1967 24 Hours of Daytona – Race Profile

1967 24 Hours of Daytona – The Revenge of “Il Commendatore”

By Louis Galanos | Photos as credited

The year 1966 was not a good year for Enzo Ferrari. Ford beat Ferrari with a humiliating 1-2-3 finish at both Daytona and Sebring and for the first time in six years they lost, again to Ford, at the Holy Grail of endurance racing the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

With the 1966 World Sportscar Championship (WSC) trophy solidly in Ford hands many were predicting that the ten-year dominance of Ferrari cars in endurance racing had come to an end. Many believed the much talked about and much written about three-year-long Ford – Ferrari War was being won by Henry Ford II and his mega buck program would bring Ferrari to its knees.

Not everyone in the racing community was happy with this turn of events. Stirling Moss, at the time a retired world driving champion, commented: “…he’s (Enzo Ferrari) a true racing manufacturer… It’s sad to see a man like this beaten by a big company, especially when you realize their (Ford’s) decision to race is really just another marketing decision.”

Not long after the defeat at Le Mans the Ferrari engineers went to work to analyze what went wrong, to correct it and bring Ferrari back into the winner’s circle in 1967 and avenge their loss of honor at the hands of Ford.

This was no small task for unlike Ford the folks at Ferrari had a lot on their plate and, as one of the smallest auto manufacturers in the world, limited resources. Not only were they building prototype cars for the WSC but they were also building Formula 1 cars, developing a V6 Formula 2 racer, the Dino 206GT and turning out their vaunted V12 production cars. Added to these burdens were labor unrest and parts shortages. As a result they often would enter only one or two factory cars in endurance events to compete with six or more Ford prototypes.

To get back on the winning track for 1967, the 68-year-old Enzo Ferrari gave Mauro Forghieri, Technical Director at Ferrari’s Racing Department, a relatively free hand in developing what would become one of the great racing cars from this era.

Capitalizing on everything learned from racing the Ferrari P3 Forghieri eventually produced a 4-liter V12 engined car with Lucas fuel injection and 30 more horse power than the P3’s 420. In addition a 36-valve cylinder head came with the engine along with a higher compression ratio.

To address the problems they were having with the unreliable Tipo 593 ZF transmission an in-house 5-speed gearbox was created as a replacement. The new car also sported cast magnesium Campagnolo wheels and wider Firestone tires to replace the Dunlops. It would be christened the 330 P4.

Because of the afore mentioned limited resources, Ferrari was only able to produce two new Ferrari fuel-injected 330 P4’s to challenge Ford at Daytona in 1967 and one reconditioned 330 P3/4 running a normally aspirated engine. That car was also was known as the Ferrari 412P and would be entered by the North American Racing Team (NART) of Luigi Chinetti at the second annual Daytona 24 Hour race.

That was the limit of what the factory could bring to the table but there were also several private Ferraris entered at Daytona. The Belgian – Francorchamps P3 driven by Willy Mairesse and Jean Beurlys and the other a green P2 entered and driven by David Piper with his co-driver Richard Attwood. Other private Ferrari entries included two Dinos, a 275 GTB and a 250 LM driven by Peter Clarke and Edward Nelson.

The NART 330 P3/4 (412P) was just an upgraded older P3 with improved gearbox, Weber carburetors rather than fuel injection, better brakes, and other refinements. The body shell was also almost identical to the newer 330 P4 and this caused some confusion among sports writers in reporting the race.

In a reflection of his determination to return the WSC trophy to Maranello, Enzo Ferrari did something unprecedented. He allowed his Ferrari prototypes team to fly two of the new 330 P4’s to New York where they were then trailered to Daytona Beach, Florida for a private one week of testing (thanks to Firestone Tire Company) at the Daytona Speedway late in 1966. Racing division chief, Mauro Forghieri, and competition manager, Eugenio Dragoni, went along to supervise the testing. Dragoni was given strict orders from Ferrari not to break the track record set the previous year by Ken Miles driving an older model Ford GT40 Mk. II.

Mario Levetto lived in Daytona during those years and worked at Cape Kennedy as an aerospace engineer. His father (also called Mario) owned the San Remo Restaurant in South Daytona and this place was frequented by Bill France, Jr. and his family. France was known to recommend the restaurant to the Italian teams when they were in town.

