Evening star., 1954-05-03
Cup Victory Breaks
String Of Bad Luck
For Sports Car Ace
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IVI 0HVBIS Wi HOO
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Kimberly was pulling away to a
commanding lead. After stalling
four times, Spear finally got his
Viz engine revved up and
headed for the pack. BY the end
Of the second lap he had passed
everything but Kimberly. At
the end of the NTH he was only
II seconds back, ana then he
went of the course.
Jockeying his car into position
again, Spear chopped away
steadily at Kimberly's new mar
gin and caught and passed him
on the oath lap. Then the esti-
mated crowd of 10000 witnessed
one Of those rare duels for the
lead with each car hitting more
than l30 miles per hour on the
stretches.
Kimberly Regains Lead.
However. Kimberly regained
the lead on the SD lap and
widened his advantage steadily.
Spear made a pit stop to change
both rear tires and trailed by
almost two minutes going into
the next to last lap. Then
Kimberly came by the start
finish line with smoke pouring
from his exhaust.
Kimberly conked out on the
second turn of the 47th and
final lap and Spear roared in
the winner by 31.4 seconds over
his nearest rival, 2.7-liter Fer
rari driven by Bill Lloyd of
Green Farms, Conn.
While Dave Garroway, master
Of ceremonies, occupied Spear
with a microphone, Kimberly
tried to forget how his $4,000
machine had coughed and died
almost within walking distance
of the finish line. This race also
broke a string for Gentleman
jim" Including his victory in
the third event, he had won six
races in six starts this year.
COnsOIed by Friends.
Friends rushed over to the big
red trailer in an effort to console
the Chicago sportsman. A man
from the Italian Embassy told
him his people liked to see their
Italian cars driven that way
Il don't know what happened,
Kimberly said. Il just heard
some expensive noises" One
member of his pit crew said the
engine trouble cannot be dag
nosed until the car is taken back
to Wisconsin and torn down.
Col. Jack Fowler, regional direc-
tor of the Sports Car Club said
the trouble probably was either
Q blown piston or bearing.
Spears winning time over the
twisting. 4.3-mile course was two
hours. % minutes and 8.6 Sec
onds. an average of 81.85 miles
per hour. President Eisenhower
presents Spear with the two-foot
sterling silver and mahogany
cup at 12:45 pm. today in the
White House
The big race probably would
have been a three-way battle had
Briggs Cunningham been able
to bring his Ferrari. AS it was,
the meat-packing heir raced only
his little Osca in the third and
sixth races. He finished third
in his class and third overall.
respectively. "
In the four 10-lap races. billed
as 50-mile tests but actually only
43 miles each. drivers from the
Washington area prof1ted by
their familiarity with the course
by winning two Of them and
grabbing a good share Of the
class honors.
Bill Kincheloe. an Air Force
major stationed in the Penta-
gon. wheeled an Austin -Healey
into the lead during the first
200 yards and won the first
event of the day without being
headed. DR.. Richard K. Thomp-
son of Washington was second in
his Porsche and Roland Nc
Conkey of Arlington finished a
closeup third in his Triumph
TR2.
Thompson, a Washington den-
tist with an injured left foot
from an accident with a power
lawn mower. led the second
event almost the entire distance
before being edged by Rees T.
Makins of Fort Lauderdale, Fla,
by one length.
Spins Out on 10th Lap.
Thompson spun out on the
last turn of the 10th lap and
Makins. an electro-chemiSt who
was runnerup to Spear in point
standings last year. grabbed the
lead only several hundred yards
from the wire.
Charlie Wallace, Bethesda
hair-dreSser. grabbed his first
prize of the afternoon by topping
the Glass c production cars in
the third race with a Jaguar be-
longing to Jack Pry. Then in
the fourth race Wallace beat
the entire field of Jaguars and
PorSches with an average of
71.47 miles per hour over the
10 laps.
DOC" Thompson came back
with an MIG in the fifth race to
lead for four laps before Ralph
Durbin of Detroit and Bob Fer
gus of Columbus, Ohio, edged
him out. Durbin's average speed
of 62.41 miles per hour was only
two m.p.h. faster than Thomp-
sons.
Tuo Navie cun e4are