– Art Evans WINTER/2009 33

– Art Evans n 1966, I was living at Mary the drivers had to slow considerably. Ken and we eventually became life- I Davis’ Portofino Inn in Redondo It was very near a cliff that dropped long friends, even though he was old Beach. The complex included a off to rocks on the Pacific shore. If a enough to be my father. He was also hotel, restaurants, apartments car missed the turn, the consequences my hero. As the years passed we got and a marina, where I kept my New - were dire—and occasionally some did. into the habit of having dinner togeth - port 30 sailboat. Peter Revson, Danny I was drinking a Coke. er every few months or so—he and Ongais and Vasek Polak, among oth - The main event was one hour long Mollie, me and my date. Our favorite ers, had apartments there for a while. and towards the end, Ken had built up restaurant was the Captain’s Table on I remember Mario Andretti and Bobby a considerable lead. Apparently Ken La Cienega, not too far from the Miles Unser always stayed at the home in the Hollywood Hills. hotel when they were in town. In 1958 Bill Devin had just I had given up sports car finished the first Devin SS, so I racing and taken up yacht rac - drove it to our dinner at the ing. Nevertheless, I kept up my Captain’s Table to show Ken. friendships in the autosports My date was a beautiful girl— community. One of my close Linda Valentine, a Rose Parade friends was Ken Miles. That princess—who was the daughter year Miles had won the triple- of a race official. Afterwards, we crown of road racing: Sebring, decided to go to the Miles home Daytona and LeMans. Actually, for after-dinner drinks. It was he had been deprived of the located on a street named Sun - LeMans victory, but more about day Trail, at the top of a ridge. that later. A windy road with blind corners In July, Ken and his wife, led to it. Ken wanted to drive Mollie, came to visit me and we the SS, so he and Linda headed had dinner together at the off with Mollie and me following Portofino. I remember Mary in the Miles Morris Minor. Davis sat with us for a while. While Ken was a safe dri - The other thing I remember was ver—I don’t know of him having that Ken was frequently asked any road accidents—he was for his autograph. Before 1966, famous for rapidity, most partic - he was well known in the ularly on the road up to his autosports community, but not home. At any rate, when Mollie by the general public. But after and I arrived, I took a look at winning the triple crown, that the Devin to see if it was still in changed and Ken remarked on one piece and noticed that the it. He was very accommodating. passenger seat was rather I first met Ken at the July damp. Obviously Linda had 3-4, 1954 road races at Torrey been treated to a demonstration Pines. At that time, he was the of Ken’s ability. president of the sponsoring Cal - As our friendship progressed, ifornia Sports Car Club. Ken had just was thirsty because on one lap he our families got involved too. Eventu - sold his first MG Special—R-1—to Cy stopped and gestured to me to hand ally my dad and Ken became best Yedor, who won the Under-1500cc him the Coke, which I did. The next friends as did my step-mother, Betsy, Modified event in it. Ken won the lap he stopped again and handed back and Mollie. At the time, my dad and main event—the Over-1500cc Modi - the empty bottle. In later years, of Betsy—along with my siblings—lived fied—in the Troutman-Barnes Special. course, he would have been disquali - on a ranch near Newhall. My dad was My off-and-on hobby/profession is fied for such an infraction. But in fond of old vehicles and included in his photography. I was out on Turn Two those days things were more relaxed. collection was a 1927 Piersch fire with my Rolleiflex camera. Turn Two After the race I strolled down to engine. Ken, Mollie and their son, was a sharp right-hander for which the pits, struck up a conversation with Peter, would often visit. Ken’s favorite The SHELBY E-MERICAN WINTER/2009 33 Not too long after the Miles family immi - grated to the U.S., Ken and my father, Art Evans Sr., became best friends. Mollie Miles insisted that my father deliver the eulogy at Ken’s funeral service. My dad Ken first came to prominence driving the MG Special he built, called