On more than one occasion France had asked Mr. Levetto, Sr. to act as a translator for the Ferrari factory team and his son Mario was known among the Ferrari team members. Mario commented that when the Ferrari factory team arrived at Daytona for testing during the winter of 1966 they had not done any fittings for the car seats that the driver’s would use during the tests. Ferrari team manager Dragoni asked Mario to go to the nearest supermarket and buy a couple of auto seat covers (the thick ones used in Florida to reduce the sweat marks on shirts) so that the smaller drivers could find it easier to adapt to the cockpit of the new 330 P4.

For the testing session at Daytona Ferrari recruited Chris Amon and Lorenzo Bandini to drive the Spider 330 P4 and Michael Parkes and Ludovico Scarfioti to drive the other prototype which was the Berlinetta P4. Chris Amon’s presence surprised a few folks because he had been on Ford’s winning Le Mans team just six months earlier.

Amon finished sixth driving an earlier version of the Ford GT40 Mk. II at Daytona in 1966. During the testing session at Daytona in 1967 he was asked to compare the Ford to the Ferrari and he said, “It’s rather like driving a truck compared to a car.”

During one of the tests Mike Parkes was on the track alone. For some reason he kept ignoring signals from his crew and they became concerned. They were about to send out a driver in the other P4 when he finally entered the pits. He stayed in his car for some time in what was described as a daze. It is not known whether he had been affected by exhaust fumes or being alone on the track he developed a form of self-hypnotism. He soon recovered.

One goal of the test sessions was to recreate the demands of a 24-hour race with pit stops, driver changes and minor repairs. While the pit area was closed to the public during those test sessions, the grandstands were not and quite a few spectators were happy for the privilege of witnessing them at work.

Among those spectators were some engineers from Ford with stopwatches, binoculars and a long-lens camera. They and the other spectators witnessed just about every Ferrari driver break the track record set by Ford the previous year. Also, the Ferraris were turning regular lap times at speeds above what Ford was able to accomplish at Daytona the previous year. The Parkes – Scarfiotti P4 was averaging close to 110 m.p.h. after six hours of testing and this, no doubt, worried the Ford engineers.

1967 24 Hours of Daytona – Race Profile Continued

1967 24 Hours of Daytona – Page Two

In anticipation of something like this happening, Ford had already reserved the Speedway for its own testing session and moved in their cars and mechanics once the Italians departed for Italy.

During their week at Daytona the Ferrari team had completed over 580 laps and they were pleased with the results. Ford’s time at the Daytona facility didn’t produce the same kind of pleasure. Their testing time had to be cut short because of major problems with the new third-generation GT40 known as the “J” car. They experienced oversteering problems, cracking wheels, and a catastrophic chassis failure that forced them to pack their bags and head home early. The “J” car was unraceworthy and couldn’t be used for the Daytona 24 and the newer model Mark IIs would be their only hope against Ferrari and Chaparral.

To explain publicly why the new “J” car wouldn’t be at Daytona in 1967 Jacque Passino, Ford’s Special Vehicle (racing) manager, said, “There just wasn’t enough time to get the Formula “J” worked out.”

When word that the Ferrari P4s had broken the Daytona track record reached Maranello, Enzo Ferrari fired competition manager Dragoni. It was assumed that Dragoni was fired for allowing this to happen despite explicit orders not to do so. He was immediately replaced by autosport journalist, Franco Lini.

Later a conspiracy theory developed about the firing of Dragoni. In the 1960’s there was a lot of political turmoil within the Ferrari organization with big-name drivers coming and going and a lot of acrimony and animosity resulting. By 1966 the team was hopelessly split by these battles and after the loss at Le Mans their top driver, John Surtees, left after a bitter argument with Dragoni. Enzo Ferrari knew that something had to change.

According to the conspiracy theory Ferrari set up Dragoni for a fall. He gave him strict orders not to break the track record at Daytona while secretly passing word to some drivers to do just that and it was done in the testing sessions that were open to the public. This gave Ferrari the excuse he needed to fire the wealthy and influential Dragoni.

The news that the new Ferrari P4 had easily broken the Daytona track record hit a raw nerve at the Ford Motor company for several reasons. First it let Ford know that both their new “J” car and Mk. II prototype cars may already have been obsolete and there was not enough time to do anything about it. Secondly that particular speed record was established by much liked Ken Miles the previous year when he won in a Ford GT40 Mk. II in the very first 24 Hours of Daytona.

