broken foot an all ( broken in six places , actually ), McQueen would team with Peter Revson two weeks later to finish second in the 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race in a Porsche 902 Spyder .
About his racing career , Mc- Queen once said this : “ I ’ m not sure whether I ’ m an actor who races or a racer who acts .” It ’ s hard to know given his natural abilities and substantial accomplishments .
What the film doesn ’ t cover is the controversy that swirled around Malcolm ’ s 250-class win in the weeks after the event – or the ugly crash he was involved in the following day on a 360cc Husky in the Open Class race .
First , the controversy . You remember the famous mudhole , right ? Well , that mud obscured a lot of number plates , and the video the sanctioning body shot on Saturday ( for the 250 race ) was mistakenly overwritten with Sunday ’ s Open-Class event – which meant there was no visual backup to the scoring sheets , which had a lot of holes thanks to the obscured number plates .
Everyone there knew Malcolm had won , and even the sanctioning body had him listed as finishing six minutes ahead of second-place finisher Gary Bailey ( father of David Bailey and well-known as the ‘ Professor of Motocross ’). But they had Malcolm a lap down , which officially gave the overall win to Bailey . There was a large outcry , and a group of Malcolm ’ s friends even ran a full-page ad in Cycle News , which read thusly :
“ Hey World ! Malcolm Smith won Elsinore ! Riders know it ! What ’ s your problem , Gripsters ? -Signed , a rider and truth lover !”
That didn ’ t bother Malcolm a bit , as he knew , as everyone else did , that he ’ d won – though what happened the following day shook him up pretty badly . Malcolm ’ s 360 Husky was 10-20 mph faster on top than most of the other bikes , and by lap two he ’ d already begun to lap other riders . As is evident from the movie footage , spectators would randomly run ( or walk )
Right : Malcolm gets a goggle ( and probably a number plate ) wipe off during Saturday ’ s 250 race . Mud-obscured number plates led to the aforementioned scoring snafu , which had Malcolm leading by several minutes but missing a lap , which gave the ‘ official ’ win to Gary Bailey – all of which led to Malcolm ’ s friends running the “ Hey World ” ad in Cycle News once the results were made public a week or so after the event .
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