Carroll Shelby: A Collection of My Favorite Racing Photos. Art Evans

an Allard belonging to Roy Cherryhomes. I was always a notoriously poor starter. At the beginning, everyone went into the first corner. Shelby and a guy in another Allard were 1st and 2nd.

      “When I got to the first corner, those two and several others were ahead of me. I slammed on my brakes and started to flash my lights like I was in trouble. Everybody pulled over and I went through the corner. I ended up running 3rd behind the two Allards.

      “On the 10th lap, Shelby had to make a pit stop. There I was behind the other Allard. After a few more laps, I caught and passed him. So there we were, me in 1st with the Allard right behind me. I came up on Don Rose in another Allard and I was about to lap him. But since I was so far ahead, I decided I would just follow along behind Don, a nice guy, until the race ended.

      “About eight laps from the end, I got a signal from the pit with ‘P12’ on the board, which meant that I was only 12 seconds ahead of the 2nd-place car. On the next lap, the board said, “+12 Shel,” meaning Carroll was only 12 seconds behind me. I was looking so hard at the board that when I ran down into the first corner, I almost lost it. I collected myself and passed Don in the next corner.

      “I decided, ‘To Hell with Shelby, I’m going to drive the way I usually drive. I’m not going to get in over my head.’ When the flag finally dropped, I ended up 11 seconds ahead of Shel.

      “Years later, I was telling my grandson about my days of racing and that one time I beat Shelby in a race. He didn’t believe it, so I asked Carroll to send my grandson a personal letter telling him that what I said was the truth. And he did; I think my grandson still has the letter.”

      By the end of 1953, Shelby had garnered a host of trophies, having won 12 races in two years.

      The Shelby family was complete: Daughter Sharon is between Carroll and Jeanne with sons Patrick and Michael (on the right).