Unfortunately Miles would not be at Daytona in 1967 because he was killed in testing the new Ford “J” car prototype at Riverside Raceway during the summer of 1966.

Rumors that aerodynamic flaws in the new “J” car may have been the cause of the accident which took Miles life were met with denials by Ford and the PR folks began to hint that Miles might have been too old, at 48 years, to drive such a high-speed race car.

A similar “blame the driver” campaign was also apparent when Bob McLean crashed and burned in a GT40 at Sebring in March of 1966 and again when Walt Hansgen crashed and died in a Ford Mark II prototype during testing for Le Mans in April of 1966. The three deaths of Ford GT40 drivers in such a short time worried Ford executives. They feared that it would have an impact on their domestic sales. Safety issues related to the car’s design would be dealt with later.

There was a joke making the rounds in the garages at the speedway, before the 1967 24-hour race, that the new Ford “J” car was to racing what the Ford Edsel was to the passenger auto industry, and that is, “a big mistake.”

At Daytona in 1967 Ford’s strategy was familiar; it was the “numbers game.” Enter as many cars as you can and some will come home winners.

Six GT40 Mk. II prototypes were flown over to the states from Ford’s Advanced Vehicles Division in England. Three of them were reengineered 1966 models and the other three were on 1967 chassis. Three of those Mk. II prototypes were assigned by Ford to Shelby American (#1, #2, #3) while the other three went to Holman Moody (#4, #5, #6). In that mix of six prototype cars were several that actually had the name Mercury on the side (see photo) instead of Ford. Confidence on both Ford teams was very high. Each team felt they could not only beat Ferrari and Chaparral but they could also beat the other Ford team.

In their effort to get the Mk. IIs ready for Daytona several modifications and upgrades were made. Among those modifications were all new 427 engines that increased horsepower from 485 to 530. Mated to those engines was a new T-44 gearbox. To address the safety issues that came from the death of Ken Miles in the “J” car, a sturdier roll-cage was installed. The end result of all this tweaking was when the 7-liter Mk. IIs showed up at Daytona they weighed in at 3,100 pounds (car, driver, fuel, oil). This was an incredible 1000 pounds more that the 4-liter Ferrari P4s.

To add to the Ford “numbers game” were three private entry GT40’s entered in the sports category, a Cobra, six Mustang GT-350’s, several Cortinas and two Ford Falcons.

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1967 24 Hours of Daytona – Page Three

Not to be ignored in the over 2-liter prototype category were the Chaparral cars entered by Jim Hall. He rolled into Daytona with an older model Chaparral 2D that was modified to accept a 7-liter Chevy engine and the new “winged-wonder” also known as the Chaparral 2F.

The Chaparral 2F was equipped with a moveable rear wing mounted directly over the rear suspension. A similar rear-mounted wing had been first seen three months earlier on the Chaparral 2E Can-Am car.

At Daytona the Chaparral wing was officially christened an “overhead aerodynamic stabilizer.” In the motoring press it was referred to as a “flipper” and the car was described as “weird-winged,” the “winged-wonder” and the “winged-express.”

The new car was also equipped with a 427-cubic-inch, 396-horsepower Chevrolet engine and a “secret” three-speed automatic transmission. Hall hoped this extra horsepower would address some of the problems he had in endurance racing in 1966. The engine and transmission were courtesy of the limited support he was still getting from General Motors.

In the 2-liter and under category Porsche would have little opposition. Two factory 906Es and a new Carrera 910 were entered in the Daytona 24. The 2-liter 910 was equipped with a 220-horsepower flat six-cylinder engine. In the minds of many the only competition that faced Porsche in this category was the Ferrari Dino 206s entered by privateers NART and Harrah.

During the three days of practice and qualifying the Dan Gurney – A.J. Foyt Ford GT40 Mk. II took the pole position with a time of 1:55.1 (119.165 mph) which was 2.7 seconds under the record set by Ken Miles in 1966. Gurney’s pole winning lap was set on a special set of Goodyear “gumball” qualifying tires.

