The
1958
12-Hour Florida International Grand Prix of Endurance for the Amoco Trophy
took place on 22 March, on the
Sebring International Raceway
, (
Florida
, United States). It was the second round of the
F.I.A. World Sports Car Championship
, which was running to new regulations introduced at the beginning of the season. The most influential of these regulations changes would be the 3.0 litre engine size limit. This was seventh running of the 12-hour race.
Report
[
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]
Entry
[
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]
A massive total of 73 racing cars were registered for this event, of which 70 arrived for practice. Only these, 65 qualified for, and started the race. With these new rules, and
Maserati
on the brink of financial crisis,
Scuderia Ferrari
would head the Italian challenge. Ferrari had six of their
250 TRs
in Florida, of which three were works machines for
Phil Hill
/
Peter Collins
,
Mike Hawthorn
/
Wolfgang von Trips
and
Luigi Musso
/
Olivier Gendebien
. Opposition would no longer come from Maserati... but from
Aston Martin
.
[1]
[2]
[3]
David Brown
sent two
Aston Martin DBR1s
over from England for
Stirling Moss
/
Tony Brooks
and
Carroll Shelby
and
Roy Salvadori
. There were supported by
George Constantine
and
John Dalton
, in a
DB2/4
. Also on the entry list were some quick looking
Jaguar D-Types
though the Coventry marque were a bit out-classed by now.
Ecurie Ecosse
had two D-Types for
Ron Flockhart
/
Masten Gregory
and
Ninian Sanderson
/
Ivor Bueb
. Another Jag was entered by
Briggs Cunningham
for himself and
Walt Hansgen
. Cunningham also brought along two Jaguar engined
Listers
for
Ed Crawford
/
Pat O'Connor
and
Archie Scott Brown
/Hansgen. All three cars were listed with Alfred Momo being the entrant.
[4]
[2]
[3]
Qualifying
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Because there were no qualifying sessions to set the grid, the starting positions were decided according to engine size with the 4.6 litre
Chevrolet Corvette C1
of
Jim Rathmann
and
Dick Doane
in first place. Next was another Corvette of
John A. Kilborn
,
Fred Windridge
and
Dick Thompson
. In fact Corvette’s held the first three places.
[4]
Race
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Day of the race would be sunny and warm, but the start of race was something of a shambles as some drivers posed for the tradition Le Mans style start, ready to sprint to their cars, while others were still ambling across the track. This prompted a false start, so everyone had to line-up again.
[2]
[3]
From his third place of the grid,
Jim Jeffords
was expected to be quick off the line, and indeed he was but a wheel problem stopped him out on the circuit, and by the end of lap one, he crossed the line in last place.
[2]
The
Aston Martins
set the early pace with Moss going out in front. Hawthorn was second in his works Ferrari, with Salvadori in the other Aston on his tail. Soon, Salvadori moved past Hawthorn to make it an Aston 1-2. As for the Listers, they were going well in the opening laps, but Gendebien tried to force his Ferrari past Scott Brown, on the managed to climb right over the back of the Lister. Both drivers hopped out and removed the Ferrari and the Belgian took it back to the pits for repairs while the Lister retired. As for the other Lister, it only managed six laps before its Jaguar engine went and all the Jaguar-powered cars were out of the race by lap 55.
[2]
[5]
[3]
As for the Hill/Collins Ferrari, it made a cautious start with the American behind the wheel. The crew decided to be easy on the gearbox and brakes which get worked so hard at Sebring. They were in fourth at the end of the first hour, with Moss/Brooks leading from Salvadori/Shelby and Hawthorn/von Trips. Their easy pace allowed the private 250 TR of
Richie Ginther
and
Johnny von Neumann
into fourth an hour later. The pair of Astons and the trio of Ferrari held the top five spots for the first four hours. The other works Ferrari of Musso/Gendebien started to recover from its early encounter.
