"Right. In fact it isn't until now I realize just how good the 430 was. Another thing about turn one as I think about it, I just now see why it seems slower this year. At the exit out near the rail the surface is bad. It's always been rough but it's worse now. You can't run on it.
"Up toward two, staying in third – in fact you'll be staying in third all through here until you get to five – you must back off for two at what seems too early. You brake a wee bit and then get right off the brakes and let it roll over the crest. If you let the braking go later and later it disturbs the car too much, because the road drops away from under you. It's like turn seven at Riverside in that respect. Then there's a new bump at the apex, a bloody great patch.
 "I notice Jackie's going wide around it and then pinching in tight later on down the hill. This is one of those places I told you about, where I'm apt to take a different line from anyone else. I run across the patch and then let the car go out wide.
 "I remember with the high wings a couple years ago it was really keen down through there you could really nail it. You'd come out the bottom like a rocket.
"Going up into three is another of those bumpy places, where you've got to be smooth. None of this lock-to-lock business. Coming out it's like the other corners; you can't give too much power until you're really out.
 "Then heading into four I give the brakes a wee bit of a pump to make sure the pressure's up, then steady gas down into the valley, all the way down to the bottom. Then maybe I'll give it a squeeze right at the bottom, then hard on the brakes and straight down into first gear. It doesn't seem to matter where you are on the road here, you can be inside or outside. I flick the car in here and give it a big boot and get it sliding up over the crest and heading for the hairpin."
 
Pete Revson has been leaning into the conversation, and now he interrupts with a puzzled frown. He can't make his F do that. If he tries to get its tail out it gives him warning signals. It wants to bite.

"Yeah," says Denny, "I've been seeing that. We must get that sorted out. Mind, last year Dan was getting through there fabulously, much better than me. He'd come rushing right up to me there. I don't know how he did it. But then he didn't seem to be as good through the next part, the Moss hairpin.
"Here's a funny thing. I can tweak the steering hard over long before I get to the hairpin. I can spin it right over to full lock, and it'll carry straight on for perhaps 20 feet. Then suddenly it digs in and takes me right in to the apex perfectly. Then it's wide-open throttle and we're away. It comes out on a lovely power slide, right out to the edge and back toward the middle, tail out all the way. Then just as it begins to get straight you must lift off a wee bit and let the back wheels get locked in.

"Then it's up through the gears – second, third, fourth and you're rushing up the straight again."

Where is this kind of car different from F1?

"Oh, there's not too much difference really. You use the same line and much the same reference points for braking and so on. This probably brakes a wee bit better, because of the body. In terms of power-to-weight there isn't really that much difference.

"One thing about driving these cars is you don't realize you're going as quickly as you are because of the sound, the low apparent engine speed. An F1 has got ten on it, it's screaming and roaring, and it really feels like you're covering the ground."

I've heard that with Can-Am cars the wake turbulence from a preceding vehicle can be troublesome.

"It's terrible. You want to stay in clear air with these. If you're overtaking a back marker and you come into a turn behind him, if you stay over toward the inside of his line you're fine. But gradually he comes in across you, making his apex, and suddenly you're into his draft. Your car just picks up and moves across the road by yards until you come out the other side. Then it grips again and you're all right, and you can run by. Out at Riverside, especially. You know the bend in the back straight, before you get to nine? You're really flying down there, 190 I suppose, and if you get into the bend behind someone your front end goes completely dead and you carry straight on. There's plenty of roadway there so it's all right, and you can carry on and be well placed to get underneath him going into nine. But you must be very, very sure not to alter the steering by a fraction while you're in his draft, because if you did, if you'd put more lock on, once you came out it'd grip again and you'd really go spinning off.

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