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#33 Alfa with Nino Vaccarella fi nished second overall.
This was a dream come true for Ash Tisdelle and Peter
Kirill, two high school friends from Jacksonville. I will let
Ash tell the story:
“I was a 23 year old kid with exactly six SCCA regional races
to my credit. How the FIA decided that was experienced
enough to let me out on Sebring’s 5.2-mile race course, I’ll
never know. My buddy, Pete Kirill, and I had planned for
a year to do the 12 Hour at Sebring. We were broke and
had virtually no spares. My old Dodge station wagon was
loaded with all our wheels and tires, and we had some
doubtful pit crew help planned. Our racecar was a Porsche
911 and it was hooked up behind the Dodge wagon with
pieces of the homemade refueling rig strapped to the roof.
We looked ridiculous.”
Who said dreams don’t come true? This one did. There are
a million more Sebring stories.
Everyone that has ever experienced Sebring has a story, if
not a dozen. One more worthy of mention is the #24 NART
entry of a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 with drivers Harley Cluxton
and Bob Grossman. They ran the race with the air-condition
on and Grossman, a professional singer, could be
heard singing accompanied by the tape deck as he apexed
the Hairpin. The two fi nished 12th overall.
With just minutes to go in the race, Elford, with the look of a
man about to face his execution, waved off Chris Economaki
and his microphone and once again turned his attention toward
the Martini and Rossi drive-over bridge. When Elford’s
internal clock told him that it was about that time we would
all turn with him and stare into the darkness anticipating the
French CIBIE yellow headlights of co-driver Gerard Larrousse.
Porsche had let it be known that they would welcome a
French driver in one of their cars for marketing reasons.
Note, one of their cars. Elford and the Martini & Rossi
team not only had the blessing of the Porsche family but
the support of the factory. Gerard, a most worthy ex-competitor
of Vic’s in his rally days and now a good friend, was
Vic’s choice for a French co-driver.
As I studied Elford’s face, there was no hint that he and
Larrousse had a three lap lead on the second place Alfa
or that they were within minutes of winning the crown
jewel of American road racing, the 12 Hours of Sebring.
No, it was not yet time to celebrate for they were still very
much engaged in the fi ght and Vic knew how fi ckle Lady
Luck could be.
Elford, now taking the face of Ares with the smile of victory,
addressed the microphone of Chris Economaki while
all around celebrated. At the same time out on the track,
Larrousse, now on his cool-down-lap in the winning car is
consumed by emotions. This is the pinnacle of his racing
career. This is it, the most important race he has ever won.
He had also just joined two exclusive clubs, winners of the
12 Hours of Sebring and Club 917, winning WCM drivers in
917s, of which there are only 13 members.
In his excitement, he loses his place on the track and spins
the car somewhere in the outback of Hendricks Field. For
all he knew, he could have hit a time warp for he was totally
disorientated. Now that the race was over all sorts of
activity was happening and Larrousse didn’t have a clue as
to which way to go or what set of lights to guide on.
While Larrousse was lost the attention in Victory Circle
turned to the GTO winners, Dick Smothers and John
Greenwood. Greenwood was a car builder, engineer and
an outlaw Woodard Avenue street racer out of Detroit.
His father a General Motors Engineer and executive. Dick
Smothers was a TV celebrity and also somewhat an outlaw.
He and his brother Tommy hosted the Smothers Brothers
Comedy Hour, one of the most controversial TV programs
ever, so much so CBS fi red them in 1969. The brothers
were anti-war and signifi ed on political issues, religion and
other things they felt worthy of ridicule. Smothers and
Greenwood drove a fl awless race in the #48 Greenwood
Team Corvette never putting a wheel off or making contact
with anything.
112 T h e 6 6 t h A n n u a l 1 2 H o u r s o f S e b r i n g