1956 Sebring 12 Hours from the Words of Bob Ballenger

newsbot · 03-20-2008, 03:50 PM

Recently Bob Ballenger, Champion Community Member and Participant in the 1956 Sebring 12 Hour Race posted the following story for us on the forums. We wanted to share the story with a wider audience ... and it is now posted here.

Bob Ballenger's Sebring 12 Hours - 1956

Maybe now is a good time since we all just watched the Sebring 12 hour race to tell you guys what it was really like back in 1956 and 57 to race against the best in the world.I was 27 years old when I got a call from Mr. Stanley "Wacky" Arnolt and was asked to be a team driver for his 3 car assault on the 12 hours of Sebring in 1956. I had been racing my 1955 Porsche Speedster and a friends 1954 Mexico Porsche 550 around the Midwest and was lucky to win a couple of 1955 National SCCA races at Kansas City and the 1st race at Road America in my Speedster.
I was teamed with Phil Stewart from Lake Forest, IL. while the other two cars were to be driven by Tony Boynton's uncle Ted from Highland Park, IL. and Jim Peterson from California while the boss Wacky shared his ride with Bob Goldich from Glen Ellen, IL. The Arnolt Bristol was the brain child of Wacky's when he mated the Bristol 404 BMW derived engine and chassis to a beautiful Italian Bertone body and shipped them to the US to be raced in the 2 liter production category in SCCA events.
Who did we race against??? Here are just a few but you can go to "1956 Sebring 12 Hours" and get the complete list and finishing order.
Juan Manuel Fangio, Eugenio Castelloti, Luigi Musso, Harry Shell, Hans Hermann, Wolfgang von Trips, Phil Hill, Masten Gregory, Sterling Moss, Peter Collins, Carroll Shelby and on and on as the best were there. Our cars came from the Arnolt headquarters in Warsaw, Indiana on a transporter with 3 race cars and one spare. Each car had 2 mechanics assigned and a group from the Chicago Region SCCA to run the pits timing and scoring.
When the transporter left Indiana it was still winter and having no antifreeze in the radiators each block on all 4 cars showed a long crack at the base of the block. Not a very good way to prepare for a 12 hour race but it was an oversight.
Some little back ally shop in the small town of Sebring got out his welder and closed the cracks and we went racing.
We split the racing into 3 hour shifts and I started our car #39. We were aligned across the track from our cars and there was a count down from 10, 9 8 seconds and at 1 we were to sprint across the track, jump into our cars, start the engine and go race for the next 3 hours. About lap 2 you had a chance to fasten your seat belt.
No roll bars, no shoulder straps, no fireproof clothing and helmets not much better than the old leather hats of the 30's. But hell it was fun. I got a great start and got our car in first in class and kept it there for 3 hours. Phil took over and as cars started to fall by the wayside we kept our production Arnolt running and moved up the ladder.
Driving into the sun as it was setting during my second stint was something I do NOT want to ever do again. It was actually painful and took some of the fun out of what we were doing.
Phil drove the last 3 hours without a mistake and our car #39 ended 13th over all, first in the 2 liter production SCCA category and 2nd OA in the racing car class which was won by a Ferrari Mondial race car.
Wacky's car retired with water pouring out of the cracked block and Ted Boynton's car finished 17th with water leaking all over the pit lane and running on 5 of the 6 cylinders.
We had a great time and I would do it again if Wacky would ask me to drive for him in 1957. He did and I did and that is another story.
-Bob Ballenger

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