Carroll Shelby proved himself a savvy racing driver in a hectic career cut short by a heart condition, laying the foundations for his even greater achievements to come, writes Paul Fearnley
Sideways glance from Shelby at the 1957 Sebring 12 Hours
Carroll Shelby was coming up 30 and married with three children when in May 1952 he lined up for his first motor race. He did so at the wheel of friend Ed Wilkins’ three-year-old MG TC.
He had impressed a few months prior by winning a local quarter-mile drag race in Wilkins’ self-built Ford V8 hotrod. Reckoning that ‘Shel’ had “the touch”, Wilkins volunteered his MG for “a real sports car race. I mean one with corners and all that.”
The track at Norman in Oklahoma was rudimentary, its short, triangular layout on a concrete airstrip apron demarked by cones. But it was a start.
He drove dump trucks, roughnecked in oil fields and raised chickens and pheasants to make ends meet
Shelby won. And did so again when invited to compete against more powerful but less agile Jaguar XK120s later that same day.
The three-hour return south to Dallas was completed in a haze of adrenalin.
Shelby had always liked cars but WW2 – deemed too valuable by the United States Army Air Corps, he was denied combat in order to instruct bomber pilots – and his growing family had taken priority: he drove dump trucks, roughnecked in oil fields and raised chickens and pheasants to make ends meet.
He was just about doing so when another win – this time in a loaned XK120 – set him on his path.
He spent much of 1953 successfully wrestling a brutish Cadillac-engined Allard – a knack that would stand him in good stead during his glory years in big-banger Italian exotica – and caught an influential eye.
Shelby ran in American colours with Aston Martin DB3S at Aintree in ’54
Klemantaski Collection/Getty Images
Clipped and waspish Aston Martin racing boss John ‘Death Ray’ Wyer and the loose-limbed, drawling Texan were an odd couple, but their on-off five-year relationship would bring Shelby his greatest driving success – and perhaps biggest disappointment.
They first met in Argentina in January 1954 when Shelby’s Allard finished 10th – but only after co-driver Dale Duncan had neatly solved two problems – a bursting bladder and a carburettor fire – in one fell swoop during an unruly Buenos Aires 1000km.
Wyer airily invited Shelby to Europe before offering a firmer deal: a DB3S for the Sebring 12 Hours; sharing with Charles Wallace, he impressed before its rear end let go.
He made it to Europe, too, and promptly finished second at Aintree – his DB3S decked in American racing colours – behind Duncan Hamilton’s Jaguar C-type.
Disappointment at Le Mans – an early trip into the Mulsanne sandbank perhaps causing the eventual broken front hub – was followed by fifth and third places at Monza’s Supercortemaggiore and in an Aston 1-2-3 at Silverstone.
DB3S of Shelby and Frère retired after 11 hours at Le Mans in 1954
Bernard Cahier/Getty Images
Sadly Shelby’s breakthrough season ended badly because of an injurious crash driving an Austin-Healey in the Carrera Panamericana.
Money remained a problem, too. And there was more to be gained at home – even if that meant putting his injured arm in a fibreglass cast and taping it to the steering wheel.
Despite this encumbrance, Shelby co-drove Phil Hill to a controversial second place – some charts had them winning – at Sebring in 1955 aboard Allen Guiberson’s Ferrari Monza.
Hooking up thereafter with Californian cement/construction baron Tony Parravano eased the money worries while also providing Shelby with top-notch equipment – a mighty Ferrari 375 Plus – and another shot at Europe.
While on ‘a car shopping trip’ for his accumulative boss he finished a class-winning ninth overall in the RAC TT at Dundrod in a Porsche 550 Spyder co-driven by fellow American, friend and rival Masten Gregory; crashed a Ferrari from the Targa Florio; and made his Formula 1 debut.
Shelby’s Ferrari 375 Plus came courtesy of Tony Parravano (third from left)
Klemantaski Collection/Getty Images
Shelby drove a works Maserati 250F in the non-championship Syracuse Grand Prix famously won for Connaught by Tony Brooks. Qualifying fourth and finishing sixth, he reckoned that there was a works deal on the table for 1956.
Family and home again called, however, and the next two seasons were spent tearing up the thriving SCCA scene in a variety of Ferraris and Maseratis owned by millionaire John Edgar. (Parravano’s wrangling with the Internal Revenue Service had begun – and would end with his unexplained disappearance in 1960.)
Switching from car to car meant that Shelby did not win this capacity class-based series – but Sports Illustrated magazine had no doubts and nominated him as its driver of the year for 1956 and 1957.
His handling of the fearsome Maserati 450S – a weapon that caused even Stirling Moss to quiver – was particularly praiseworthy. This ‘Bazooka’ got the better of him at Riverside in September – a front-end smash causing him 70 stitches and plastic surgery – but two months later he got “Texas mad” at the same track to recover from an early spin to beat Dan Gurney, Gregory, Walt Hansgen and Richie Ginther.
Shelby was at the top of his game.
It was now or never.
