1961 Sebring 12 Hours – Race Profile Page Twelve
Phil Hill was in his pit getting wiped down with cold towels his face beet-red from the heat of the day and the lack of ventilation in his Ferrari. When asked about it he said, “It is a furnace in that thing!” When asked why he responded, “Don’t make me go into the gory detail, please.” Later he would disclose that the large wrap around Plexiglas windscreen trapped the heat in the cockpit and for some unknown reason the Ferrari engineers took away two ventilating tubes.
Also suffering in the heat was driver David Cunningham who pushed his disabled #69 red Osca S1000 over two miles to his pit. It was wasted effort and the car was withdrawn because of gearbox problems. Later the F.I.A. would outlaw pushing on the course for obvious safety reasons. However, that didn’t prevent Dan Gurney, at Sebring in 1966, from pushing his leading but disabled GT40 Mk II over the finish line and to his pit. For his efforts he was disqualified by the stewards. If he had left the car where it had stopped he would have finished second.
On the course Don Yenko’s Corvette had thrown a wheel in Turn 7. At the same time Masten Gregory came down pit road at a very high rate of speed despite some grid marshals signaling him to slow down. After he stopped in front of his pit a steward had a talk with him and the car was assessed a one-minute penalty.
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At 1:20 p.m., while still in the lead, von Trips was going into a very fast left hand turn and felt something break in the steering. This caused loss of control and he began to do several 360’s going off the racing surface and through a great expanse of concrete that used to be a parking area for the big B-17 bombers that were flown out of the old Hendrick’s Field training base during World War II.
The only damage caused by the spin was several rubber pylons being mowed down. Examination of the car would later show that the lower right wishbone was bent and the tie rod was broken clean off at the end.
Von Trips toyed with idea of walking back to his pit but that was miles away and he decided to drive the car back despite not having any control of the right front wheel. After being examined by the team mechanics the car was retired thus handing over the lead to the Rodriguez brothers Ferrari.
Ferrari team manager Tavoni decided to put the Ginther/Trips driving team in the #15 Ferrari 250 TR/61 of Giancarlo Baghetti and Willy Mairesse. When Mairesse brought the car in for what would be his last turn at the wheel the pit stop took a little longer because all four tires were badly worn and the right front fender was badly dented. As Ginther prepared to step into the cockpit another team car came in for service and since they had only one group of mechanics doing pit work it caused an unnecessary delay and a loss of time for both cars. The same thing happened at 3:50 p.m. when the Hill/Gendebien car pitted for service. The time lost only increased the lead held by the Rodriguez brothers. After the race several sportswriters would roundly criticize the Ferrari team for their sloppy pit work. Watching all of this was Ferrari engineer Carlo Chiti wearing a gray business suit with a green necktie. He also wore a turquoise-banded straw hat.
