Taken from Motor Sport, July 1966

Ford came to Le Mans in a much more organised manner than in the previous two years and the whole Detroit-supported project looked much more likely to achieve success than previously. There were eight 7-litre MkII Ford racing coupés, three run by Shelby American, three by Holman and Moody and two by Alan Mann Racing and all the cars were prepared to the same specification, differing only in colour, but unlike in previous years this was a concerted and united effort controlled much more strictly by Ford staff.

In direct opposition were two works 330P/3 Ferrari coupés and an open 330P/3, the last on loan to Chinetti’s NART team. Backing up the works Fords were numerous private teams running 4.7-litre GT40 models, and on the side of the works Ferraris were private teams with 365P/2, 275LM, Dino 206 and GTB models, but the atmosphere at Le Mans was much stronger than Ford versus Ferrari, it was America versus Europe, and the United States had added strength in their armoury from a lone Chaparral, while Europe had Porsche to rely on for solid support.

“Unlike previous years, this was a concerted and united effort, controlled more strictly by ford staff”

During practice America showed its strength when Gurney made fastest lap at a staggering 3min 30.6sec, an average speed of 230.102kph (approx 142.8mph) and he was not alone, for the other Fords were right behind him and the Ferraris could only just manage to get in the midst, being overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Before practice finished both sides had been struck a severe body blow, for John Surtees had an altercation with his team manager and went off in a huff, just when Ferrari and Europe needed him most, and one of the Ford drivers, the American Dick Thompson, caused an accident and did not comply with the rules about reporting it and was disqualified. As he was co-driver to Graham Hill in one of the Alan Mann cars this was a serious blow indeed, but some rushing around got Brian Muir, the Australian saloon-car driver, over as a replacement. Ford had already had to solve a lot of driver problems for accidents had prevented AJ Foyt, Lloyd Ruby and Jackie Stewart from joining the team as arranged.

The days prior to the race had been extremely hot, but Saturday was rather ominous, with gathering clouds and a much lower temperature and 30 minutes before the traditional 4pm start a drizzling rain began, causing a lot of tyre changing, both as regards tread pattern and make. However, the rain did not develop quite as anticipated so that some people were caught out. Henry Ford II was invited to drop the starting flag and send the 55 drivers running across the track to their waiting cars to start the Grand Prix d’Endurance, or 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The line-up was in order of practice times and from Gurney at the head with the red 7-litre Ford there was a long line of very powerful and very fast cars, probably more than Le Mans has seen before, which made one rather apprehensive of some of the tiny cars and inexperienced drivers at the lower end of the row. In the solid phalanx of Ford machinery the Ferraris were fifth, seventh, eighth, 15th, 16th and 17th, with the Chaparral 10th, which was not a very hopeful situation for Europe, considering the cars had not yet started their first lap.

Graham Hill led the opening stage, followed by Dan Gurney, these two running away from the rest of the field, but European hopes rose as three Fords headed for the pits at the end of the opening lap. Ken Miles stopped very briefly to have his door shut, John Whitmore came in to stay for repairs with a broken brake pipe and Paul Hawkins limped in with a broken drive-shaft, which had given him some exciting moments at the end of the Mulsanne straight. Pedro Rodríguez in the NART Ferrari P3 had made a terrible start but recovered quickly and was soon in fourth place, ahead of Mike Parkes, but Gurney, who now led Hill, and Ronnie Bucknum were all out of sight. Miles was travelling very fast and making up time for his stop, and although Ford tactics had called for 3min 36sec laps some of the 7-litre cars were nearer the 33sec bracket.

In the 2-litre category, all-European, Porsche were leading from Matra–BRM, while two of the Dinos had fallen by the wayside and by 5pm the remaining Dino was in trouble and on its way out, so that Ferrari’s small arms had proved quite useless as supporting forces. By this time Gurney was way ahead, with Hill holding second place, Bucknum third, Rodríguez fourth and Miles up in fifth place after lowering the lap record to 3min 33.1sec. Jo Bonnier in the Chaparral was next, then Parkes, Jean Guichet, Bruce McLaren and Lucien Bianchi, so the situation was Ford, Ford, Ford, Ferrari, Ford, Chaparral, Ferrari, Ferrari, Ford and Ford. During the second hour rain began to fall as refuelling stops became due and this caused a minor panic as well as numerous heart-searching decisions about further tyre changing. The yellow Ford of Whitmore/Frank Gardner and the bronze one of Hawkins/Mark Donohue had both been repaired and gone out again, but neither were very fit and were back in the pits when the leaders came in for fuel, which caused something of a shambles due to lack of space and Graham Hill just could not find room to stop and had to go on for another lap.