The Phil Hill – Mike Spence Chaparral 2F was second on the grid with a time of 1:55.6 and to everyone’s surprise (especially factory Ferrari) the NART Ferrari 330 P3 of Pedro Rodriguez and Jean Guichet qualified third. The best the factory P4s could do was the Amon – Bandini P4 in fourth. The rest of the first ten qualifiers included another Ferrari, the other Chaparral and four more Ford GT40 Mk. IIs.

The other 49 cars that would finally make the starting grid consisted of a little bit of everything including a Dodge Dart, a 1.3 liter ASA 411 with an all female driving crew and several Triumph TR-4’s. The number 42 Triumph TR-4 would be driven by Mario Levetto’s brother Guido and he and co-driver Steven Somner would finish in 18th position.

Having such small displacement cars on the same track with the big 7-liter Ford prototypes created some hairy moments as closing speeds approached 120 feet per second on the 31-degree high banks. No wonder that the slower drivers were admonished strongly during the driver’s meeting to stay in their lanes and not deviate. After the race some of the slower drivers would jokingly claim they spent more time looking in their rear view mirrors than looking ahead out of fear of those 7-liter prototypes.

1967 24 Hours of Daytona – Race Profile Continued

1967 24 Hours of Daytona – Page Four

Weather on race day at Daytona was always a big factor. The previous year the race was run in sub-freezing temperatures but for 1967 the weather was almost perfect for racing. Cloudy with highs in the 60’s and lows in the 50’s. No rain was predicted.

Despite the overcast skies Bill France seemed quite cheerful. The 57-year-old France was telling everyone who would listen that “his” Continental carried more international standing “than any U.S. racing event including Sebring.”

What may have helped his cheerful demeanor was the news of advance ticket sales and the great turnout at the front gate. He was predicting a record attendance of 25,000 plus which was more than double what it was for the first running of the 24-hour race the previous year.

Under the overcast skies the race crews either pushed or drove their cars from the garages to the starting grid. The cars passed through the crowd while opening ceremonies were conducted and VIP’s were being introduced over the PA system.

If you stood there by the opening in the pit wall, where the cars and crews passed by on their way to the grid, you would have thought you were in the United Nations because of the different languages being spoken by the men pushing the race cars.

There were drivers and crews from Germany, Italy, France, England, Australia, Belgium, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada and Switzerland and they were still moving the last cars to the grid when the local high school band began playing the national anthem.

Much to everyone’s amazement, as the band played, the clouds parted and sunlight bathed the track. If you believed in omens then this was a good one for someone. The cars began leaving the grid to make the once around the track before taking the starting flag on the back straight of the 3.81 mile race course. Many of the drivers hoped to finish well enough to lay claim to some of the $61,000 that was being offered in prize money for this race.

Starting the race on the back straight was a safety measure which allowed the faster cars to string out ahead of the field of 59 cars before coming off the very fast high banks and into turns one and two on the infield course.

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1967 24 Hours of Daytona – Page Five

The green flag dropped at 3:09 p.m. (nine minutes late) and from the very beginning the Phil Hill Chaparral 2F jumped into the lead with a blistering pace over the rest of the field. By the end of the first lap Hill had a three second lead over Mario Andretti’s Mk. II and after only 30 minutes of racing would extend that lead to 20 seconds.

In their Mk. II Mario Andretti and co-driver Richie Ginther were supposed to be the “rabbit” or pacesetter that would stay in the front ranks and push the Ferrari and Chaparral team cars to the breaking point. However, try as they could they couldn’t keep pace with the Hill Chaparral especially on the 31-degree high banks where the Chaparrals wing and 427-cubic-inch aluminum engine gave the car the downforce and power needed to achieve 190-plus-miles-per hour speeds. (Note: In 1967 there was no chicane on the back straight as there is today so cars raced flat out and achieved dangerously high speeds on the high banks after they left turn six and before they began to slow for turn one.)

Being the first to retire from an endurance race is always an embarrassing moment and so it was for the Porsche Carrera 906 of Tony Dean and Trevor Taylor. They dropped a valve as the car was being driven out to the grid and failed to make even one official lap. Next to withdraw was the Shelby GT350 of Martin Krinner who retired his car after only three laps.

Also in the pits after only a couple of laps was the Gerhard Mitter/Jochen Rindt Porsche 906E which made three unscheduled pit stops to change four out-of-balance wheels. It seems that the Goodyear tire technicians had forgotten to put balance weights on the tires when they were mounted. All the spares that Mitter and Rindt had in their pit were this way and they had to wait until properly balanced ones were run over from the Goodyear truck in the paddock.

