari (Model America) is essentially just as it came from the factory: $12,000 worth of Italian handiwork with an aluminum body and a triple-carburetor, twelve-cylinder engine (220 h.p.), capable of driving the car 140 m.p.h. Spear and Momo made only two alterations: an anti-sway bar was installed...