just saw the movie, and i wondered what was true and what was fiction.
Glenn,
It is too bad that the movie did not stick to the facts. The actual story about the 66 LeMans race is fascinating in and of itself and it certainly did not need to be dramatized. For those not familiar, read on.
Prior to the event, John Cowley (A Ford Lieutenant working for Leo Beebe as coordinator for the 66 race), had a meeting with Ford Team leaders and drivers alike. He laid down the ground rules for the race.
• Engine rev limit would be set at 6200 RPM. This was high enough to propel the MkIIs to about 213 mph down the 3.7 mile Mulsanne straight. The true rev limit was about 7000 but the lower figure was chosen to save the motors and yet be quick enough to out-do the Ferraris
• The drivers were warned to conserve the brakes (an Achilles heel of the relatively heavy GT40 MKIIs)
• There would be no racing between Ford Factory cars
• Each team would follow orders as relayed through pit signage
• Each driver team was then assigned target lap times for the early part of the race.
• The rabbits would be Gurney/Grant (lap time 3:37) and Miles/Hulme (lap time 3:39)
Ferrari provided some pre-race drama. The Works team original plan was to have John Surtees go out as their rabbit and try to break the Fords. The story as told by Surtees is that the team manager, Dragoni, insisted that Scarfiotti, Surtees’ teammate should start the race instead of Surtees. Dragoni told Surtees that it would be nice for Gianni Agnelli (Fiat CEO), who was in attendance, to see nephew Scarfiotti start the race. The protracted disagreement escalated and Surtees, arguably the best of the Ferrari drivers, summarily quit the team. That was a real blow to the Ferrari Team.
At 4:00 P.M. HFII dropped the flag and the field thundered off. The Mk IIs driven by Graham Hill, Dan Gurney and Ronnie Bucknum led the first lap with the Ferrari 330 P3 driven by Mike Parks fourth. Although a good start for the Fords, all was not well.
The first lap also provided some unwelcome excitement for one of the Holman-Moody Mk IIs. On the Mulsanne straight, the Mk II driven by Hawkins (P1032) suffered a driveshaft failure at a speed in excess of 200 miles per hour. Hawkins managed to gather the car up and return to the pits without further incident. The repair took about seventy minutes. In addition, Ken Miles, driving one of the Shelby Mk II entries (P1015) failed to secure the driver’s side door. Ken was forced to pit at the end of lap one to properly secure the door, dropping him to forty-second place. Problems continued for the Mk IIs as at the end of lap two, Whitmore driving one of the Alan Mann Racing Mk IIs (XGT-1) pitted with brake problems.
The fastest of the Fords began making their initial pit stops about an hour and a half into the race. The pit crews were as well prepared as the cars as brakes, tires, and oil were checked while fuel tanks were topped off. The pit stops had been well rehearsed and went off with military precision. Miles was first to pit, then Gurney. Neither reported problems with their Mk IIs or their Goodyear tires. It is interesting to note that because of McLaren’s relationship with Firestone, his MK II was fitted with Firestone rubber. McLaren was next to pit and complained about his tires. He could feel the track tearing up the rubber. Upon inspection, crew members observed that the Firestone tires were, in fact, chunking. McLaren and his co-driver, Chris Amon conferred with Shelby. Valuable minutes were spent and finally it was decided to swap out the Firestone tires with Goodyear rubber. Those wasted minutes would prove critical in the closing hours of the race.
Only a few hours into the race Ford lost two Factory Mk II entries; P1032, driven by Hawkins/Donohue (differential problems) and XGT-1, driven by Whitmore/Gardner (clutch problems). In addition, the Comstock, Mk I driven by Rindt/Ireland succumbed to engine failure.
As the clock ticked to the four hour mark it was Mk IIs 1-2-4-6. The lead car was none other than P1015 driven by Miles/Hulme which had spent time in the pits at the end of the first lap in order to secure the driver’s side door. In the process of chasing down the leaders, Miles had set a new course record of 3:34.3 then lowered that record to 3:31.9. Gurney was not to be outdone. He lowered the record again to 3:30.6. The Gurney/Grant Mk II (P1047) and the Ginther/Rodriguez Ferrari P3 were also on the lead lap in second and third respectively. One lap down was the Mk II of McLaren/Amon. Next was the Ferrari P3 of Bandini/Guichet followed the by the Mk II of Hill/Muir. The GT40s traded the lead with the Ferraris as pit stops came and went.
A bit later, the Mk II (P1031) driven by Bianchi/Andretti went out with a blown head gasket. Then at about 10:30 P.M. the Hill/Muir Mk II succumbed to suspension failure. The factory Mk II entries had been cut by half to four. Then about an hour later, the Chaparral began having electrical problems and was ultimately forced to retire. Shortly after, the Scarfiotti Ferrari plowed into an accident involving two other vehicles and was forced to retire.
At midnight the Fords were 1-2-4-5 with Ferraris 3-6. Then at 2:30 A.M. the Rodriguez Ferrari which was running fourth at the time retired. Within another hour the only two other Ferraris capable of putting up a fight suffered lengthy pit stops putting them virtually out of contention. Also retiring during the night was another GT40 Mk I (P1001) driven by Neerspach/Ickx.
At 4:10 A.M. Miles brought the lead car into the pits. The car had been driven very hard stressing the braking system. The rotors were shot. Thanks to a quick change rotor system, the front rotors and pads were swapped out and the car was back on the track after only a few minutes.
At 6 A.M., Fords held the top six spots; Shelby Mk II cars 1-2-3, and the Holman-Moody Mk II (P1016) driven by Bucknum/Hutcherson in fourth. The four Mk IIs were followed by the Mk Is of Essex Wire (P1038 – Scott/Revson) and SAI Filipinetti (P1040 - Sutcliffe/Spoerry). Unfortunately the Essex Wire car soon succumbed to engine failure and the Sutcliffe/Spoerry later crashed out of the race.
At 7:34 A.M. the Miles/Hulme Mk II was back in the pits; this time to swap out the rear rotors. Again the procedure went smoothly and the car was back out on the track in a matter of minutes, albeit in second place behind the Gurney/Grant Mk II. In third place was the McLaren/Amon Mk II. The Bucknum/Hutcherson Mk II retained its fourth place position.
A few minutes after 9 A.M., the Gurney/Grant Mk II entered the pits. The car was over-heating. The problem was traced to a radiator leak. Incredibly bad luck for Dan; the car was forced to retire. At this point there were only three Fords still running, all Mk IIs. In first place, it was Miles/Hulme; in second place, it was McLaren/Amon; and in third place it was Bucknum/Hutcherson. Porsches were running fourth through sixth but too far behind to challenge the Mk IIs.
With the race well in hand, word came down from the Ford top brass, that for public relations purposes, the three Mk IIs would be staged to finish together. Miles, who was ahead, was directed to slow his pace so that the second place Mk II driven by McLaren/Amon could close. Both cars were on the same lap as they approached the finish line. The third Mk II, several laps down, driven by Bucknum/Hutcherson joined the procession. When the checkered flag dropped, the first and second place cars were deemed to have finished in a dead heat. The organizers scored the McLaren/Amon as the winner citing a rule that in case of a dead heat, the car that started further back on the grid would be the winner having covered more ground over the twenty four hour period.
