Le Mans 1966

16/06/2006

Ferrari had not just won the 'Le Grand Prix d'Endurance de Vingt-Quatre Heures du Mans' in the preceding half dozen years, they'd literally owned it with victories in 1960 to 1965 and 1-2-3 finishes since 1961. With a deal from Ford to buy the Scuderia failing at the last hurdle, the 'blue oval' decided to take them on head-to-head. After proving fast but fragile in 1964 and '65, Ford was hoping for third time lucky.

They certainly had weight of numbers with eight of the 427 cubic inch 3 foot 4 inch high prototypes pitched against three of Maranello's finest - the Ferrari 330 P3. This would not merely be Ford taking on Ferrari, it was America verses Europe. Could a 7-litre US pushrod 'stock block' V8 beat the higher revving 4-litre quad cam V12 thoroughbreds from Italy?

Whatever happened, the winning car would be a thing of beauty. The P3 Ferrari, a curvaceously gorgeous masterpiece would vie with the P4 that followed as the Scuderia's most attractive sports racer. The GT40s were also works of art, more purposeful and aggressive but just as captivating. The three factory Ferraris would of course all be in red but each of the Mk.II Fords ran in different colour schemes for ease of identification. A red car captured the pole - Dan Gurney's GT40. The Ferrari challenge took a blow following John Surtees famed fight with team manager Dragoni - the quickest Italian coupe lined up fifth.

Gurney led for first couple of hours but the pale blue No.1 of Ken Miles/Denny Hulme was closing after an early stop to properly shut the door. Miles drove during the initial stage but the Kiwi continued the sterling work taking over the lead through to the fifth hour. It was time for Ferrari to fight back and at quarter distance the 3978cc 12-cylinder car of Pedro Rodriguez/Ritchie Ginther led from the sister car of Mike Parkes/Ludovico Scarfiotti, just as the American challenge was looking shaky. Graham Hill's silver No.7 (shared with Brian Muir) had broken its suspension while the royal blue Mario Andretti/Lucien Bianchi No.6 had 'lunched' an engine. The bronze No.4 of Mark Donohue/Paul Hawkins had never been a factor and had long since gone, and although the yellow No.8 of Frank Gardner/John Whitmore had started 3rd, it too was an early retirement.

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