IN THE INAUGURAL EVENT AT THE GREAT NEW ROAD AMERICA COURSE IN WISCONSIN, HILL AND JOHNSTON STAGED A CLASSIC DRIVING DUEL

John Bentley

September 19, 1955

It was the final lap of the 148-mile feature race held on Road America—a brand-new black-top sports car race circuit weaving through the rolling hills of Wisconsin's kettle moraine country near Elkhart Lake which received its baptism of speed last weekend. Sherwood Johnston, driving Briggs Cunningham's blue-and-white D-type Jaguar with the dash of a D'Artagnan and the skill of a juggler, felt almost within grasp of what was surely to be the hardest won and most deserved victory in his racing career. Dogging Californian Phil Hill's wheel tracks from the drop of the flag, he had managed to squeeze by his rival on the 23rd lap and held a precarious two-second lead from that point onward. As Johnston drifted the tricky diminishing-radius curve known as Turn 12 and streaked through the wide S that led under the bridge at Station 13, he knew that Hill in George Tilp's Monza Ferrari was close behind him; but how close he had no means of telling, for the snout of the white Ferrari was no longer framed in his rearview mirror. Seven-tenths of a mile to go. One more downshift from third to second at the right-hand northeast corner (No. 14); a last upshift into third, zooming up the slope at the foot of the main straight—and Johnston would claim the checkered flag.