Report by Philip Turner and Anthony Curtis

Le Mans 24 Hours, June 18/19 on the 8.36 miles Sarthe circuit. Weather fine but cool with occasional showers.

The first six – General Classification

1st B. McLaren/C. Amon (7-litre Ford GT Mk. 2) 3,009.5 miles 125.4 mph

2nd K. Miles/D Hulme (7-litre Ford GT Mk. 2) 3,009.5 miles 125.4 mph

3rd R. Bucknum/R. Hutcherson (7-litre Ford GT Mk. 2) 2,909.2 miles 121.2 mph

4th C. Davis/J. Siffert (2-litre Porsche Carrera 6) 2,834.9 miles 118.1 mph

5th H. Herrmann/H. Linge (2-litre Porsche Carrera 6) 2,826.4 miles 117.8 mph

6th De Klerk/Schutz (2-litre Porsche Carrera 6) 2,818.0 miles 117.4 mph

The race

There was something special about Le Mans this year, when most people expected Ford at last to topple Ferrari from his perch. Worried looking Ford executives in Dearborn had received a small card which, on one side, carried a map of the Le Mans circuit and on the other side a message: “Henry [Ford] Expects You to Win”. Heading the Ford onslaught were the eight 7-litre Ford GT Mk. 2s, of which three had been entered by Shelby America Inc., three by engine tuners Holman and Moody and two by Alan Mann from Britain.

In spite of the multiple entry system the teams seemed to work as one; there was none of that sense of “too many generals and too few firemen” that one gained last year. The big Peugeot garage on the outskirts of Le Mans where the cars were housed was a picture of orderliness with the eight cars plus a spare, all of which had been air freighted from the States, ranged side by side, as though on a production line. To look after these jumbo cars with their massive engines and gearboxes were an army of jumbo-sized mechanics, none of whom looked as though he weighed less than 14 stone. It was truly a considerable operation that Ford had launched, and to lead his troops to victory had come Henry Ford II in person. Which was very fitting as it was entirely due to his great enthusiasm that Ford had embarked on a competition programme in the first place.

After the cars had been wheeled into position there was a sudden last minute flurry of tyre changing to keep the huge crowd amused, for with but 20 minutes to go to the 4pm start, it had begun to rain. Only slightly, but sufficient to turn everyone’s thoughts to rain tyres. There was not a single un-occupied seat in the vast stands, not a single perching place for a one-legged sparrow on the great sweep of embankments overlooking the start area, and the excited roar of the crows swelled and rose as Henry Ford was handed the Tricouleur of France to start the race. The French commentator counted off the seconds as though the world’s end approached. Down came the flag, and once again we heard the characteristic Le Mans sound – a pattering of hurried feet, then a deep silence broken only by slamming car doors as the drivers launched themselves aboard, a pause until an engine fired with a roar, and a blast of sound swept the whole long line of 55 cars. The whole field was under way with Graham Hill’s ford in the lead.
By the end of the first hour Gurney (Ford) led from Hill (Ford), Bucknum (Ford), Rodriguez (Ferrari) and Miles (Ford). And the leading car had already lapped all but 15 of the 55 starters. Then came a flurry of refuelling and wheel-changing stops as the pessimists who had started on rain tyres changed back again, and the order changed from minute to minute.
By the second hour, the race had assumed a certain pattern which pit stops were not greatly to disturb for some hours. The pressing Ken Miles had taken the lead for Ford aided by co-driver Denny Hulme, and the next three places were swapped among the Gurney/Grand Ford and the Ferrari P3 of Rodriguez and Ginther, and Parkes and Scarfiotti with the McLaren/Amon Ford holding a watching brief in fifth position.

At around 11.30pm, seven and a half hours after the start, there came a multiple shunt at Tertre Rouge involving Schlesser’s Matra-BRM, the Cortanze/Piot Alpine and the Parkes/Scarfiotti Ferrari, Scarfiotti being brought back, shaken but unhurt, in the course car. The loss made a big dent in Ferrari’s chances. Hopes of a Ferrari victory began to recede even further when the Rodriguez/Ginther car first made an unscheduled pit stop and then came in again just before two in the morning. Whatever fate might have in store for Ford, the might of Modena had been broken with only half the race run.
Four o’clock and all’s well if your name is Henry Ford. With 12 hours to go, the first six places under your belt and nothing bigger than two litres higher than 12th you can relax a little. Something with the eight name on it ought to win.
Just before 10am, the leading Ford of Gurney and Grant came in for a routine pit stop. Large men jumped about with almost Italianate fervour, two leaping skywards on to the quick-lift jack to raise the front end for the brake discs as well as the pads and wheels to be changed, all of which took some six minutes. But within the hour the massive car limped in to its pit to retire with over-heating bothers, loss of oil and general debility.

So now only three Fords remained of the 13 that had started the race, but these three were first, second and third with McLaren and Amon in a Shelby American car leading from their team mates Miles and Hulme and the Holman Moody car of Bucknum and Hutcherson. Slowly the morning dragged by. Most cars were maintaining their positions and hoping to heaven they would last, rather than going motor racing. Only at Le Mans on just one Sunday afternoon in the year does each hour contain at least 600 minutes.

At 2.45pm – a little over an hour before the chequered flag, the McLaren/Amon Ford, at that time running in second place, came in for its last routine refuelling stop and set off again with McLaren at the wheel, just 2 min. 15 sec. behind the leading Ford of Miles and Hulme. Slowly McLaren closed the gap between the two Fords and when the Miles/Hulme car made its final refuelling stop for 1 min. 20 sec. the leading car set off again with only 40 seconds advantage. In four laps McLaren caught right up on the leader but then held station some two seconds behind it.

