1967 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 35th 24 -hour Le Mans race, the Grand Prix d' Endurance les 35e 24 Heures du Mans, was held from June 10 to 11 place in 1967 at the Circuit des 24 Heures.

  • 2.1 Ford disaster by 3 clock 30
  • 2.2 Further course of the race
  • 4.1 pilots after Nations
  • 4.2 Final ranking
  • 4.3 Only in the message list
  • 4.4 Class Winner
  • 4.5 racing data

Before the race

For the sports car season 1967 both Ford and Ferrari had developed new prototypes that were brought to the start at Le Mans.

Ford

The new Ford was the Mk.IV, a consistent further development of the Ford GT40. The chassis base continued to deliver the GT40, a new aluminum body made ​​for more downforce and a higher top speed. Internally, the project was given the chassis designation "J". The car was extensively tested. In one of these tests, however, the long-time Ford works driver Ken Miles was killed in a serious accident.

Four of the new racing car brought Ford to Le Mans. At Shelby American, the team of Le Mans winner of 1959, Carroll Shelby, Dan Gurney and AJ were Foyt, who made his Le Mans debut and won a few weeks before the third time the 500 miles of Indianapolis, a driver duo. The second driver team were last year's winner Bruce McLaren and Mark Donohue. The two Holman & Moody - Mk.IV were driven by Mario Andretti and Lucien Bianchi and Lloyd Ruby and Denis Hulme.

But both teams also relied on the conventional Mk.IIB version ( GT40 ) and put one or two of these vehicles. The Holman & Moody car drove Roger McCluskey and Frank Gardner and French duo Jo Schlesser and Guy Ligier. Has been reported but these cars from Ford France. In Shelby Mk.IIB Ronnie Bucknam and Paul Hawkins sat.

Already at the beginning of the leaders of Ford had signed a contract with the team of John Wyer and John Willment and thus made the John Wyer Automotive for the third factory team. Wyer had taken on the tasks to develop the GT40 further, but also special rights had negotiated. So he was both lightweight GT40, which were built in the factory in England, bringing it under the designation Mirage M1 at the start. Then there was a GT40 driven by Brian Redman and Mike Salmon.

The dozen of Ford race car was rounded off by two other GT40. One belonged to the Scuderia Filipinetti and was driven by Umberto Maglioli and Mario Casoni. The twelfth cars - reported by Ford France - was in the hands of Henri Greder and Pierre Dumay.

With an airlift Ford brought 53 tons of material to Le Mans, including three spare engines per team. All Ford teams were logistically supported with great effort. 270 people were turned off to ensure the overall victory.

Ferrari

The biggest opponents of Ford were the Ferrari team. The factory team wanted to take revenge for the defeat of the previous year, hence the Ferrari 330P4 was developed in Maranello. In contrast to the 7 -liter engines from Ford, Ferrari confided to a 4 -liter V12 engine. After the triple victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona Le Mans was the highlight of the season. In training, however, it soon became clear that Ferrari were clearly inferior in speed the Ford prototype. The fastest Ford was stopped on the Les Hunaudières 340 km / h and was increased 30 km / h faster than the best Ferrari.

The three works cars were driven by Ludovico Scarfiotti, Chris Amon, Nino Vaccarella, Mike Parkes, Günter Klass and Peter Sutcliffe. In one of the two North American Racing Team Ferrari Pedro Rodríguez sat, but put the American team also have an old P2. The Equipe Nationale Belge - P4 with yellow center stripe drove Willy Mairesse and Jean Blaton.

How little was thought in the 1960s of great secrecy, one can refer to the fact that the Scuderia Filipinetti next to their works Ford and a Ferrari P4 began, which was piloted by Jean Guichet and Herbert Müller.

Chaparral, Porsche, Alpine and Matra

In training the new Chaparral race car surprised with top times. Phil Hill and Mike Spence scored the second time in training. Whether the 2F but would persevere with his powerful rear wing the long distance, was rather doubtful.

