After the calamities of World War 2, most the world's airfields suddenly became useless. The United Kingdom in particular was basically one giant aircraft carrier for the allied troops, some of these deserted airfields got turned into racetracks such as Goodwood or Silverstone.

Over in the United states there was a similar problem. Although most airfields stayed operational, the overall activity on them severely calmed down. One of which was Hendricks Army Airfield. It was a place young pilots of the United States Army Air Force came to train and fly in the massive B17 bomber. Thousands of Pilots learned how to fly the "Flying Fortress" at Hendricks making it one of the best flight schools of the US.

Alec Ulmann, an aeronautical engineer, saw the potential of the dis-used airfield and promptly turned it into a racetrack, Sebring International Speedway was born. The first race was held on New Year's eve of 1950. The 6 hour race was just 30 cars strong and was won by a small Crosley Hot Shot driven by Frits Koster and Ralph Deshon after the owner, Victor Sharpe, drove it to the track a day earlier.

The winner of the first race held at Sebring The winner of the first race held at Sebring

Sebring quickly turned into a new haven for American motorsport, especially endurance racing. 1965 saw the 15th edition of the Sebring 12 hour, an important round of the World Sportscar Championship. A total of 67 cars were present on the starting grid featuring homegrown heavy hitters such as the Shelby Daytona Coupe, Ford GT40 and Jim Hall's Chaparral competing against the Italian thoroughbred Ferraris like the 250 GTO, 250 LM and 330P.

Also competing was Jack Walsh, owner of Competition Car Engineering or CCE. He was the American importer of the small British car manufacturer Ginetta. The brand had been active in the UK for a couple of years and achieved major success with the G4 model, an ultra lightweight space frame chassis coupe with a fiberglass body. He decided to enter a G4R, an upgraded model with double wishbone suspension and a fiesty 1.5L engine usually found in the Ford/Lotus Cortina.

Walsh was initially gonna enter the event under the name of his company, CCE, but trouble arose when the officials refused to allow the Ginetta to race in the hands of a private team. A quick call to Bob Walklett, one of the four brothers that founded Ginetta, and the problem was solved as he made sure the car could race as an official factory effort.

Walsh and his team ready to head out for Sebring Walsh and his team ready to head out for Sebring

During practice for the 12 hours disaster struck, the Twin Cam engine gave up the ghost. While trying to fix the engine in the pits, none other than Jim Clark came by to say hi. Clark raced against Walsh in the 3 hour sprint race that acted as a support race for the full 12 hour event. After learning that the G4R might suffer from an early retirement, he offered to help.

He proposed an engine transplant since his Lotus Cortina was running the same engine as the Ginetta . Even though the Cortina engine was set up for sprint racing, it was worth a shot. Thanks to Clark's generous action, the Ginetta made it to the starting line.

Despite being the smallest car on the grid, the G4R proved to be relatively competitive. It was comfortably keeping up with bigger competitors such as the Porsche 904 and Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ. The race was going well until 5.25 p.m. when a massive storm blew over the track. Spectator tents were blown away and the signature Goodyear blimp was hastily tied down. The torrential downpour that came with the storm turned the track into a small lake.

Despite the storm the race wasn't red flagged resulting in quite the unusual sights. The average lap time was tripled and cars with low air intakes were turning into submarines. Some drivers even managed to get lost on track due to the horrible visibility.

I was driving around, in the dark, at 5 miles per hour wondering where the hell i was at, and at one point i realized i was on some strange runway at least two blocks of the course. Bruce Jennings

Various accidents occurred with Mike Gammino suffering from the greatest of all. Gammino hit one of the pillars of a spectator bridge going over the track splitting his Bizzarini clean in half. Luckily he managed to walk away from a potentially fatal accident.

Meanwhile the Ginetta kept soldiering on in 5 inch deep standing water. Much like the other cars with smaller engine sizes, it ran relatively skinny tires resulting in almost no aquaplaning whatsoever. This meant it drove at a higher pace and even lapped the bigger American and Italian cars who were running big, wide tires.

After the rain, and when Sebring started looking like a racetrack again, the Ginetta was running in 30th place overall. With half the race over, the sprint racing engine suffered a catastrophic con-rod failure ending the race for good. The car was running second in class moments before the retirement.

The small Ginetta managed to tempt fate as one man's gracious offer made it able to compete in one of America's most gruelling races, not even mother nature could stop it. After doubling it's life expectancy it finally let go. But not before embarrassing cars twice its size.

For more posts like this make sure to follow me and the speed machines tribe

Loading...

For more tiny race cars check out these posts

Loading...

Loading...