In the 2-litre category, which was all-European, but nevertheless very interesting, Porsche was 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 Graham Hill holding second place, Bucknum third. Rodríguez fourth and Miles up in fifth place after lowering the lap record successively to 3m 33.1s. Bonnier in the Chaparral was next, then Parkes, Guichet, McLaren and Bianchi, so the situation was Ford, Ford, Ford, Ferrari, Ford, Chaparral, Ferrari, Ferrari, Ford and Ford, with more following. 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/Gardner and the bronze one of Hawkins/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 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 Ginther doing his best in the P3 Ferrari, but Ford overwhelming by numbers, Denny Hulme took over from Miles and continued the good work taking the lead from Gurney’s partner Jerry Grant, while Muir was doing a remarkable job bearing in mind he had not sat in a Ford GT or 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further by a defective clutch-operating mechanism, which put it behind the minimum regulation distance, so it was withdrawn.

“To avoid any mistakes ford got tough and cleared out all the ‘hangers on’ from its pits”

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 hurt, and before midnight it looked as though the American might was beginning to stumble. Graham Hill walked back to the pits having left number 7 by the roadside with broken suspension, and number 6, the Bianchi/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 Scarfiotti collected a CD in the Esses and 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/Grant (Ford), Miles/Hulme (Ford) and Rodríguez/Ginther (Ferrari) had all completed 126 laps, while McLaren/Amon (Ford) were one lap behind, Mairesse/Müller (Ferrari) were four laps behind and 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/Müller 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 the unexpected can happen, and trouble struck both camps, with the Rodríguez/Ginther Ferrari losing its gearbox and one of the private Fords of the Essex Racing Team going out with a broken engine.

At 3.30am Müller 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 such Ferraris as were running were either sick or tired. The three GTB Ferraris were still running 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 and the sleepy ones came to life again Ford lost a steady runner when the Ligier/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 breakfast (8am), there was strife in all directions, for the sole remaining P3 Ferrari had been suffering from an internal water leak in the engine and a slipping clutch, and it finally succumbed, while Spoerry crashed the Filipinetti Ford GT40 he had been sharing with Peter Sutcliffe and the Belgian 275 LM Ferrari staggered to a final 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 the team was 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 that might force team personnel make a mistake the Ford pits got tough and cleared out all the “hangers on” and the myriad of photographers and TV and radio people, who invariably get in the way, and quite rightly so, for it 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 that the race was not yet won was brought home with a jolt 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 clutch failure.

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, and 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, and 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 barely 1 1/4 hours left to run there was horror in the Porsche pits as the Gregg/Axelson car arrived with a dead engine and something broken in the valve gear. This caused some alarm and despondency for the last thing that 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 Formula 3 drivers, Pike and 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, all of which was very frustrating at this late hour, but it did make people realise that no race is ever won until the end.

“The over-acting of the Shelby team had backfired, and McLaren and Amon were received as rather surprised winners”

In the final hour the rain ceased but the roads were streaming wet and the big Fords really looked like power boats as they circulated. Shelby still had his two cars running; Holman & Moody its sole survivor; Porsches had five very healthy cars and a sick one that was hoping to set off and complete one final lap as 4pm arrived. Alpine had four of its remarkably fast little 4-cylinder prototypes still running, the Mini-Marcos was still there, and the only Ferrari survivors were two standard production GTB coupés.

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 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 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 the sick car could not drag itself away on its last lap and had to be abandoned leaving 15 survivors in this hard and bitterly fought race.

The celebrating was dampened somewhat when the timekeepers announced that McLaren and Amon had won, a dead-heat being impossible as the cars had started at 4pm on Saturday with the Miles/Hulme car already some yards ahead on the starting grid, so that as they 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 Shelby team had backfired 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 6 Porsche running on fuel injection, and they also won the 2-litre class, having dominated it throughout the 24 hours.

Le Mans lights

• As and when the brake discs on the Fords became worn they were changed in their entirety, the disc being retained in place by the road wheel and easily detachable, using asbestos gloves.

• Three Matra-BRM 2-litre V8s took part but all fell out with troubles, the worst being a seized ZF gearbox on the Servoz-Gavin/ Beltoise car; Schlesser crashed and the Jaussaud/Pescarolo car had injection pump issues. The only claim to fame for the Bizzarrinis was that the rear-engined open one actually managed to spin away from the Le Mans start!

• The prize for endurance must surely go to the variety artist behind the grandstands who played an accordion for 24 hours non-stop, accompanied by a long line of guitar players who took shifts to keep up with him.

• It was a fine and powerful American victory, even if the first two cars were driven by two New Zealanders and a New Zealander and an Englishman. The third place car was driven by American Honda driver Ron Bucknum and NASCAR Stock-Car driver Dick Hutcherson, driving in his first sports car race. Not only were the first three cars American but all were using American Goodyear tyres. Many said Ford’s victory showed you could win Le Mans if you poured in sufficient dollars, but anyone who believed this had no idea of the fantastic amount of work put in from the time of the arrival in France, let alone in America.