1957 CARROLL AND SHELBY IN A MASERATI A LEGEND OF A MAN

Riverside International Motor Raceway, as it was first called, opened September 21, 1957, barely ready for action after my father paid dearly for its construction when initial funding dried up in the track build’s earliest stages. It was a blistering hot race weekend, and Shelby fired up the 450S for practice on the brand new 3.275-mile road circuit. Not through his first lap, he lost traction in a sandy corner and stuffed the big Maser front end first into an embankment. Shelby’s face required 70 stitches and the Maserati’s nose needed much more than Landaker’s mallet. The 450S and Shelby were categorically DNS for the race, but the kicker was Richie Ginther won the opener’s main in none other than the Edgar 410S Ferrari, and Bill Pollack took third in our 300S. If anyone wondered, my father by then was totally ignoring any indenture to Maserati, and freely ran his Ferraris seated with drivers of his choice. After all, the 450S was no contractual freebie as originally anticipated, but rather fully paid for and owned outright by John Edgar.

Riverside International Raceway, September 1957. The heavily damaged Edgar Maserati 450S after Shelby spun it into a dirt embankment during race practice.

While the 450S underwent extensive repairs, Shelby healed. Car and driver were ready to race again for the Edgar team at Palm Springs the first weekend in November, with Shelby in the 450S winning both the prelim and main with little effort, while Ginther, again in our 410, finished sixth. From there it was on to Laguna Seca the following week where Shelby elected to drive the more nimble 300S on the twisty new road circuit that for the first time replaced Pebble Beach’s historic but deadly car chase through the Monterey Peninsula forest. Shelby put our little Maser on Laguna’s pole for the track’s initial main. Understeer and brushes with hay bales in the Corkscrew relegated him to only fourth at the finish. Our old 857S was there, too, by then sold to its next owner and driven to fifth place by Ginther. As for our “borrowed” 300S Maser, this Laguna Seca was its last appearance as an Edgar-entry, the car going back to Maserati as we headed south again for Riverside.

Laguna Seca Raceway, November 1957. Shelby goes wide in the Corkscrew driving the Edgar Maserati 300S. In front is John von Neumann's Ferrari 625 TRC. Pete Lovely (left) will win in this Ferrari 500 TR.

Riverside, September 17, 1957. A cold day author William Edgar (far right) well remembers for the hot win in the Edgar Maserati 450S by Carroll Shelby (far left). Next to Shelby is John Edgar, Race Queen Jan Harrison and William's first wife, Patricia Edgar.

And so came our return to Riverside Raceway for November 17th’s SCCA National. Windy and bitterly cold, the 82-mile big-bore feature got underway with Shelby in the 450S taking the lead on Lap 4. On Lap 5 he spun the big Maser and a flock of front runners flew past before, furious at himself, he was back in the combat.

Riverside, November 17, 1957. On his way to winning, Shelby in the Edgar Maserati 450S leads Walt Hansgen in Briggs Cunningham's D-Type Jaguar.

Riverside, November 17, 1957. Shelby in the Edgar Maserati 450S (right) chases down Dan Gurney (Ferrari 375 Plus) on Carroll's way to winning the track's first SCCA National.

In the next hour of arguably his best driving ever, Shelby mowed down the leaders and won the race. Coming second in the ex-Parravano 375 Plus was a young local no-name known forever after as Dan Gurney. At that moment, though, Carroll Shelby was on top of the world. He’d won an important National in an Edgar car on John Edgar’s track. And, to add even more icing to the big-picture cake, behind Gurney then Gregory’s Maser and Walt Hansgen’s D-Type, Ginther brought my father’s 410 Sport home in fifth spot. That night, the Presidential Bar at Riverside’s Mission Inn was all about celebration.

“Riverside,” Shelby has said, “was a fine European-type circuit, and I think one of the best we had in America in those days.” Then, he told me, “It tickled your father for years that I’d won that race after getting ‘Texas Mad.’”

Riverside, November 17, 1957. Victorious Shelby perched on the Edgar Maserati 450S, with John Edgar (sun glasses), Race Queen Jan Harrison, Shelby's future wife (far left), holding checkered flag.