Phil Hill had made a cautious start. He and Peter Collins had had a long discussion before the race and had decided to be easy on the gearbox and the brakes which get worked so hard at Sebring. Chassis 0704 sat in 4th at the end of hour one, with Moss/Brooks leading Salvadori/Shelby and Hawthorn/von Trips. The easy pace allowed the private 250TR of Richie Ginther and Johnny von Neumann into 4th an hour later. The two Astons and the three Ferraris held the top five spots for the first four hours. The other cars in contention were the Porsche RS of Jean Behra and Edgar Barth, the Musso/Gendebien Ferrari as it started to recover from its early encounter, the Fitch/Martin Ferrari and the Harry Schell/Wolfgang Seidel Porsche.
But it all changed in the 5th hour as the two Astons both had the gearbox problems which stopped them. Hill and Collins had moved progressively up to second and now took over the lead from which they would not be moved. An hour later there were four Ferraris in the first four places. That remained unaltered for the next five hours. Hawthorn and von Trips were out at 159 laps and Neumann/Ginther at 168 laps. As Phil Hill and Peter Collins kept to a steady pace, the Musso/Gendebien car took over 2nd with the Schell/Seidel Porsche 3rd. The Porsches had not had their usual reliability. Surprisingly the little Lotus cars did, and the Sam Weiss/Dave Tallakson Lotus 11 had got into 4th overall. Paul O’Shea and Bruce Kessler had a Ferrari GT in 5th, and Lotus boss Colin Chapman himself was in 6th with another Lotus 11 co-driven by the great Cliff Allison.
The Jean Behra Porsche RSK looked likely to have a good result, and was in 5th in the third hour when it retired.
The Bonnier/Duncan/Hinkle Maserati 300S passes the Elva Mk III (77) of Kurtz and Karmer while the Jaguar D-Type of Bueb hangs on. All these cars were out fairly early in the race.
The Jean Kunstle/Ken Miles Porsche 550 RS was also a victim of uncharacteristic unreliability.
The Wylie/Dietrich Elva Mk II crashed in practice and never started.
The Aston assault weakened on lap 62 when the Salvadori/Shelby car retired.
Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks led the first 70 laps and set fastest lap but the gearbox broke on lap 90.
When the Astons retired, Peter Collins and Phil Hill moved the Ferrari 250 TR into the lead.
The only change in the top ten order in the last two hours occurred when the ninth place OSCA of the De Tomasos moved ahead of the Chamberlain/Frost Lotus 11. It was a mighty performance by the OSCA.
And that is how it finished. The Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa had come of age. Phil Hill and Peter Collins had established the car as main sports car championship contender. That car of course became a sports car legend, such was the combination of its classic good looks, fine handling and strong endurance characteristics. It is fortunate we can still see those cars in historic racing today.
The Ferrari 500TRC 2-liter of Gaston Andrey and Bill Lloyd was as high as 6th but quit in the 8th hour.
The OSCA 750S of Alejandro and Isabelle De Tomaso was 8th overall and won the class.
The Brumby/Aldhous/Martinez Abarth 750 Zagato had some problems but managed to finish.
Luigi Musso in the Ferrari 250 TR (Chassis 0726TR). He and Gendebien recovered from the lap 3 incident to finish 2nd.
Driving Ferrari 250 TR (Chassis 0704TR), Peter Collins and Phil Hill took the lead in the 5th hour and led to the finish.
[Source: Ed McDonough]
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About Ed McDonough
Good stuff. Keep it coming. Ed McDonough must have a wonderful library of images and stories. Those guys that were actually their have a unique look back at history that the rest of us can only wish we had.
One suggested correction of an often repeated mistake; Dan Gurney did not practice or race the DB with Howard Hanna. I have spoken with Dan and Howard’s son and they both confirmed that it did not happen. I have also corresponded with Denise McCluggage who did confirm that Dan did practice in her Fiat Abarth.
Dennis and Tom:
Thanks for the comments.
Yes, I have a substantial photo archive which I continue to work on every day, and for some time have spent efforts finding and saving motor racing photos. I have a collection of some 5000 negatives that literally was fished out of a dust bin. And there is the widow of a well known Jaguar engineer of the ’50s who told me that…’no one would all that old stuff so i threw it out’ “It” was his life long collection of drawings, notes and photos of his work on competition Jaguars….so I try to prevent this in some small way.
Re: Dan Gurney…I am pleased that is clarified now…I should have asked earlier. Many thanks.
Ed McDonough
Ed -
my hat is off to you for this article and your efforts to save motorsports history, and I imagine there are many invaluable items that have been lost to dustbins and trash piles. The Gurney/Hanna listing is repeated everywhere, so don’t feel bad…it is in virtually every race result I have ever seen. I only found out the error by contacting the Hanna family looking for photos of the car.