[6]
[3]
It was all change in the fifth hour of the race when both Astons had gearbox troubles, which forces them to retire. Hill and Collins had progressively worked their way through to second and then took over the lead which they would not be moved. By the half-way mark, there were four Ferraris in the top four and that remained that way for the next five hours. Hawthorn and von Trips were out on lap 159, with Neumann and Ginther at lap 168. Hill and Collins still kept to a steady pace, the Musso/Gendebien car moved into second with the
Porsche 718 RSK
of
Harry Schell
and
Wolfgang Seidel
now up to third. Surprisingly, the little
Lotus Eleven
of
Sam Weiss
and
David Tallakson
had got into fourth overall.
[7]
[3]
[8]
And that's how the race finished, the Scuderia Ferrari of Collins and Hill, winning ahead of their team-mates Musso and Gendebien. Car number 14, took an impressive victory, completing 200 laps, covering 1,040 miles after 12 hours of racing, averaging a speed of 86.501 mph. Second place went to the second Ferrari, albeit one lap adrift. The podium was complete by works Porsche of Schell and Seidel who were seven laps behind the winners. Phil Hill and Peter Collins had established the Ferrari 250 TR as the main sports car championship contender, with its second straight victory in the series.
[9]
[8]
Official Classification
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Class Winners are in
Bold
text.
[9]
[10]
Class Winners
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]
Class
|
Winners
|
|
|
Sports 3000 ? Class D
|
14
|
Ferrari 250 TR 58
|
Hill / Collins
|
Sports 2000 ? Class E
|
41
|
Porsche 718 RSK
|
Schell / Seidel
|
Sports 1500 ? Class F
|
47
|
Osca MT4 1500
|
Stetson / Linton / Beck
|
Sports 1100 ? Class G
|
56
|
Lotus-Climax Eleven
|
Weiss / Tallaksen
|
Sports 750
|
60
|
Osca S750
|
de Tomasso / Haskell / Ferguson
|
Grand Touring 5000
|
1
|
Chevrolet Corvette
|
Rathmann / Doane
|
Grand Touring 3500 ? Class 9
|
22
|
Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta
|
O'Shea / Kessler / Cunningham
|
Grand Touring 3000
|
|
no classified finishers
|
|
Grand Touring 2000
|
37
|
AC Ace
|
Milo / McClure / Forlong
|
Grand Touring 1600
|
43
|
Porsche 356A Carrera
|
von Hanstein / Linge / Cuevas
|
Grand Touring 1300
|
50
|
Alfa Romeo Giuletta Spider Veloce
|
Van Beuren / Velasquez
|
Grand Touring 750
|
64
|
Fiat-Abarth 750 Zagato
|
Kessinger / West / Thiele
|
[1]
Standings after the race
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- Note
: Only the top five positions are included in this set of standings.
Championship points were awarded for the first six places in each race in the order of 8-6-4-3-2-1, excepting the RAC Tourist Trophy, for which points were awarded on a 4-3-2-1 for the first four places. Manufacturers were only awarded points for their highest finishing car with no points awarded for positions filled by additional cars. Only the best 4 results out of the 6 races could be retained by each manufacturer. Points earned but not counted towards the championship totals are listed within brackets in the above table.
References
[
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]
- ^
a
b
c
"Sebring 12 Hours 1958 - Racing Sports Cars"
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
"1958 12 Hours of Sebring - Profile, History, Information and Photos"
. November 17, 2009.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
"1958 12 Hours of Sebring: Collins and Hill Escort a RedHead Home to Victory"
.
- ^
a
b
"Sebring 12 Hours 1958 - Entry List - Racing Sports Cars"
.
- ^
"Reference at www.teamdan.com"
.
[
permanent dead link
]
- ^
"1958 12 Hours of Sebring - Profile, History, Information and Photos"
. November 17, 2009.
- ^
"Reference at www.racingsportscars.com"
.
- ^
a
b
"1958 12 Hours of Sebring - Profile, History, Information and Photos"
. November 17, 2009.
- ^
a
b
c
"Reference at www.teamdan.com"
. Archived from
the original
on March 3, 2016
. Retrieved
November 19,
2015
.
- ^
"Sebring 12 Hours 1958 - Race Results - Racing Sports Cars"
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Alec Ulmann.
The Sebring Story
. Chilton Book Company. ASIN B0006CUAP2.
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