(From Left to Right): Steve McQueen, Pedro Rodriguez, Masten Gregory, Peter Revson, Mario Andretti. Photos: Hal Crocker
That was Mario Andretti’s comment after the drive of his life…an impossible dream. He said so after he had just won the 1970 12 Hours of Sebring for Ferrari in the most incredible nail-biter of a race, which had more than 57,000 spectators exploding with excitement, especially during the last 45 minutes or so. The event was the second round in the year’s International Championship of Makes. The first in the series had been the 24 Hours of Daytona a few weeks earlier, and that had been won by Pedro Rodriguez/Brian Redman/Leo Kinnunen in a John Wyer Automotive Porsche 917K, with Jo Siffert and Brian Redman 2nd in another JWA 917K and Mario/Jacky Ickx/Arturo Merzario 3rd in a Ferrari 512 S.
Mario Andretti qualified the #19 Ferrari 512 S he shared with Arturo Merzario on pole, and the car led much of the race before its gearbox failed with little more than an hour to run to the finish. Photo: Hal Crocker
So Ferrari was out for revenge at Sebring, but neither Porsche nor the Prancing Horse had any idea of just how hellishly tough it was going to be to win. The battle lines had been drawn at Daytona, which confirmed that the main contenders for the title would be the cars from Stuttgart and Maranello—both in the 5-liter class—and nobody else. OK, Alfa Romeo was campaigning its 33/3 in the 3-liter category but, although one of them came 3rd in the championship at the end of the year, they couldn’t hold a candle to the two lead players.
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