Page 87 - Decadence

Hill meanwhile was as overwrought as ever. His ‘Sharknose’ had engine and gearbox problems from the rst day of practice. His mechanics were not convinced about the so called glitches in the gearbox but nally agreed to investigate and uncovered the fault within the gearbox, meaning Hill missed the next practice. When he did get back into it the car was still sluggish. Hill complained to Enzo directly only for Ferrari to re back “Are you sure there isn’t anything wrong with your foot?”
As you can imagine this further frustrated an already concerned Hill so he was left in his mind with no choice but to deliver an ultimatum. He would not race unless they replaced the engine altogether. Or in his own words...”Just change the damn engine!! ”
Reluctantly the mechanics did so under the scornful eye of II commendatore working through the night to swap engines. At 6 am they acknowledged that Hill had been right about the engine after all, as they had found a broken valve.
The tension just before the race starts is as thick as the smoke and smell of racing oil in the air. The mechanics, spanners and wrenches clenched in sts swirling around the various cars with last minute adjustments and fettling and then with seconds to spare, eventually rolling the cars into
grid formation, cars in their national racing colours British racing Green, the silver arrows of the German Mercedes team and the red of the Italian Ferraris gleamed in the Monza sunshine, the purity of the colours not obscured with corporate logos of deep pocket sponsors of the cars of the future. “The gladiators in an age of anxiety” (Phil Hill quote) lowered themselves in to the low single seaters and the engines screamed into life with the drivers now cocooned in their own worlds as the sound from the engines ricocheted around the packed grandstands their only focus was to propel their car around this circuit as fast as they dare without going beyond breaking point of man and machine.
In a cloud of smoke and the sound of engines wailing like banshees the ag drops and they are off, von Trips, on pole falters and nds himself embroiled in the pack behind Hill, inches apart through the Curva Grande and then onto the two sharp rights at the Curva di Lesmo.
As Hill starts to pull away von Trips feels he must start to ght his way back through the eld.He passes Jack Brabham and Jim Clark in two mighty blasts of Ferrari acceleration. As von Trips lines up to pass Rodriguez before the next turn he seems not to be fully aware that Clark is still close and not slip streaming him from behind as he might of thought he would be.
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