Porsche brought three types of the Sarthe. The Porsche 906, 907 and 910 all had the 2-liter 6-cylinder flat engine, and Porsche executives knew you against the big prototypes had no chance in the overall standings. So we focused on the P2.0 class to there retract the class win.

Alpine brought seven A210 to Le Mans and Matra MS630 set up two that were powered by a BRM V8 engine.

The race

As on Saturday, the starting flag fell by 16 clock to the Le Mans start, Ronnie Bucknam went to Frank Gardner in the lead. Already in the second round was Denis Hulme with a defective accelerator pedal in the Ford box and lost two laps. Worse, it caught in the early stages of the two new Lola T70 with Aston Martin engine, which were soon to technical defects. After about 1 ½ hours of racing Ford lost the first car. The GT40 by Mike Salmon stood in the Mulsanne suddenly in flames because gasoline was phased out. The fire was quickly extinguished though, but the car was so badly burned that was impossible to continue the journey.

After two hours, led as before Ronnie Bucknam ahead of four other Ford cars. Only the Chaparral Hill and Spence could ride the pace of the fastest Ford. This remained as 2 ½ hours after Dan Gurney took the lead. As long as the Chaparral ran, he made pressure on the Ford race car. However Vorneweg certain Dan Gurney and A. J. Foyt drove the pace and constantly record laps. The Ferrari cars could not intervene in the action at the top: Mike Parkes had the fastest P4 in the early hours of the night just four laps behind the leading Mk.IV.

Ford disaster by 3 clock 30

As Lucien Bianchi came at 3 clock 25 in the night in the box, Mario Andretti is getting ready to take over from the Belgian located at the third position in the overall standings MK IV. Andretti had to wait several minutes before he could drive off because the car next to the fueling operation, the brake pads were changed.

Andretti went back on the track and drove through the first Dunlop Esses arc direction. Under braking the left turn the car broke off suddenly. Andretti had apparently forgotten shortly einzubremsen the new pads and at 250 km / h blocked the wheels. The Ford bounced right into the guardrail and then skidded across the road, before he came to a halt. Just behind Andretti drove Henri Greder and a Porsche 911 that the gyroscopic Ford just could not dodge. Next at the accident site was Roger McCluskey. McCluskey did not know that Andretti had already got out of the car and just collapsed a little later behind the guardrail. Assuming his teammate still sitting in the car and in an attempt to avoid a collision, he steered the Mk.IV in the left guardrail and damaged the car while the long term. The next Jo Schlesser appeared in the Ford -France - Mk.II at the accident site and had no chance to avoid the wreckage. At a stroke three Holman - Moody - works cars were failed.

Another race course

As Sundays at 9 clock 40 Ronnie Bucknam had an engine failure, the Parkes / Scarfiotti - Ferrari was suddenly in second place overall. Since the Chaparral had long failed with defects in the automatic transmission. Around noon, Bruce McLaren lost on the line the engine cover on Mk.IV. The New Zealander was the part of the marshals get fixed and the flap with entrained tape back at the car. In the box, the flap was replaced and sent the car into the race again.

At the end of Gurney / Foyt cars had no more enemies, and the two Americans drove the last two hours of racing already rather introspective. Nevertheless, they fixed with 5232.900 km a new distance record. That is until now the fourth best mileage in Le Mans. Had not the duo strolled in the last phase of the race so the two Americans would probably keep to this day the distance record.

With four laps behind Mike Parkes and Ludovico Scarfiotti came in second to the finish. The lying in third place Equipe Nationale Belge - Ferrari had lost eleven rounds on the winner. With the fifth overall on their Porsche 907 Joseph Siffert and Hans Herrmann managed the best placement for a 2 - liter car in Le Mans.

Champagne shower and a legend

Dan Gurney led at the award ceremony a day long everyday procedure in motorsport champion honors: he was the first race car driver who spilled champagne on the podium.

In some publications stubbornly holds for many years a legend that was never confirmed by the participating drivers. So to just before midnight Mike Parkes the vehicle in front of him, Dan Gurney provoked by constant activate the headlight so that the Americans stopped just before the Indianapolis curve. Also Parkes should be stopped and the two pilots have " stalked " five minutes in the car before Gurney and Parkes in the old order drove off again. However, the Ferrari was at that time already three laps behind the Ford, and Gurney would have had no reason to engage in a provocation.