By now each pit stop was being cheered most heartily by the bigger than usual crowd that had come to see the finish of this duel of the Titans. Half an hour to go and three English bobbies on an exchange visit appeared in front of the pits, no doubt to view with horror all these foreigners exceeding the 70 limit – and on a Sunday, too! Then came the rain in a sudden vicious shower which slowed the cars still further. The Fords dropped to over five minutes a lap, their helicopter type windscreen wipers – said to cost more than the engine – working overtime in the spray. Ten minutes to go, and a number of blue overalled men appeared in front of the control tower laden with trestles and planks which they hammered together into a presentation in double quick time.

Five minutes to four, and the three leading Fords came past in a compact group.

Then it was four o’clock at last and those drivers who had timed things right crossed the line to receive the chequered flag without having to embark on another lap. A roar of excitement from the crowd as up from White House came a blaze of headlamps and there were the three leading Fords coming in almost in line abreast. It was difficult to say who crossed the line first.

Then the public address system gave its usual ice cream chimes for an important announcement and silence fell. “Car No. 2 has won,” it stated. So Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon won the fastest, longest – in terms of distance covered, at 3,009.5 miles – Le Mans there has ever been. And they won by just 20 metres, for the Le Mans regulations state that in the case of a dead heat the relative positions in which the cars were arranged at the start will decide the issue.

As Ken Miles’ Ford was some 20 metres nearer to the starting line than the McLaren car, Bruce had therefore covered a greater distance in the same time and so was the winner.

The verdict shocked Ford who had tried to arrange a dead heat and it shook Ken Miles and Denny Hulme who thought they had won. But this last lap upset in no way altered the fact that Ford this year established complete domination at Le Mans and Henry Ford II looked a very happy man as he stood on the presentation platform between his victorious drivers. Knowing how swiftly the platform had been erected we kept our fingers crossed…

Story reprint courtesy of McLaren

10 Minutes of Politics by Karl Ludvigsen courtesy of Haggertys

After Daytona, McLaren told his friends that he was sure Ford could win Le Mans. They scoffed, pointing out that the first-string Ferraris had not gone to Florida. For Le Mans, seven top-line Ferraris were fielded. Said Amon, “Bruce and I were fairly certain that Dan Gurney would go fast at the start, and if this happened we knew Ken Miles would go after him, so we decided to hang back.” Honorary starter for the 1966 race was none other then Henry Ford II himself. Cards distributed to the team members said, “Henry wants you to win.”

The traditional Le Mans running start was still used in 1966. “I was very careful not to break a leg running across the track and clambering into the car,” Bruce McLaren said. He took his silver-striped black Ford safely along the pit wall instead of barging out into the traffic stream. By 9 a.m. the next morning, the #2 GT40 was in the lead.

With the opposition annihilated, their Ford and the second-place Miles/Hulme Shelby American car were running half-a-minute slower than their capabilities, controlled by an “EZE” sign from the pits. But when Bruce pitted with three hours still to go, he was surprised to find the rival Ford hot on his heels: “In the previous five laps Miles had caught up about 30 seconds, when we were both supposed to be lapping at four minutes and no faster or slower. He had a very rapid pit stop and handed over to Denny.”

Watching his own pit stop as Amon took over, McLaren was surprised to see a tire changed. “A Goodyear man said, ‘Change that wheel!’” he recalled. “At the time I thought there was something fishy about it but I didn’t realize, until I thought about it, that he hadn’t looked at the wheel!

“Fifteen minutes ago we had been 30 seconds ahead,” Bruce reflected. But after the burst of speed by Miles and the suspicious tire change, “we were now about 40 seconds behind Hulme and supposed to lap calmly at the same speed until the 4 p.m. finish. I asked Shelby how the race was going to be finished. He said it had been decided to let the car that was ahead after the last pit stop win, so that it would give the crews on each car a nice feeling!” Bruce suspected that because he and Chris were Firestone-contracted drivers, the Goodyear-linked Shelby team was not about to do them any favors.

McLaren thought this was unfair. He and Chris had obeyed the slow-down orders from the pits that their rivals had ignored. He decided to act. Bruce went over Shelby’s head and pointed out that he and Amon could easily step up their pace to pass the other Ford, but that they had loyally raced to orders. He made a shrewd suggestion as well: “Why don’t you bring the cars over the line together? You are paying dearly for pictures in the paper, so get a good picture!”

Bruce’s arguments won the day. At the last pit stops an hour before the finish, the drivers were told to adjust their speeds to finish in a dead heat. McLaren and Miles were at the wheels of their respective Fords. Joined by a third, lapped, GT40, the leaders came up to the final turns together. Chris Amon recalled the sight: “Coming out of that last corner Bruce made bloody sure he was in front! He made certain that it was no dead heat, because he crossed the line two or three lengths ahead of Miles. Ken was quite upset about it.”

Ford, however, was relaxed. Said Bruce: “They were pleased the way it had come out, partly because I had been in the project from the start and partly because we didn’t race the hell out of the car at any stage.” Even without McLaren’s final spurt they would have been the winners, because they had started farther back along the pits. They covered 3,009 miles at a winning average of 125.4 mph, some 4 mph faster than the previous record.

McLaren was bemused over what he had been able to achieve. “I didn’t think 10 minutes of politics could win a 24-hour race,” he wrote home to his father. “But there you are — nice guys don’t win ball games, they say.” He and Amon were the Le Mans winners but only, as he said later, “because we didn’t accept the wool being pulled over our eyes. It’s the biggest race I’ve ever won,” Bruce added, “and the same goes for Chris — but the whole thing seemed to be so simple.”