Another car having tire problems was the Andretti/Ginther “rabbit” which threw a tread on the high banks and had to pit twice for new tires. That car had been in second place until the tire problems occurred on the 17th lap.

At the 50-minute mark the Chaparral 2F was still in the lead and increasing it each lap. The Ronnie Bucknum/Frank Gardner Ford came into the pits on the 23rd lap missing 3rd and 4th gear. The mechanics changed the T-44 transmission in 28 minutes but it would not be the only one they would have to change.

One hour into the race the Chaparral 2F continued to lead with the Mark II’s of Lloyd Ruby, Denny Hulme, Bruce McLaren/Lucien Bianchi, A.J. Foyt/Dan Gurney and Mark Donohue/Peter Revson close behind. Some of the Ferrari race fans were surprised that the Ferrari P4’s weren’t further up in the field but in the pits it was apparent that the Ferrari team had a strategy to not challenge the Fords or Chaparrals unless they had more than a 5-lap lead. They kept to their target lap times and, as a result, they would move steadily up the field as attrition took its toll on the leading cars.

During the second hour, except for the Hill/Spence Chaparral, the leading cars changed position several times as they came in for fuel and driver changes. The McLaren/Bianchi Mk. II was in the pits again for radiator water due to a blown head gasket. Overheating would plague them for the entire race but they would be the only Mk. II to finish.

Just after 6 p.m. the Andretti/Ginther Mk. II was in the pits with the same transmission trouble that affected the Bucknum/Gardner Mk. II. When word spread in the Ford pits that another Mk. II had a missing 3rd and 4th gear they knew they had major problems. Later examination of the broken transmissions revealed defective heat treatment of the output shafts.

While the Ford mechanics were doing transmission repairs the leading Chaparral was in the pits for gas, tires and a driver change. Mike Spence turned the car over to Phil Hill and around 6:10 p.m. Hill left the pits on the 88th lap and back into the lead.

However, when Hill entered turn 6, the last infield turn before going onto the high banks, he hit a carpet of asphalt pebbles created by the disintegrating track. Prior to the race several turns had been widened and places patched. However the beating the track took from the wide tires on the cars was too much for the new asphalt and the road surface began to break up.

The Chaparral lost adhesion on those pebbles sliding up to the retaining wall at the top of the banked track. The Chaparral struck it twice causing damage to the right rear of the car.

Hill managed to get the car back into the pits where a bent wishbone and other suspension items were repaired. Once back on the track the car made a couple of more laps and then officially retired at 7:15 p.m. due to the accident damage. To his credit Hill accepted the blame for carelessness as he came around turn six too fast to retain control. Later Hill would tell the story that when Mike Spence turned the car over to him he said nothing about how dangerous things had become in turn 6 and Hill went into that turn with devastating results.

1967 24 Hours of Daytona – Race Profile Continued

1967 24 Hours of Daytona – Page Six

With the leading car out of the race the Ferrari 330 P4 of Mike Parkes and Ludovico Scarfiotti took the lead with the Amon/Bandini P4 in second, Gurney and Foyt in third in their Mk. II and the Mairesse/Beurlys Ferrari 412P in fourth.

Somewhere in that top five mix was the Ford GT40 Mk. II of Andretti and Ginther but they were in the pits for a transmission repair along with the Donohue/Revson Ford GT40 Mk. II that needed a new shock absorber. Long faces and dashed hopes seemed to have settled into the Shelby American and Holman Moody pits.

As more and more of the GT40 Mk. IIs made unscheduled pit stops a gaggle of reporters, photographers, race officials and lookie-loos began to crowd the Ford pits corralling anyone they could find to ask them what was going on with the Mk. II’s.

Finally several signs were posted by the pits to “Keep Out” and in those pits mechanics, drivers and crew were told to keep their mouths shut. If you asked them anything the response was always the same, “I dunno nuttin.”

In the garage area the bays now housing the growing number of broken Ford cars had their garage doors unceremoniously closed to prying eyes.

After six hours of racing the picture was becoming clearer and in that picture you could see Ferrari in the first four positions with no one to challenge them save the Foyt/Gurney Mk. II
in 5th place. Unfortunately they were also in and out of the pits for such mundane things as a bad battery and clutch trouble.