R-1. In 1954, he start - concluded with a quotation: “ He met with ed to make a second, improved MG Special, R-2. He sold R-1 to Ct Yedor, who won the joy each fighting morn, full throated, Under-1500cc Modified race at Torrey Pines on July 3, 1954. Photo by Art Evans. drinking deep of life .” Photo by Art Evans. Best friends, Mollie Miles [ left ] and my R-2 was still under construction on July 3rd when Miles raced at Torrey Pines. He won the step-mother, Betsy, at a party in 1956. Main Event driving the Troutman-Barnes Special. Photo by Art Evans. Photo by Art Evans. triumphs and, of course, the unspeak - publicity for all three cars to finish in able tragedy. In those days, the triple a dead heat. Both Miles and Shelby crown of road racing was the 24-Hours objected, Shelby saying that this of Daytona, the 12-Hours of Sebring would be unfair to Ken and Denny. and the grand daddy of them all, the Actually, a dead heat with all three 24-Hours of LeMans. Ken, with co-dri - cars crossing the finish line at the ver Lloyd Ruby, won both Daytona same time was impossible. According and Sebring. Daytona was a clean- to the rules, the car that travels the sweep for Shelby with his GT-40s tak - farthest distance wins. Since the cars ing first, second and third. don’t start side by side, but rather are Towards the end of the 24 hours at lined up one in front of another, if the LeMans it became rather obvious that first car and the second car at the This is the 1927 fire truck Ken drove at my the Shelby MkII GT-40s would win. start of the race finish in a dead heat, dad’s ranch. This photo shows my dad, Art Miles, with co-driver Denny Hulme, the second car would be declared the Evans Sr., in the driver’s seat with my was leading with the Bruce McLaren- winner. having traveled about ten feet step-mother, Betsy, and my sister and Chris Amon second and another GT- farther. If Miles and McLaren were to brother, April and Chuck. Photo by Art 40, driven by Ronnie Bucknum and cross the line exactly together, Evans. Dick Hutcherson, some 60 miles McLaren would be the winner because pastime was to race the fire engine behind in third. the McLaren-Amon car was lined up over the ranch roads with both fami - At the last pit stop for the three behind the Miles-Hulme car on the lies aboard. leading cars, the drivers were starting grid. The fateful year was 1966, the informed that Henry Ford II (“The At any rate, after receiving the time of Shelby’s and Miles’ greatest Deuce”) had decided it would be good instructions, Miles slowed down for The SHELBY E-MERICAN WINTER/2009 34 In 1966, Miles and Ruby again won the 12- Hours of Sebring. Miles, still in his driving suit because he took the last turn at the Ken Miles in the GT40 MK I at Daytona in February in 1965. It was the first race after wheel, receives the trophy from the race Shelby American took over GT40 development. Miles and Lloyd Ruby demonstrated that queen. Ruby has already cleaned up and the Shelby Team had it right—they finished first. changed. Dave Friedman photo. McLaren’s car and then both slowed had not yet peaked. assignment when my dad called me at so Bucknum could catch up. Ken, Meanwhile, the Ford Motor Co. my hotel at four in the morning to tell angry and disconsolate because he was developing a successor to the GT- me what had happened. Mollie insist - was being deprived of the triple crown, 40 called the “J” car. Ken was sched - ed that my dad deliver the eulogy and, slowed slightly just before the finish uled to test the prototype at Riverside during the call, we talked about what line, allowing McLaren to take the for Shelby, who was conducting the he would say. Unfortunately, I was checkered flag first. The official program for Ford. On August 16, 1966 unable to get back in time for the ser - results show that McLaren-Amon he unofficially broke the track record vice. traveled 0.020 kilometers farther than with a lap of 1 minute, 26.4 seconds. Miles-Hulme. Two days later, on August 18, going During that dinner I had with some 180 mph, the car went off the Ken and Mollie two months later, he bank at the end of the long back seemed resigned to accepting the straight, bounced end over end and unacceptable result.

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