Page 84 - Yanks reviews

Porsche Road & Race, June 22, 2020 / page 3
Walters’ and Hawthorn’s controversial Sebring winner was the first part of a deal that would see Cunningham close his West Palm Beach facility and become a Jaguar distributor for the New England states, New York, and half of Pennsylvania. And while Briggs Cunningham and Sherwood Johnston would give the C-6R its final international appearance at la Sarthe, Phil Walters and Bill Spear were entered in a new works- prepared Jaguar D-type in the Cunningham livery for the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans. Conspicuously missing from the Cunningham lineup was John Fitch.
Fitch was a pioneer. In 1951, often driving a Cunningham, he became the Sports Car Club of America’s first national champion, and in the same year, the first American to win a post-war international sports car race, in Argentina. In 1953, at Sebring, in a Cunningham C-4R, he and Phil Walters became the first drivers ever to win a Sports Car World Championship round, and the same year, at Le Mans, the first Americans to score a podium finish at la Sarthe. That year, Fitch also became the first American to commit to full-time international racing, moving to Europe with his family.
John Fitch, the first and only American to drive on the works Mercedes-Benz team. DAIMLER AG
258
John Fitch was also the first and only American to drive on the Mercedes-Benz factory team, in the 1952 Carrera Panamericana and most notably, in the 1955 Mille Miglia, about five weeks before Le Mans. His performance at the Mille, first in class and an amazing fifth overall in a production 300SL, earned him the opportunity of a lifetime – an invitation to co-drive one of the three vaunted Mercedes-Benz 300SLRs at Le Mans with Pierre Bouillin, aka “Pierre Levegh,” the French hero who had led the winning Mercedes into the 23rd hour at Le Mans in 1952 before his Talbot failed. Fitch was ecstatic. “It was what I was hoping for,” he admitted. “You know, that was the dream team that everybody wanted to be on. And the car was marvelous.”
Fitch had helped another promising American driver who moved to Europe, Masten Gregory. In fact, the two families, with three children between them, had shared a rented villa in Italy before Fitch moved to Switzerland.
At 22, Gregory, slight, bespectacled with coke bottle lenses and so youthful looking he had trouble even getting into some racing paddocks, was brave and naturally gifted, if somewhat wild at this stage of his career. And importantly, he had the means to purchase his own Ferraris, so Luigi Chinetti paved the way for him to buy current models from the factory. “The Kansas City Flash,” as he would soon be known at home, gained respect immediately in Europe with a couple of wins and string of podium finishes against works teams in 1954 and early 1955. An unfortunate choice by another driver gave Gregory the chance for his first start at Le Mans, with French amateur Mike Sparken in a Ferrari 750 Monza.
“Ferrari got me a ride with Sparken,” he wrote his brother Riddelle, “in favor of Dalla Favera who was supposed to co- drive with him. Dalla Favera went to a hillclimb in Italy that weekend instead and was killed when he ran into a house.” Even after his spectacular comeback, Phil Hill had no Le Mans ride for 1955, other than an offer from Cunningham as an alternate and a bit of encouragement from Chinetti.
“It was one of Chinetti’s feelers,” said Hill, “you know, ‘If you go to Le Mans and don’t have a drive, let me know,’ and all that kind of stuff.”
But in May, he and Richie Ginther boarded a freighter in New Orleans bound for Italy.
“We were going to barnstorm Europe with this Monza Ferrari of Allen Guiberson’s,” Hill recalled. Chinetti had arranged for factory support as they took in as many European races as possible. That was the plan – until May 26, when Alberto Ascari suffered a fatal accident at Monza. An urgent telegram, relayed through Guiberson’s office, reached Hill aboard ship.
1955 E Twice Around the Clock
“It was from Ferrari, Enzo himself. He said to get off at Barcelona. Our freighter was going to Genoa, but that would take too long. He said to take the train at Barcelona and ‘Get to Modena.’”
To a young race driver, being summoned to the factory by Enzo Ferrari was like an order from a deity, and Hill and Ginther left the ship at Barcelona and made their way to Modena. There, after being kept waiting outside the Commendatore’s office for the obligatory half hour, Hill was granted his audience. “He asked me, ‘How would you like to drive for me at Le Mans?’ then began talking about Mexico and the ‘great protagonist’ that I’d raced there, Umberto Maglioli. He said, ‘I’m going to put you both in the same car.’”
And just like that, Phil Hill was made a Ferrari works driver at Le Mans. In six months, he had vaulted from the confusion and doubt of retirement to the top rung of the sport.
RIGHT: A young and admittedly nervous Phil Hill, suddenly nominated to the varsity team, a works Ferrari ride, at Le Mans. THE CAHIER COLLECTION, BERNARD CAHIER
BELOW: Hill’s more experienced American teammate, expat Harry Schell, waits as mechanics ready his brute Ferrari 121 LM. THE CAHIER COLLECTION, BERNARD CAHIER
The Yanks at Le Mans E 1955 259