Back on the track there was a bit of excitement when the Porsche 906 LH of Walter Habegger collided with the Ferrari 275 GTB/C of Carlos Salas Guterrez. The Porsche hit the retaining wall near turn one, then flipped and burst into flames that shot thirty feet into the night sky.

Habegger miraculously escaped but had to be hospitalized with shock and deep facial cuts. Guterrez was not injured and both cars had to be withdrawn from the race with the Porsche getting the worst of it by being totally gutted by the fire.

Almost forgotten in the drama of the 6th hour was the lone remaining Chaparral 2D of Bob Johnson and Bruce Jennings. Ford’s bad luck with their Mk. II’s meant that the 2D was moving steadily up the field from 14th to 7th. It later had to retire when their secret 3-speed automatic transmission crapped out after completing 334 laps.

With both Chaparrals now out of the picture and the Ford’s plagued by transmission problems (Ford mechanics would use up all 12 spares) there was little for Ferrari to worry about in the over 2-liter category. At the 9 p.m. mark the Parkes – Scarfiotti Ferrari was averaging 109.410 m.p.h. and Ferraris were running 1-2-3-4.

In the 2-liter and under category the works team of Hans Herrmann/Jo Siffert continued to lead in their Porsche 910. They held a comfortable lead over the two older Porsche 906’s that followed.

In group 4 (Sports +2.0) category the John Wyer GT40 of Jacky Ickx and Dick Thompson was leading and would remain there for the rest of the race with the William Wonder – Ray Caldwell GT40 far behind.

From 10 p.m. on the Ferraris continued their smooth and relentless pace with few to challenge them. The only car that had a chance was the Gurney/Foyt Mk. II but they were 30 laps behind the leader and at 1 a.m. they had to pit for a new transmission.

Learning from their problems with the faulty T-44 transmissions the Ford mechanics installed an older model GT40 transmission in the Gurney/Foyt Mk. II. A second one was installed in the McLaren/Bianchi Mk. II when it also came in for a transmission repair. Unfortunately those two older transmissions were the only ones available to the Ford team. After the quick transmission swap the Gurney/Foyt Mk. II reentered the fray and began to reel in the Ferraris and after 18 hours of racing actually made it back up to 5th position when the engine gave out after completing 464 laps.

At this point there was only one Ford GT40 Mk. II left and it was the McLaren/Bianchi car but they were many miles behind and still having to make frequent pit stops due to overheating. After Dan Gurney’s car retired he was allowed to drive the McLaren/Bianchi car but after several very hot laps the car had to slow down due to the overheating problem. So ended Ford’s last remaining chance to salvage something from this event.

Average lap times began to fall for the leaders as the word went out to the Ferrari drivers to slow down and conserve their cars. Around 8 a.m. on Sunday the race average had dropped to 106.7 m.p.h. which was far off the record 118.5 m.p.h. set by Phil Hill in the Chaparral 2F during the early hours of the race.

1967 24 Hours of Daytona – Race Profile Continued

1967 24 Hours of Daytona – Page Seven

With four hours to go the first place Amon/Bandini P4 was 11 miles ahead of the 2nd place Parkes/Scarfiotti P4 and 100 miles ahead of the NART 412P of Rodriguez/Guichet. The NART car had a little bad luck in the final hours when they had to pit for mechanical problems that cost them twenty minutes.

At 1 p.m. the three Ferraris had not changed position and in 4th & 5th position were the Porsche 910 of Hans Hermann and Jo Siffert and the Porsche 906LH of Rico Steinemann and Dieter Spoerry respectively.

From then on the Italian drivers were so comfortable with their lead that they engaged in a bit of NASCAR type drafting on the high banks. It was no one other than Bill France, Jr. who introduced them to Daytona-style drafting by showing the boys from Modena closed circuit films of NASCAR races. This was done in December when France played host to the Ferrari team during their test week at the Daytona Speedway.

During the final thirty minutes of the race the three Ferrari racers paraded around the track nose to tail at a leisurely pace ignoring the stream of race cars passing them by.

As the clock wound down to the final minutes the three Ferrari cars slowed down even further then filled the asphalt track three abreast as they headed toward the checkered flag and vindication for the Prancing Horse.

