A Sweet Wet Win For America At Sebring

Still, all was not entirely well with the Chaparrals. Driver Ronny Hissom pitted the mate to Hall's car with a failing battery.

Shelby, a black cowboy hat pulled villainously down over his eyes, peered into the Chaparral pit to see if Hall's mechanics could make repairs in time to keep the car competitive. They could not. But at the 4 p.m. halfway point the other Chaparral looked unbeatable. Spectators watched it go by with eyes glazed from following too many cars, their minds already numb from too much beer and too little shade.

Mecom's Ferrari was five laps behind the Chaparral. On the same lap lay the last Ford GT. If any of the big three were to crack, Ferrari looked the best back-stopped, with reserves in fifth and 10th places. Shelby's old reliable Cobra GTs were running strongly in seventh, eighth and ninth places.

At a quarter past 4 the Mecom Ferrari pitted and the Ford GT moved up to second place. At 4:40 the Ford GT pitted and Ferrari regained second. Hall's Chaparral rolled smoothly in the lead. Then the rains came.

A raggedy black cloud had lurked for some time in the north. It burst, and in seconds the course in front of the pits became a canal. Cars in the back of the pack, hoping to regain some lost laps, slogged on through, while a few of those in the front pitted, spluttering in with engines that were not overheating now but soaked. Spectators ran for cover. Track officials took off their shoes and waded. The entire race took on the atmosphere of a Gold Cup run with a load of sick-sounding entries. Unofficially, 50 cars remained on the course. Said Carroll Shelby of his Ford GT, "I wish I could turn the damn thing over and use it as a hydroplane." Hall, meanwhile, found that his low-slung Chaparral acted as a shovel, scooping up a torrent of water with its nose and dumping it into his lap.

At the height of the squall a Goodyear blimp parked in the airfield stood on its nose. It was quickly put back on an even keel by its ground crew. Shortly after 6 p.m. the Mecom Ferrari pitted for rain gear (four tires, a special rain windshield and wet weather specialist Rodriguez) but was never again a threat. Into third place went the private Ferrari driven by England's David Piper and South Africa's Tony Maggs.

With three hours to go, the storm blew over and the track dried off. By simply hanging together, American cars could, incredibly, seize the three major prizes. This they did. Despite rain, mud, floods, Ferraris and Fords, the Chaparral sailed in safe and strong in another downpour. It had traveled 1,019.2 miles—not a record, but the fault was the weather's, not the car's. In a sense, everyone was happy—save Ferrari. Shelby had a pair of winners: America's Ken Miles and New Zealand's Bruce McLaren, arriving first among prototype drivers in the GT; Jo Schlesser of France and Bob Bondurant of the U.S., first in the Grand Touring class in the fourth-place Cobra. Hall had his big winner. And Porsche was ecstatic because four Porsches finished in the top 10.

After a damp Miss Florida circled the winning drivers' necks with kumquat leis, Hall spoke cautiously of the future. "We've broken Ferrari's string here," he said, "but I don't think we've ended their domination." It was a rare beginning, though. Wow-ee!