Shelby (left) in the fearsome Maserati 450S, alongside Jean Behra at the 1958 Cuban GP
Bernard Cahier/Getty Images
Wyer’s offer of a World Sports Car Championship drive in 1958 would allow him an extended crack at F1 – albeit in outdated privateer 250Fs. He would be one of 10 drivers through the revolving door at wildly enthusiastic Scuderia Centro Sud.
He made his world championship bow in the French GP at Reims and qualified 17th – substantially slower than fellow American debutant Phil Hill in a 250F hired from Jo Bonnier – and retired because of engine woes.
Shelby (centre) with fellow GP debutant Phil Hill (left) and Roy Salvadori at Reims in 1958
Klemantaski Collection/Getty Images
His next two outings, however, showed promise.
Driving the shorter and lighter ‘Piccolo’ 250F that Juan Fangio had used at Reims to finish fourth in his farewell GP – and which had been bought by Temple Buell, another American construction millionaire – Shelby shone in the early damp stages of the Portuguese GP on the Oporto road circuit: cobblestones, tramlines and all.
He battled with the Vanwall of Stuart Lewis-Evans – his regular co-driver at Aston Martin and a front-row starter here – as well as Ferrari’s Wolfgang von Trips for fourth place until a drying track put too much strain on his engine; oil on his visor caused him to back off.
Set up by Carroll Shelby, run by car designer Peter Brock, with teaching tips from Ken Miles, Preston Lerner tells the tale of the US's very first high-performance driving school
By
Preston Lerner
He was still heading for sixth place, however, when a locked front brake sent him off the road two laps from home.
Relegated to Centro Sud for the Italian GP – he had been subbing for Gregory, injured at Silverstone – Shelby was forced to start in an unfamiliar car rustled up following a problematical practice: he retired after one lap because of a cramped cockpit and all four wheels being out of balance.
But when Gregory pitted after 46 laps, exhausted in the aftermath of a brief but thrilling battle for the lead with Ferrari’s champion elect Mike Hawthorn, Shelby was reunited with the Piccolo and brought it home fourth.
The practice of sharing cars and points, however, was no longer germane: Shelby never would score an F1 point.
Shelby impressed at the 1958 Portuguese GP before going off with a locked front brake
GP Library via Getty Images
Aston Martin had been talking about F1 since 1951 – and had begun its DBR4/250 project in 1956. After delaying it in order to concentrate on the 1958 World Sportscar Championship – just six rounds, of which it contested five – it was finally made ready.
Except, of course, it was already too late.
Roy Salvadori’s front-row start and eventual second place in the International Trophy at Silverstone in May 1959 were reasons for hope. But Shelby’s retirement because of engine bearing failure – having qualified sixth, he was being encouraged by the team to hunt down Ron Flockhart’s BRM for third place in the closing stages – was a cause for concern: the in-line ‘six’ would not be able to withstand 8000rpm over a full GP distance.
Limited to 7000rpm for the Dutch GP, these front-engined cars, though well built and superbly turned out, were slow – Shelby outqualified Salvadori – and lumbering at Zandvoort before both retired early because of engine trouble.
Skipping the French GP at Reims, the lubrication problem was cured in time for the British GP at Aintree – Salvadori again qualified on the front row and Shelby again started sixth – but all hope was lost when both drivers pitted early to complain of being sprayed from the fuel filler.
Shelby, slowed by magneto failure, soldiered on until eventually halted with six laps remaining by the failure of the second magneto fitted to this twin-spark unit.
The Portuguese – this time in Lisbon’s Monsanto Park – and Italian GPs brought more of the same: eighth and 10th places, each several laps in arrears.
Shelby won at the Tourist Trophy at Goodwood in 1959, driving alongside Jack Fairman and Stirling Moss
National Motor Museum/Getty Images
Fortunately the DBR1 sportscar was a more competitive proposition – although Salvadori and Shelby outlasted rather than outpaced the Ferraris to win at Le Mans; and it was only the heroics of Moss in victory at the Nürburgring and Goodwood that secured the world title for the Feltham-based squad.
Shelby and Salvadori were evenly matched in terms of performance and – handily for sharing a sports car – physical stature, but the Englishman had undertaken the lion’s share at Le Mans when a stomach bug ‘limited’ his co-driver to 10 hours.
Despite appearances, Shelby was never the most robust and had suffered illness as a child.
Now increasing chest pain was diagnosed as a hereditary defect – his father had died young because of a heart attack – and Shelby would undertake his final race in October 1960 with a tab of nitroglycerine dissolving under his tongue; he finished second behind Moss after two tough heats at Laguna Seca in a Maserati ‘Birdcage’
The Texan had cut an odd but popular figure (especially in European paddocks) in his pinstriped bib overalls: he had long been cute to the idea of brand.
His greatest days – as team boss/entrant and automotive entrepreneur – lay ahead, but these were indeed based on lessons learned during a rapid rise as one of the more savvy drivers of a hectic, varied and dangerous decade.
