One evening while Hershel and his wife were having dinner with my wife and I in San Miguel de Allende Hershel told me a story about this trophy... Hershel explained that like most everyone else, over the years various trophies found their way from display cases to shelves to boxes in the back of the closet until at some point they get lost somewhere and only a very few have managed to hang around. One such trophy was the one in this photo and understandably so but even this one found it's way out in the garage at some point. One day Hershel walked out into the garage and noticed the garage door open so he walked out to see his daughter washing her car in the drive way. As he walked around the car to talk to his daughter he really got a big surprise. There was his daughter with wash mit in one hand and garden hose in the other and had removed the lid from Hershel's big trophy and had was using It for a wash bucket.
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That's co-piloto Ray Elliott next to Hershal McGriff. Ray was his "crew chief" prior to the 1950 LCP and helped McGriff win the 1949 Northwest Stock Car Championship.Elliott was the one who suggested they enter the first LCP.Hershal is 23 years old in this photo.
source : Carrera Panamericana - Historty of the Mexican Road Race, 1950-54 by Daryl E.Murphy
Great picture and great story, but where is the trophy today? Is it still lost in the garage? Does it still exist?. Maybe they can make arrangements to show it off in this years LCP...Tour with it like they do with the FIFA World Cup. It would be a memorable tour for La Carrera Aficionados and participants.
Yes, Hershel still has the trophy but if it went on tour what would Hershel use to wash his car?
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