Karl Pippart III

For five years, Mexico staged a car race that held the sporting world mesmerized for a week of thrills, spills, and chills. Competitors came from all around the world to participate in this brutal race of about 2,035 miles over rugged terrain. Goliaths of the car industry soon discovered the race provided a platform to test new products and rise within the U.S. market. It wasn’t long before an intense competition between big players like Chrysler Corporation and Daimler-Benz emerged, and Carl Kiekhaefer found himself at the heart of not only a dangerous physical race but a fierce battle to be at the top of U.S. motor manufacturing. Carl was a hard-driving, competition-loving Wisconsin industrialist and manufacturer. He surely would not bow down to political pressure, rigged races, sabotage, or threats. And so the stage was set for the Pan American Road Race—a spectacular spectacle, never to be forgotten.