The Conclusion of Boyd Harnell’s First-Hand Look at the 1954 Carrera Panamericana

Mexico City-Leon, Leon-Durango: November 21, 1954

The carnage continued to mount on the next leg, Mexico City to León. There were four major crashes and one fatality, all of them occurring at a washboard curve outside Mexico City near Rio Hondito. I had followed the last Carrera entrant from Mexico City northward, and in less then thirty minutes spotted Bechem’s battered Borgward. The sports menor leader had fallen afoul of a tricky corner that left his car with a missing panel, a badly mangled nose and a driver with a fractured femur.