After this commotion the order was cars number 3, 1, 27, 5, 7, 20, 21, 2, 6, 18, with Richie Ginther doing his best in the P3 Ferrari, but Ford overwhelming by numbers. Denis Hulme took over from Miles and continued the good work taking the lead from Gurney’s partner Jerry Grant, while Brian Muir was doing a remarkable job bearing in mind he had not sat in a Ford GT nor seen Le Mans until the morning of the race. Even before darkness fell the pace was beginning to take its toll and many of the weak as well as the strong had fallen out, Ford number 4 having a broken differential and number 8 being delayed further by a defective clutch-operating mechanism, which put it behind the minimum regulation distance, so it was withdrawn.

“There was shambles in the Ford pit when Hill couldn’t find space to stop and had to go on for another lap”

Two of the small cars, a 6-cylinder ASA and a Peugeot 204-engined CD, caused a worrying diversion by getting tangled up on the Mulsanne straight and catching fire, luckily without serious injury, and before midnight it looked as though the American might was beginning to stumble. Hill walked back to the pits having left number 7 by the roadside with broken suspension, and number 6, the Bianchi/Mario Andretti car, had broken its engine; the Chaparral had gone out ignominiously with a flat battery, but number 20 Ferrari had gone out with a flourish when Ludovico Scarfiotti collected a CD in the Esses and Jo Schlesser had been involved through there suddenly being nowhere for him to aim his Matra without having an accident, which was very hard on the French firm.

At midnight Gurney/Jerry Grant (Ford), Miles/Hulme (Ford) and Rodríguez/Ginther (Ferrari) had all completed 126 laps, while McLaren/Chris Amon (Ford) were one lap behind, Willy Mairesse/Herbert Muller (Ferrari) were four laps behind and Lorenzo Bandini/Guichet (Ferrari) were five laps behind. Ford’s supporting forces were moving up, but immediately behind them were four Porsches presenting a very solid front, running splendidly and with no troubles at all. One hour later the Mairesse/Muller Ferrari had dropped back a place and there were only 32 cars left running and the cold and damp night was beginning to reach its lowest ebb. It is at this time of the race that unexpected things seem to happen, and true to form trouble struck both camps, with the Rodríguez/Ginther Ferrari going out with gearbox trouble and one of the private Fords of the Essex Racing Team going out with a broken engine.

At 3.30am Muller brought the Swiss Ferrari into the pit with its gearbox broken and the remaining works Ferrari was delayed by a broken brake pipe. As dawn broke the list of runners had diminished to 27 and Fords filled the first six places, followed by the works Porsches, while what Ferraris were still running were either sick or tired. The three GTB Ferraris were still going perfectly, but of course could not hope to match any of the prototypes for speed. As the world of the 24 Hours began to wake up, Ford lost a steady runner when the Guy Ligier/Bob Grossman GT40 went out with engine trouble and Ferrari looked like losing the NART GTB Ferrari as its clutch and gearbox were breaking up.

Just after 8am there was strife in all directions, for the sole remaining P3 Ferrari had been suffering from an internal water leak and a slipping clutch, and it finally succumbed, while Dieter Spoerry crashed the Filipinetti Ford GT40 he had been sharing with Peter Sutcliffe and the Belgian 275LM Ferrari staggered to a halt at the pits having been losing water and overheating for a long while, but even more serious was the fact that the Gurney/Grant Ford was beginning to show signs of failing. There were now only 24 cars in the race, and it was barely mid-morning when gloom descended on the Shelby pits as car number 3 came slowly in to retire, having lost its water, overheated, and was unable to replenish anyway due to the rule demanding a certain distance between taking on fluids other than petrol.