Results

Pilot after Nations

Final ranking

1 not allowed 2 not qualified not qualified 3 4 5 Reserve Reserve Reserve 6

Only in the message list

Here are the teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the competition, but it did not participate for various reasons.

Class winner

Race data

  • Reported: 85
  • Started: 54
  • Weather during the race weekend: cloudy and warm
  • Distance: 13.461 km
  • Honorary starter of the race: François Missoffe, French Minister for Youth and Sports
  • Distance of the winning team: 5232.900 km
  • Winners section: 218.038 km / h
  • Pole Position: Bruce McLaren - Ford GT40 MK IV (# 2) - 3.24.400 = 236.082 km / h
  • Fastest race lap: Denis Hulme - Ford GT40 MK IV (# 2 ) and Mario Andretti - Ford GT40 MK IV (# 3) - 3.23.600 = 237.971 km / h
  • Race series: 7th round of the World Sportscar Championship
Circuit de la Sarthe Sports prototype 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans A. J. Foyt 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans Frank Gardner (racing driver) Ronnie Bucknum Paul Hawkins (racing driver) Chaparral Cars Porsche 910 Jo Siffert Italy Australia Carroll Shelby International Rolf Stommelen Jochen Neerpasch Vic Elford Ben Pon Renault Ferrari 275 Jean Vinatier Herbert Linge Donald Healey Austin-Healey Sprite Chevrolet Richard Attwood Piers Courage Bob Bondurant Giancarlo Baghetti Gerhard Mitter Jochen Rindt David Piper Dick Thompson (racing driver) Henri Pescarolo Cosworth Charles Deutsch Peugeot Brian Muir (racing driver) Peter de Klerk Chris Irwin Hillman Marcos (automobile) Chris Lawrence (racing driver) Mini Marcos John Surtees David Hobbs (racing driver) Bizzarrini Porsche 904 Peter Revson Lorenzo Bandini Ignazio Giunti Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 1923 24 Hours of Le Mans 1924 24 Hours of Le Mans 1925 24 Hours of Le Mans 1926 24 Hours of Le Mans 1927 24 Hours of Le Mans 1928 24 Hours of Le Mans 1929 24 Hours of Le Mans 1930 24 Hours of Le Mans 1931 24 Hours of Le Mans 1932 24 Hours of Le Mans 1933 24 Hours of Le Mans 1934 24 Hours of Le Mans 1935 24 Hours of Le Mans 1936 24 Hours of Le Mans 1937 24 Hours of Le Mans 1938 24 Hours of Le Mans 1939 24 Hours of Le Mans 1949 24 Hours of Le Mans 1950 24 Hours of Le Mans 1951 24 Hours of Le Mans 1952 24 Hours of Le Mans 1953 24 Hours of Le Mans 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans 1956 24 Hours of Le Mans 1957 24 Hours of Le Mans 1958 24 Hours of Le Mans 1960 24 Hours of Le Mans 1961 24 Hours of Le Mans 1962 24 Hours of Le Mans 1963 24 Hours of Le Mans 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans 1968 24 Hours of Le Mans 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans 1973 24 Hours of Le Mans 1974 24 Hours of Le Mans 1975 24 Hours of Le Mans 1976 24 Hours of Le Mans 1977 24 Hours of Le Mans 1978 24 Hours of Le Mans 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans 1980 24 Hours of Le Mans 1981 24 Hours of Le Mans 1982 24 Hours of Le Mans 1983 24 Hours of Le Mans 1984 24 Hours of Le Mans 1985 24 Hours of Le Mans 1986 24 Hours of Le Mans 1987 24 Hours of Le Mans 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans 1989 24 Hours of Le Mans 1990 24 Hours of Le Mans 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans 1992 24 Hours of Le Mans 1993 24 Hours of Le Mans 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans 2001 24 Hours of Le Mans 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans 2003 24 Hours of Le Mans 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans
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