The event was covered in Road & Track, later that year:
"The Cobra Strikes Again"
Road & Track, October 1963
Frank H. Bennett
In the article, "Corvette vs. Cobra" (R&T, June 1963), the author stated, "...it is very hard to imaginethat any well-prepared, well-driven Cobra will be beaten this year--not by the Corvettes, and possibly not by anyone, unless the organizers get sneaky and push the Cobras over into the same races with all-out racing cars. There are, as a matter of fact, rumors of this happening, and, if it does, the Cobras just might beat the big, modified cars, too."
Well, it happened! It happened at Lake Ganett in the National SCCA racing event of July 7.
It happened in a grand and spectacular manner, and 60,000 spectators saw the biggest racing show of their lives!
The Shelby Cobras came to Lake Garnett, Kansas, three of them. With them, came Carroll Shelby himself, the man who developed this racing machine. The drivers he brought were Bob Johnson of Columbus, Ohio, Dave MacDonald, El Monte, California, and Ken Miles of Hollywood, California.
Also at Lake Garnett was the famed Grady Davis Corvette team, which includes Dick Thompson, Washington D.C., Don Yenko, Canonsburg, Pa., and Davis himself from Pittsburgh.
They brought four cars; a couple of A-Production Corvette Sting Rays, a B-Production Corvette and, rounding out the card, a C-Modified Corvette Grand Sport.
And there it was, the showdown everyone had anticipated, with the answer to everyone's question--
What would happen in a race between Cobras and Corvettes? And how would both of these American race cars on the challenging 2.8 mile Lake Garnett road racing course, that curls like a sea-horse around Garnett's 65-acre lake?
A few minutes after 1 P.M., the A, B and C Production cars were given the green flag. In less than half a mile, the Cobras has taken a substantial lead over the entire field, a lead which they continually increased during the 45-minute race. They finished first, second and third --Bob Johson, Dave MacDonald, Ken Miles. The Corvettes came in fourth, fifth and sixth --Dick Thompson, Grady Davis, Don Yenko.
Before running the Production race, Ken Miles' Cobra had been challenged as being modified by an
oil cooler. Mechanics hurriedly removed the cooler for the production race. Then Miles and Shelby reasoned that if the removal of the cooler put the Cobra in the Production class, then the return of the cooler to the car would put it in the Modified class.Officials agreed, and Miles entered the Feature Race: C, D, E, F and G Modified. And at Lake Garnett a Cobra finally showed its pipes to the big modifieds!
Miles ran away from the field. He drove a superb race, lapping the tricky Lake Garnett course 23 times in 45 minutes and averaging more than 85 mph, to win the Lake Garnett Grand Prix Overall Championship for 1963.
Harry Heuer in a Chaparral came in second and Jack Hinkle was third in a Cooper Monaco. Dick Thompson, driving a Corvette Grand Sport, was among the DNF's, and while he was in the race, he trailed the Cobra all the way.
At one time, he was in second place, but as for his chances of outrunning the Cobra, 60,000 race fans will tell you that it simply couldn't have been done at Lake Garnett.
The cars were:
#97 - CSX2128 - Dave MacDonald
#98 - CSX2129 - Ken Miles
#99 - CSX2127 -
#33 - CSX2026 - Bob Johnson