1961 Sebring 12 Hours – Race Profile Page Eleven
While servicing the car the Camoradi mechanics were all wondering if the car would start but start it did and Hill entered the race hoping to match Moss’s record run. It was not to be because not long after taking his turn at the wheel Graham Hill experienced a clean break in the exhaust system at the manifold. As he drove the car back to his pit the engine heat coming from the break turned the cockpit of the car into an oven. Once he stopped at his pit he exited the car quickly and was seen stamping his feet in a water puddle. The heat in the cockpit from the broken exhaust had burned his feet. The car was withdrawn but not before the Camoradi pits signaled the #24 rear-engine Tipo 63 to come in. At 12:45 p.m. Moss was transferred to what was his original entry that was now being driven by Masten Gregory and Lucky Casner. When reporters asked Casner about this his only comment was, “…it was the thing to do.”
Just after 1 p.m. Moss was back in the pits complaining about a loose wheel and a possible brake problem. While mechanics removed vegetation from the air scoops Moss was on his knees and then his back as he and a mechanic tried to determine what was wrong in the rear end of the car. At 1:33 p.m. luck would run out for the Camoradi team and Stirling Moss as the second car driven by him that day retired with rear suspension problems.
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