Page 16 - Ferrari in America

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A M E R I C A
I N F E R R A R I Much reportage of the day referred to Portago as a millionaire, but Dorian Leigh points
out in her autobiography, The Girl Who Had Everything, that he was totally dependent
on his mother, Olga, for funds. She was English and had married Francis John Mackey,
founder of Household Finance Corporation, when she was 19 and he was in his 60s.
When he committed suicide, his fortune went to her. She returned to Europe, where every
adventurer pursued her, but Portago’s father won the prize. He died in 1941. The couple
had two children, Fon and his sister, Soledad.
24 David Bull Publishing
At the end of 1953, the SCCA added up the points totals for their national champion.
There was no championship for cars that year, but Ferrari was well represented, with Bill
Spear the champion and Jim Kimberly third in the standings.
It would be the last year for this scoring method. Beginning in 1954, cars were assigned
to classes based on engine displacement. There would be two categories, Production
and Modified, with several classes in each. Any modification to Production cars had to be
approved in advance. The only limitation in the Modified class was that engine capacity had
to be within class limits, and that the cars complied with the SCCA regulations regarding
seats, headlights, and other road-going equipment.
1954
Ferrari and Chinetti were setting the stage for Ferrari to absolutely dominate American road
racing in 1954. The 375 Mille Miglia that he and Portago had used in Mexico was a 340,
fitted with the larger 4.5-liter engine. For the 1954 season, Ferrari introduced a completely
new model: the 375 MM, with a 4.5-liter V12. Chinetti sold several new ones, as well as the
©2024 David Bull Publishin
Mexico coupes from 1953. Chinetti’s needs for a large-engined car for American racing
were finally being met. Twenty-six 375 MMs were made: 8 street cars, one of which was
the only Ferrari to win Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours; and 18 competition
cars. Chinetti placed 12 of those 26.
For the 1954 season, Chinetti’s 375 MM clients included Jim Kimberly and Bill Spear,
each driver’s fifth Ferrari race car. Other US customers included Briggs Cunningham,
Masten Gregory, Erwin Goldschmidt, Marty Christensen, John Shakespeare, A. V. Dayton,
and Tony Parravano.
Success came almost immediately, with Kimberly beating Phil Walters’s Cunningham at
MacDill AFB, Florida, at the end of January. The season continued that way, with Kimberly
winning 6 of the 14 SCCA Nationals and Spear winning 2. If there were preliminary races,
they usually won those as well. Jack McAfee won at Golden Gate and Offutt AFB, Nebraska,
in Parravano’s 375, and the once-mighty Cunninghams were relegated to just 2 wins in SCCA
Nationals. Besides National events, the 375s won numerous Regional races as well that year.
Tony Parravano was becoming a force in the West, beginning to assemble a group of
Ferrari race cars that would ultimately number eight, not to mention his street cars and six
©2024 David Bull PubMaserati race cars. Tony became a legend, but for the wrong reasons. Brought here from
Italy by his family in 1934, when he was in his teens, his father went to work for Ford in
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