If I can ever help your efforts in any way please let me know.
Regards,
Tom
The picture of the Jean Kunstle/Ken Miles Porsche 550 RS is great! Look beyond the car. Stacks of pipes! A specatator and his car! Possibly a marshall. In the foreground is a fire hydrant on the inside of a turn!! Love it. Whimps need not apply to drive one of those.
Great story and photos of Sebring. We had a 50th annivsary for Elva there in 2008. Elva driver Rip Ripley came for the ocassion, as did the dauhter of Charles Kurtz (deceased.) The Elva driven by Wylie had a Climax FPF engine.
God Bless , Ed McDonough. Thank you so very much for letting us drift back to a much simpler time, the GOLDEN Age of Sports Car Racing in America…. All the greats were present …… Ole Shell’s ticker was still good to geaux and Mr 1961 ” Phil Hill” was on still on his way up, to the TOP of the racing world. What a wonderful time to be alive. John Coltrane and Ms Billie Holiday were still alive and performing. You could buy a prototype Ferrari or Maserati or OSCA for under $ 20 thousand… and a new 1958 Custom color Fender Stratocaster and a Fender Amp would only set ya back $225 bucks.
Thanks a bunch Ed, well done. Well done indeed.
I was crew chief on the Martin,Baptista, Warren ELVA MK 111 and was in the garage during night practice when Doc Wylie
went off course as he was exiting “Big Bend” about topped out in third gear. With the 1500 FPF the MK 111 was a bit tail light and Doc hit a guy wire at something over 100 MPH and cut the rear end of the car off just behind the cockpit. A differance of 6″ would have been very bad! It looked like someone had taken a saw to the car. Doc was one of the nicest guys racing and a real gentleman needless to say the garage was very subdued that evening.
I spoke with Doc two years ago about Sebrin. His car was a MK III with the DOHC Climax. He said something broke in he back and he went between a telephone poll and its guide wire, and the back was cut off or4 neary so. The car went back to the UK where the FPF was put into a new MK IV and sold to Burdette Martin.
I have seen several references that Dr. Wyllie’s car was a Mark II (like the photo caption) and several that say it was a Mark III. Is it definitly a Mark III?
Doc’s Elva was a MK III made especially for the Sebring race. After the crash the car was returned to the UK and the FPF Climax put into an Elva MK IV that was bought by Berdie Martin. Berdie drove that car once or twice. BTW, the blue Elva driven by Charles Kurtz is a MK II. His daughter was at the Elva event at the 2008 vintage race at Sebring.
Fred,
Fred,
By chance did you know FRANK CAMPBELL of Hinsdale, IL? In late 1957 he bought a red MK II that Burdette Martin owned. Campbell raced it at RA500 in 1958. I now have his MK II and have been trying to locate his descendants.
Bob
bobengberg@aim.com
Terrific documentation of the ’58 event! Thanks for sharing this. As others have said, keep it coming. There is a real need for quality documents by people who where there with stories and photos.
I’d love to see a story on the ’56 – 12 Hours of Sebring and photos. -Greg
Hi Ed
Great piece on the 58 Sebring 12 hour race. What a fabulous era of motor sport and thanks for bringing it all back to life for us. Thanks also for the shot which shows my Aston staying out of trouble (!) or is Constantine taking all 3 cars around the outside? I haven’t seen that photo before – any more?
Quick question – the 1958 World Championship was for cars with 3 litres and under – Corvettes – special engines or special ‘American’ rules?
All the best
Jon
I wasn’t even aware of Sebring in 1958, but I really enjoyed your coverage. And yes, I do recognize the drivers mentioned and the cars of course. Thank you for the article and pictures.
Tom Bucher
Archie Scott Brown is either losing his pants as you said or he is wearing a weight lifting belt! Funny either way…
Thank you for the fine article.
Sebring 1958 Story
Ed,I was at Sebring 1957 with my dad and Chas Addams( the cartoonist)and I clearly remember the convincing win by Jean Behra and Fangio Maserati 450 S (spectacular at night with the flames exiting the side gutterpipe exhausts as it thundered down the straight). and a fine 2nd OD by Stirling in the 300S( restored by me some years later and now with Tony Wang). Not Exactly a Ferrari day for the 290 MM ,but a Maserati slaughter.
Cheers Stephen
I was there. Hadn’t a clue, but enjoyed it and brought home some fine memories and a couple of photos.
http://home.roadrunner.com/~fsheff/sebring.htm
Thanks, Ed, for making it comprehensible after all these years.
Frank Sheffield
Was Sam Weiss in this race, and do you have more articles on him?
Do you have photos or can you reference certain issues on Sam Weiss.