Word: gordinier
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1952-1952
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...torrid, jungle-edge Mexican town of Tuxtla Gutierrez, 100 miles from the Guatemalan border, was abustle last week. Sleek sport cars, ranging from burly Mercédès-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...
...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 at their heels...
...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 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...