They laughed when NASCAR's stock cars took to the road at Elkhart Lake, but Tim Flock gave the show A DETROIT SURPRISE

The way I figure it," drawled Lee Petty, a grizzled veteran of the stock car racing circuits, before the start of an extraordinary event last weekend, "this race will be won by the driver who can go the fastest the slowest."

Petty was talking about a 250-mile stock car race on the nation's finest road circuit, the punishing four-mile Road America course near Elkhart Lake, Wis. It was extraordinary because it was held on a road course, a thing so rare in recent American stock car racing that some oldtimers were casting back to the Elgin, Ill. races of more than two decades ago for a suitable precedent.

Moreover, the race, which was a $15,000 leg on the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing's Grand National championship, had been given the blessing of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile and was to undergo the personal scrutiny of Hubert Schroeder, secretary of the Commission Sportive Internationale, the sporting arm of the FIA. And beyond that, the race was to be witnessed by the top brass of the U.S. organizations most often mentioned as possible successors to the race-sanctioning authority that was relinquished by the AAA after last year's Le Mans, namely NASCAR's Bill France; Duane Carter, of the United States Auto Club; and Jim Kimberly, of the Sports Car Club of America.

There was plenty of speculation on how the U.S. stock cars would stand up on a road course. They still had to prove that their brakes were tough enough and their suspension systems sturdy enough to endure the 62½-lap grind. This would be no customary spin around a flat oval track, where all the turns are to the left.

Practice for the 250-mile race scotched a widespread assumption that American cars would not handle well enough on Road America's tight corners and rugged grades to maintain respectable speeds. Lap times as low as three minutes six seconds were reported—a healthy 77.4 mph average that compared better than expected with some of the fastest tours by high performance sports cars. At starting time on Sunday, delayed 35 minutes by rain, 25 American cars were lined up, followed by a Jaguar Mark VII sedan, winner of NASCAR's 100-mile race for under 3,500 cc. cars (it was to tool steadily, if hopelessly, through the race) and four Renaults.

Up front were the fastest qualifiers, including three cars from the stable of Carl Kiekhaefer, the volatile Wisconsin manufacturer whose greatest pleasure is defeating the factory teams. Despite his many victories Kiekhaefer has become disaffected with the racing game, but only the foolhardy would have discounted his chances Sunday. With Elzie (Buck) Baker, current leader in Grand National point standings, in the pole car (a Dodge D-500 which averaged 76.3 mph in the qualifying three-lap heats), Junior Johnson in the second row in a Ford and Al (Speed) Thompson in the third row in another Dodge D-500, Kiekhaefer was in his usual strong position.

At the dip of the starter's flag Baker sprinted into the lead in the white Dodge, closely pursued by wiry Tim" Flock, last year's NASCAR champion, in one of four bright red-and-white factory Mercurys and Marvin Panch's hot Ford. Mechanical trouble soon forced Junior Johnson's withdrawal, but Baker increased his lead doggedly through the early laps.

From back in the pack came Curtis Turner, Virginia lumberman, charging up to second place in a yellow-and-white Ford.

For a time a flurry of pit stops for refueling obscured the issue. Then the race became a dogfight between Baker, Turner and Panch, with Panch taking over on the 15th lap for a long run. Speedy Thompson pushed the second Kiekhaefer Dodge along steadily in fourth place until Baker ran out of gasoline on the 20th lap, nearly a mile from the pits. No man to leave a teammate in distress, Thompson eased his machine up behind Baker's and pushed it to the pits, losing valuable time, of course.

When Turner lost his brakes a few minutes later and skidded into the hay-bales on the last corner the Virginian was out of the race and Thompson was back in contention, followed by Frank Mundy's Chrysler 300-B and Flock's sweet-running Mercury.

As Panch, driving very fast and very hard, added to his lead, little Joe Weatherly made a strong move with his Ford and took over the second position. After another siege of hectic pit stops, just after the halfway point, Panch emulated Baker by running out of gas three-quarters of a mile from home. This time it was Ford Driver Glenn (Fireball) Roberts who took over the pushing chore, and although Panch moved briskly back onto the course, he left it just as quickly with a misbehaving differential.

Thompson's Dodge, which had not lost as much time as might have been expected, now assumed command with considerable authority, achieving a solid margin over Weatherly's Ford. Turning some laps at 75 mph, Thompson was driving with as much verve as if the race had just begun.

With 16 laps to go Weatherly turned into the pits, never to resume the chase. Thompson needed only to maintain a steady pace to hold off the threat of Flock, a distant second, and Flock's Mercury teammate Billy Myers, the third man. But this was not to be Kiekhaefer's day. Suddenly Thompson, last of the Kiekhaefer team, pitted for gas. That cost 48 seconds, reducing Thompson's lead over Flock to 23 seconds. And as he pulled back on the track, Thompson's motor sounded rough. His left exhaust pipe belched blue smoke. When he had to retire out on the course, Tim Flock grabbed the lead and kept it.

And so it was that the man who went the fastest the slowest won the race. Julius Timothy Flock of Atlanta, a man who has often proved that he knows how to pace himself and his car and who had driven the Mercury as smoothly and carefully as any man could, flashed over the finish line 25 seconds ahead of Billy Myers' identical Mercury. Flock's brakes, specially ventilated in front by air scoops and in the rear by electric blowers, were still sound. His time of three hours 29 minutes 50 seconds averaged out to 71.485 mph. Fireball Roberts brought his Ford in third. Paul Goldsmith drove a Chevrolet to fourth.

"This road racing," said Flock, "is all right."

ILLUSTRATION

"Let's see, now. Shoemaker is Leo...Arcaro is Aquarius...."