Dick Smothers and John Greenwood celebrate
GTO win.
With Chris Economaki running out of intelligent
questions for Elford and the crowd
getting surly Larrousse fi nally showed up to
join in the victory celebration of what would
become the annual “Last Sebring.”
I can’t help but think how different this
race could have turned out if Roger Penske
had replaced Mark Donohue
Chris Economaki, Larrousse and Elford in Victory Lane.
HAL CROCKER
Born in 1944 the son of an electrical engineer that specialized in heavy
construction projects. This provided for a nomad life style since father
would go where the work was. Most projects lasted six months or
less. By the time I started school I had already experienced more than
half the country. Starting when I was six I would spend the summers
with my uncle on his ranch in Mississippi. This was the best of two
worlds. On my sixth birthday I
got a single shot 22 rifl e and
for Christmas a 35mm camera.
I became profi cient with both.
Not being fond of wearing
high-heels and a dress or going
to Canada, I volunteered for
the military before they drafted
me. Thanks to a critical commo
MOS I broke the teenage
barrier and ended up in Army
Special Forces. Though I was
there as a radio operator the
Army decided, because of my
test scores, that I would better
serve them in a still more critical
MOS, that of a junior doctor,
so off to Fort Sam Houston
for medical school.
This school had a high washout
rate, about 70%. One of the
guys that washed out ended
up as company clerk back at Fort Bragg. He also owed me a lot of
money from poker, so once back at Bragg, whenever a school came up
that I wanted I would knock $500 off from what he owed me to get on
the manifest. By the time I left Training Group I had a full fl ash, background
of the badge on my beret indicating that I was cross trained
and a resume that few could match. To cut this bio short, SSgt Crocker’s
military career ended in a VA hospital where I had a lot of time to
think. Not yet 25-years old I had more friends dead than alive.
In 1969 while working on my commercial ticket (pilot license) I met
Jo Hoppen, Director of Porsche Motorsports North America, thanks to
my charming Austrian wife. After reviewing my portfolio, Jo hired me
to photograph the 1970 24 Hours of Daytona. At the time I thought
this would just be
a rest stop in my
dash to make my
millions. Here I am
forty-eight years
later with one of
the largest private
motorsport photo
archives and more
stories than life
left to tell them.
I hope you enjoy
my 1971 Sebring
12 Hour story.
Crocker with Pedro Rodriguez
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