The NART GTB Ferrari was disqualified for transgressing the rules when starting away from the pits without a clutch, and although Fords were in the first three places with the only three MkII cars running they were not terribly confident, seeing victory approaching but knowing how things can still fall apart in the last few hours of Le Mans. In order to cut out any possibility of a nonsense the Ford pits got tough and cleared out all the ‘hangers on’ and the myriad of photographers, TV and radio people, who invariably get in the way, and quite rightly so, for they had a lot at stake and had worked fantastically hard to reach this point, a point that was by no means a certain victory. The fact the race was not yet won was brought home when two of the small cars which had been running like clocks suddenly blew up; the second Austin Healey broke its head gasket and an Alpine broke its water pump, the first Healey having expired with clutch issues.

At noon, with four hours still to run, there were only 16 cars left running, the three Fords, with the McLaren/Amon car now slightly in front of the Miles/Hulme car, the Bucknum/Hutcherson Ford was nine laps behind. Then came a whole row of Porsches making a stupendous impression by the way they were still cracking round and sounding indecently healthy, while the remaining Alpine-Renault Gordinis sounded as if they had only just started the race. Most incredible was the fact that the lone French-driven Mini-Marcos was still buzzing round. By 2pm rain started and everyone began to go very gently, not wishing to make any silly mistakes at this late hour.

With just over an hour left there was horror in the Porsche pits as the Peter Gregg/Sten Axelsson car arrived with a dead engine. This caused alarm for the last thing anyone expected was for one of the very healthy Porsche engines to break at this late stage. The Maranello Concessionaires Ferrari GTB driven by the two well-known F3 drivers, Roy Pike and Piers Courage, had been going like a train, and suddenly a brake pipe was broken and Pike had to stand in the pits and restrain himself while it was mended and the system was bled of air. It made people realise that Le Mans is not won until 4pm on Sunday.

“The Ford pit got tough, clearing out all the hangers-on, from photographers to tv and radio people”

In the final hour the rain ceased but the roads were streaming wet and the big Fords looked like power boats. Shelby still had his two cars running; Holman & Moody their sole survivor; Porsche had five very healthy cars. Alpine had four of its remarkably fast little 4-cylinder prototypes still running, the Mini-Marcos was still going. The only Ferrari survivors were two production GTBs.

During the last half-hour the two Shelby cars closed up together, Miles waiting for McLaren, who had lost the lead during the final pit stops for refuelling, and the light-blue and the black 7-litre Fords circulated quietly together, gathering up the gold car of Bucknum as they started what was obviously going to be their final lap and a thoroughly well deserved victory for Ford, won through pulverising the opposition, even at the cost of heavy losses to their own forces.

“The McLaren/Amon car must have completed the greater distance, quoted at 20 metres”

The atmosphere was still very wet and damp as the survivors toured round on their final lap, endeavouring to arrive at the finish as near to 4pm as possible. By a prearranged plan the Fords of McLaren and Miles arrived, headlights ablaze, in as near a dead-heat as they could judge, with Bucknum just behind them. It was indeed an impressive and an undisputed victory, but the powerful line of Porsches was something of which Stuttgart could be very proud, the only blemish being that one sick car could not drag itself away on its last lap and had to be abandoned leaving 15 survivors in what was a hard and bitterly fought race.

The celebrating in the Ford pit was dampened somewhat when the timekeepers announced that the car of McLaren and Amon had in fact won, a dead-heat being impossible as the cars had started together at 4pm on Saturday with the Miles/Hulme car already some yards ahead on the starting grid. The thinking was that because the two cars had arrived side-by-side on the same lap on Sunday at 4pm the McLaren/Amon car must have covered a greater distance in the 24 hours, the difference being quoted as 20 metres. The over-acting of the Ford executives and Shelby team had backfired on them and McLaren and Amon were received as rather surprised and dissatisfied winners. Colin Davis and Jo Siffert won the Index of Performance with a works Carrera Six Porsche running on fuel injection, and they also won the 2-litre class, having dominated it throughout the 24 hours.