1967 Sebring winner


1075 at Le Mans


1084 at Nurburing

 

 

History (Continued)

LeMans 1967

Sixty cars were entered for the 1967 24 Hours of LeMans. Of these cars, 12 were Ford GT40’s, 10 were Ferraris, two were Chaparral 2F’s, two were Lola-Aston Martins.  Mixed in were Porsches, including the new 907 model. Comprising the Ford group were 4 Mark IV cars, three Mark IIB’s, two Mirages, and three Mark I’s. The Ferrari line-up included four P4’s, three P3/4’s and two P2’s.

 

Le Mans 1967 Ford Line-up

Chassis

Car Number

Configuration

Team

Driver

Color Scheme

J-6

1

Mark IV

SAI

Gurney/Foyt

Red w/white stripes

J-5

2

Mark IV

SAI

McLaren/Donohue

Yellow w/black stripes

J-7

3

Mark IV

H & M

Andretti/Bianchi

Bronze w/white stripes

J-8

4

Mark IV

H & M

Ruby/Hulme

Dark blue w/white stripes

1031

5

Mark IIB

H & M

Gardner/McCluskey

Gold/white stripes

1015

6

Mark IIB

Ford France

Schlesser/Ligier

White w/black and red stripes

1047

57

Mark IIB

SAI

Bucknum/Hawkins

Light blue w/black stripes

M.10001

14

Mirage

JWA

Piper/Thompson

Light blue w/orange stripe

M.10003

15

Mirage

JWA

Ickx/Muir

Light blue w/orange stripe

1020

16

Mark I

Ford France

Greder/Dumay

White w/red and blue stripes

1042

18

Mark I

Filipinetti

Maglioli/Casoni

Red w/white stripe

1026

62

Mark I

JWA

Salmon/Redman

Light green w/white stripe

 

 

 

GT40's lined up at the start of the 1967 Le Mans 24-hour race

 

During practice, the Mark IV GT40 started having windshield problems.  The glass kept cracking due to improper manufacture.  Frantic calls to the manufacturer in the U.S. were made to arrange for the manufacture of a new batch.  These were air freighted to LeMans shortly before race day.

 

The race got off slowly, but the Mark II of Ronnie Bucknum pulled to the lead.  At the end of the first lap, it was the Mark II of Bucknum with a sizeable lead over the Mark II of Gardner.  Next up was a Ferrari, followed by the two Mark IV GT40’s.

 

After an hour, the leaders were Bucknum/Hawkins (SAI Mark IIB), Gardner/McCluskey (H&M Mark IIB), Hill/Spence (Chaparal 2F), Amon/Vacarella (Ferrari P4), and Pearson/Rodriquez (Ferrari P2). The Lola-Astons dropped out with engine failures.

 

After almost 30 laps, the first Ford retirement had been posted.  A Group 4 GT40 driven by Mike Salmon burst into flames as it approached the end of the Mulsanne straight.  He successfully steered it off the course, but it was destroyed.

 

By 8 PM the Mark IV of Andretti/Bianchi had moved into second place ahead of the Chaparral.  Further back, the two Mirages had engine failures and were forced to retire.

 

At midnight, GT40’s were running 1 – 2 – 4 – 5.  Ferarri was running 3rd and 6th.  The Hulme/Ruby GT40 had to retire after several “excursions” into the sand at the end of the Mulsanne straight.

 

Through the early morning hours the next day, it appeared the Fords were well in command of the race and headed for another spectacular finish, although the P4 of Scarfiotti/Parks was keeping pace and challenging the Fords.  Then, a spectacular accident occurred when the one of the front brake calipers on the GT40 of Andretti/Bianchi locked up, causing the car to skid and spin into the bank.  It came to rest in the middle of the track. The two cars that followed were successful in avoiding the stopped car, but the GT40 of McCluskey/Gardner wasn’t so lucky and crashed into the left bank and was heavily damaged. The next car, the GT40 of Ford France driven by Schlesser/Ligier, slammed into the two disabled GT40’s. Within a couple of minutes, three of the remaining six factory GT40’s had succumbed to the wreck and were out of the race.  What had been thought to be another dominating performance by Ford was now up for grabs.

 

The final hours of the race ran their course with only temporaty changes in the top placings.  When the checkered flag came out at 4 PM, it was the red Mark IV Ford of Gurney/Foyt that blazed across the finish line in 1st place. Ferarri took 2nd and 3rd, and 4th place went to the Mark IV of McClaren/Donohue.  Ford had proved that winning Le Mans was no fluke and the ‘J’ car, in its Mark IV form, had proved its potential.

 

The End of the Big Engines

 

Rule changes after the 1967 season restricted engine size to 5.0L (302 cubic inches).  Race officials were getting concerned with the speeds the cars were reaching. After much development and financial commitment, the Mark IV was done after only one season.  Ford officially withdrew factory sponsorship after the 1967 season; having proven an American company could indeed beat Ferrari and win the most prestigious endurance race.

 

 

The Gulf/JWA Partnership

 

Grady Davis, then vice-president of Pittsburgh-based Gulf Oil, had taken delivery of chassis 1049 in 1966.  It was a road car painted dark metallic blue with full leather trim, but fitted with a race engine, race transmission, and a removable roll bar.  It wasn’t long before the car was being raced in USRRC events by professional drivers.

 

Towards the end of 1966, Davis could see the advertising and public relations potential of motor racing.  When Grady heard of John Wyer’s desire to campaign a lightweight version of the GT40, Gulf Oil contacted JWA and the two parties entered into a contract whereby JWA would build and race three of the new GT40’s under the Gulf Oil name and Gulf Oil would provide the financial backing.  Chassis 1049 was left dark blue but an orange stripe was added to represent Gulf’s European color scheme.

 

 

A beautiful 1049P after an extensive restoration by Racing Icons

At the Daytona 24-hour race in 1967, chassis 1049 took 6th place overall to win the Group 4 category.  Ironically, all the big 427-inch Mark II cars succumbed to transmission failures. However, at Sebring in April, chassis 1049 retired after only 119 laps with a blown cylinder head.  Group 4 honors went to another GT40 while one of the new Mark IV’s won the race outright.

 

When the first two lightweight Mark I GT40’s made their debut at the Le Mans time trials, they were painted in the more traditional Gulf Oil colors of light blue and orange.  These new lightweight GT40’s were called Mirages and carried chassis numbers M.10001 and M.10002.  The chassis and nose were unchanged, but the roof was much narrower which resulted in a more rounded tail section.  Other subtle changes made the car noticeably different from the standard Mark I cars. They performed fairly well in their initial outing.

 

Continued in part 3...