As expected, Gottlob passed Andretti again on the straightaway on the following lap. But the first turn was a surprise. The Corvette drove in deeply, trying to out-brake the defending Indianapolis 500 champion into the first turn. Gottlob brushed the brakes to set the weight of the L88 on the right front corner, dropped to the inside to block Andretti’s anticipated move, and slid into the apex in a full drift. It worked. Andretti couldn’t make the pass and now it was Gottlob who held the upper hand. He dropped to the preferred inside line. If the Ferrari driver was going to regain the position, he would have to do it the hard way on the outside. Andretti tried. The Ferrari was riding Gottlob’s bumper and slid to the outside at the entry to the next turn, a fast right-hander halfway through the infield portion of the track. The two cars nearly touched, but the high groove offered little grip. Andretti drifted wide and fell back. Three turns later Gottlob still held the position as they re-entered the NASCAR oval on the backstretch, and Andretti’s bright red Ferrari 512 slowly faded into the distance behind him. It was a small victory that few others would ever know about, but the satisfaction it produced for Gottlob’s team was immeasurable. But just as the conclusion of the race was nearing, disaster struck yet again. Blatchford remembered, “At the 23rd hour here he comes out of the last turn and he’s smoking like a freight train, and I think, ‘Oh, man.’ Here we are an hour from the finish and we’re done. Gottlob pulls in the pits and we jack it up and I see oil running out.” Tracing the oil leak to its source, Blatchford realized that the problem might not be terminal. The leak was coming from a copper line that supplied pressure to the oil gauge. Harkening back to his days as a Kansas farm boy, Blatchford grabbed a pair of pliers and turned the copper line back against itself, then did so again. The line was crushed into an “S” shape. Then he pinched off the end one final time, dropped the car off the jack stands and checked the oil level. Blatchford’s heart sank. The dipstick was dry. Teams were only allowed to add oil once every 53 laps and it could only be added with oversight from the sanctioning body. With a possible win at Daytona slipping between their fingers, Blatchford sprinted to a nearby race official and shouted, “We need oil!” “You can’t have oil. You added oil last time.” Blatchford ran back to the L88 and leaned inside the driver’s window to share the bad news. “He won’t let us have oil, Cliff.” The team had no trailer. They were out of money and out of options. The L88 Corvette was the finest material possession that Gottlob had in his life. He was not a rich man. If they blew the engine, they had no way of getting the car back to Kansas. He sat in the driver’s seat listening to race cars roaring past. This was the 24 Hours of Daytona... the most prestigious endurance race on the continent. Most people will never qualify for this event at all, let alone have a legitimate chance to win it. A million thoughts flashed through his head like a lightning bolt, but at the moment of truth Cliff Gottlob didn’t hesitate. “Put her down and let me out. There’s enough oil still in the lines and the cooler. Let’s take a chance.” The L88 roared down pit lane and rejoined the race, now more than 100 laps behind Thompson and Mahler, unsure if the oil leak was fixed, and even more uncertain if what little oil remained in the lines would sustain the engine. Unable to see most of the racetrack, Blatchford waited for what seemed an eternity before the white #89 Corvette came around again. Gottlob was right. There was no sign of oil smoke and the engine was still running. “Here he comes around Turn 4 on the oval next time doing 185 miles an hour and it’s running as clean as can be.” By the time the checkered flag fell at 3 pm, Gottlob had cut the margin to less than 63 laps and was gaining on the Owens-Corning Corvette, which was now barely limping around the racetrack. The #7 Corvette came home a winner, with Gottlob’s team the runner-up in the GT class. Another hour and their positions might have been reversed. The car that had been voted the most likely to drop out first had scored a podium finish in America’s greatest endurance race. 49
