to reach the bank. A fairly large crowd of spectators hastily assembled on a ledge below the road to find a better view of the accident. Many of these spectators swarmed to Christie’s and Wood’s aid immediately and were relieved to find out that both were uninjured. But then, Mickey Thompson, a Bonneville Salt Flats record holder, crashed at the same place after his brakes jammed. Thomson's car went straight into the embankment and killed 6 people who were standing there to get a better view of Christie's accident. In addition to this horrific tragedy, Italians Antonio Stagnoli and his co-driver Giuseppe Scotuzzi in a Ferrari 375 MM lost their lives when a blown tyre caused them to crash in the small town of Juchitán de Zaragoza on that same first stage between Tuxtla Guitierrez and Oaxaca. Of the 9 fatalities in this running of this most famous Mexican road races, 8 of them were on the same stage on the same day. The exception was Bonetto's accident, which happened on the fourth stage. 1954 By 1954 the race had shifted from a largely amateurish basis to become a highly professional endeavor. The final stage was won by eventual race winner Umberto Maglioli in a Ferrari 375 Plus at an average speed of over the stage. Maglioli would win this race with a combined time of 17 hours and 40 minutes. In comparison, McGriff had won the 1950 race with a combined time of 27 hours and 34 minutes, almost ten hours slower than Maglioli. Maglioli was more than an hour faster than Klenk/Kling in their Mercedes W194 2 years earlier. Even with the route shortened by 160 km (100 mi) for 1951 onwards, speeds had gone up more than 50 percent over 4 years. Phil Hill won second place in earlier Ferrari 375 MM with Ray Crawford winning the stock car class in a Lincoln. Two new classes were in effect in 1954; the European stock car class was won by Sanesi, of Italy, in an Alfa Romeo and the small U.S. stock car class was won by Tommy Drisdale in a Dodge. Californian hot rod pioneer Ak Miller (born Arkton Moeller in Denmark, not to be confused with A. K. Miller) became famous by winning fifth place in his Oldsmobile powered 1927 Ford body on a 1950 Ford frame, "El Caballo del Hierro" (the iron horse), nicknamed by