The rest of the pack was forced to bunch up behind them and as the three blood-red cars crossed the finish line the drivers purposely revved their engines and the distinctive scream of 12-cylinder Ferrari engines could be heard throughout the track. Ferraris led for almost 20 hours of the 24-hour race and it was a great victory for Enzo Ferrari.

Finishing first was the P4 of Chris Amon and Lorenzo Bandini. They covered 2,537.46 miles (666 laps) for an average speed of 105.703 m.p.h. This was not a record because the Ferrari team had little to worry about after the collapse of the Ford team early in the race.

Coming in second was the P4 of Mike Parkes and Ludovico Scarfiotti and third was the NART 412P of Pedro Rodriguez and Jean Guichet. As a further embarrassment to Ford, fourth and fifth places went to the much smaller-engined works Porsche 910 of Hans Hermann and Jo Siffert and the Porsche 906LE of Dieter Spoerry and Rico Steinemann. The only surviving factory 7-liter Mk. II of Bruce McLaren and Lucien Bianchi limped home in seventh place and 278 miles behind the winning car while the private entry John Wyer GT40 of Dick Thompson and Jacky Ickx finished sixth overall and first in the sports category.

The Ferrari 1-2-3 victory was a crushing defeat to the world-champion American Fords in the first of eight races in the 1967 Championship series.

During the post-race interviews everyone had an opinion as to why the much ballyhooed Ford team failed to win.

Race winner Chris Amon felt that the Fords were “too heavy.” He said, “We (Ferrari) were lighter than the Fords. We could take them accelerating out of the tight curves, and run with them on the straights.”

North American Racing Team owner, Luigi Chinetti, felt that the Fords were too big and had too much power. He commented, “Four-hundred and five-hundred horsepower is foolish. Only about five drivers in the world can handle that kind of horsepower to full advantage on a short course.”

The winning drivers were awarded a purse of $17,100 which works out to the paltry sum of $3.36 per mile per driver. Second place drivers split $7,350, $3,900 for third place with 4th and 5th place cars taking away $1,050 each.

Not long after the race Ford and Shelby American would return to Daytona with their GT40 Mk. IIs and J car and rent the track right in the middle of Speedweeks in order to work out the problems with their prototype cars in preparation for Sebring. So as to not conflict with any NASCAR events all testing was done from 5 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily for one week.

Anyone hoping for a Ferrari repeat at Sebring on April 1 of 1967 would be thoroughly disappointed. Ferrari technical director, Franco Lini, announced that they would not compete at Sebring, “…because this American race was not in our plans.”

Those in the know suspected that both NART and factory Ferrari were fearful of legal action being filed at Sebring following the death of four spectators in 1966. Mario Andretti’s NART Ferrari figured prominently in that tragic occurrence. In fact, one week prior to the Sebring race a $1 million wrongful death suit was filed and Andretti was one of the principals named in the legal papers.

Not long after the ’67 Daytona victory Ferrari driver Mike Parkes would commission a painting of the 1-2-3 finish and present it to Enzo Ferrari as a birthday gift. Ferrari kept the painting prominently displayed on the wall of his office until his death in 1988.

When Ferrari introduced their now legendary 365 GTB/4 at the Paris Auto Salon in 1968 the media unofficially christened it the Ferrari “Daytona” to commemorate their 1-2-3 victory at Daytona in 1967. The name stuck and that’s how the car is referred to today.

A fitting epitaph for the 1967 24 Hours of Daytona could be found near the city limits of Daytona Beach, on Volusia Avenue, not long after the race. There a local Ford dealer had erected a sign which proclaimed that “This is Ford Country.” Someone, a Ferrari fan no doubt, had painted the name Ferrari, in red, over the Ford name.

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For Additional Reading

Daytona 24 Hours: The Definitive History of America’s Great Endurance Race by J.J. O’Malley, David Bull Publishing, 2009

Ferrari’s Continental Revenge by Patrick McNally, AUTORSPORT Bulletin Board

The Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Daytona Beach, Florida, Feb. 4, 14, 17, 1967

The St. Petersburg Times, St. Petersburg, Florida, February 4, 6, 1967

The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Washington, Feb. 5, 1967

Competition Press and Autoweek, April 22, 1967

The Miami News, Miami, Florida, Feb. 17, 1967

SPORTSCARS.TV, Daytona 24 Hour Race

[Source: Louis Galanos]