Le Mans 24 hour race in 1967

The J version of the Ford GT40, the MK IV with starting number 1, winning car from Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt

The Chaparral 2F, at the wheel Mike Spence here at the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring. With the same car - at Le Mans with starting number 7 - Spence and Phil Hill were in second place in the overall standings until Sunday morning before they had to retire after a gearbox failure.

The number 45 Alpine A210, driven by Jean Vinatier and Mauro Bianchi. The two drivers achieved 13th place in the overall standings with the 1.5-liter racing car.

The number 14 Mirage M1, driven by Dick Thompson and David Piper. Failure after 59 laps due to valve damage

The 35th 24-hour race of Le Mans , the 35 ^e Grand Prix d'Endurance les 24 Heures du Mans , also 24 Heures du Mans, Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans , took place from 10 to 11 June 1967 on the Circuit des 24 Heures .

Before the race

For the 1967 sports car season, both Ford and Ferrari had developed new prototypes that were also launched at Le Mans.

ford

The new Ford was the Mk.IV, a consequent further development of the Ford GT40 . The chassis continued to be provided by the GT40, a new aluminum body ensured more downforce and a higher top speed. Internally, the project was given the chassis designation "J". The car has been extensively tested. During one of these test drives, however, the long-standing Ford factory driver Ken Miles was killed in a serious accident.

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

Both teams also relied on the conventional Mk.IIB version (GT40) and used one or two of these vehicles. The Holman & Moody cars were driven by Roger McCluskey and Frank Gardner and the French duo Jo Schlesser and Guy Ligier . This car was registered by Ford France. Ronnie Bucknum and Paul Hawkins sat in the Shelby Mk.IIB .

At the beginning of the year, those responsible at Ford had already signed a contract with the team of John Wyer and John Willment , making their John Wyer Automotive the third works team. Wyer had taken on the task of further developing the GT40, but had also negotiated special rights. He was allowed to launch the two lightweight GT40s, which were built in the factory in England, under the name Mirage M1 . There was also a GT40, driven by Brian Redman and Mike Salmon .

The dozen Ford racing cars were rounded off by two more GT40s. One belonged to the Scuderia Filipinetti and was driven by Umberto Maglioli and Mario Casoni . The twelfth car - reported by Ford France - was in the hands of Henri Greder and Pierre Dumay .

Ford brought 53 tons of material to Le Mans with an airlift, including three reserve engines per team. All Ford teams received logistical support at great expense. 270 employees were deployed to ensure overall victory.

Ferrari

The biggest opponents of Ford were the Ferrari teams. The works team wanted to return the favor for the defeat from the previous year, so the Ferrari 330P4 was developed in Maranello . In contrast to the 7-liter engines from Ford, Ferrari relied on a 4-liter V12 engine . After the triple victory at the Daytona 24 Hours , Le Mans was the highlight of the season. In training, however, it soon became apparent that the Ferrari were clearly inferior to the Ford prototypes at top speed. The fastest Ford was stopped at Les Hunaudières at 340 km / h and was thus 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 . Pedro Rodríguez sat in one of the two North American Racing Team Ferrari cars , but the American team also used an old P2. Willy Mairesse and Jean Blaton drove the Equipe-Nationale-Belge-P4 with a yellow median .

How little people thought of secrecy in the 1960s can be seen from the fact that Scuderia Filipinetti also used a Ferrari P4 in addition to their factory Ford, which was driven by Jean Guichet and Herbert Müller .

Chaparral, Porsche, Alpine and Matra

The new Chaparral racing cars surprised with top times in practice. Phil Hill and Mike Spence scored the second time in practice. It was rather doubted whether the 2F with its mighty rear wing would be able to hold out the long distance.

Porsche brought three guys to the Sarthe. The Porsche 906 , 907 and 910 all had the 2-liter 6-cylinder flat engine and those responsible for Porsche knew that they had no chance against the large prototypes in the overall standings. So the focus was on the P 2.0 class in order to achieve class victory there.

Alpine brought seven A210s to Le Mans and Matra ran two MS630s powered by a BRM V8 engine.

The race

When the starting flag for the Le Mans start fell on Saturday at 4 p.m. , Ronnie Bucknum took the lead ahead of Frank Gardner . In the second lap, Denis Hulme came into the Ford box with a defective gas pedal and lost two laps. The two new Lola T70s with Aston Martin engines, which soon broke down with technical defects, got worse in the initial phase . After almost 1½ hours of racing, Ford lost the first car. Mike Salmon's GT40 suddenly caught fire in the Mulsanne because gasoline had leaked. The fire could be put out quickly, but the car was so badly burned that it was impossible to continue driving.

After two hours, Ronnie Bucknum was still leading four other Ford cars. Only Hill and Spence's Chaparral could keep up with the speed of the fastest Ford. It stayed that way when Dan Gurney took the lead after 2½ hours. As long as the chaparral was running, it put pressure on the Ford racing cars. Up front, however, Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt set the pace and consistently drove record laps. The Ferrari cars could not intervene in the action at the front: Mike Parkes was already four laps behind the leading Mk.IV in the fastest P4 in the early hours of the night.

Ford disaster at 3:30 a.m.

When Lucien Bianchi pits at 3:25 a.m., Mario Andretti is getting ready to take over the MK IV from the Belgian, which is third in the overall ranking. Andretti had to wait a few minutes before he could drive off because the brake pads were being changed on the car next to the refueling process.

Andretti went back on the track and drove through the first Dunlop arch towards Esses. When braking into the left-hand bend, the car suddenly broke out. Andretti had obviously forgotten to briefly brake the new pads and the wheels locked at 250 km / h. The Ford hit the guardrail on the right, then skidded across the lane before coming to a stop. Henri Greder and a Porsche 911 drove just behind Andretti, just able to avoid the spinning Ford. Roger McCluskey was next at the scene of the accident. Little did McCluskey know that Andretti had already got out of the car and shortly afterwards collapsed behind the guardrail. Assuming his teammate was still in the car and trying to avoid a collision, he steered the Mk.IV into the left guardrail and damaged the car permanently. Next, Jo Schlesser appeared at the scene of the accident in a Ford France Mk.II and had no chance to avoid the wreckage. Three Holman Moody factory cars suddenly failed.

Further course of the race

When Ronnie Bucknum had an engine failure at 9:40 on a Sunday, the Parkes / Scarfiotti-Ferrari was suddenly in second place in the overall standings. The Chaparral with defects in the automatic transmission had long since failed. Around noon, Bruce McLaren lost the engine cover on the Mk.IV on the straight. The New Zealander had the part fetched from marshals and fixed the flap back to the car with the adhesive tape he had carried with him. The flap was exchanged in the pits and the car was put back into the race.

In the end, the Gurney / Foyt car had no more opponents, and the two Americans drove the last two hours of racing rather calmly. Nevertheless, they set a new distance record with 5232.900 km. That is the fourth best mileage in Le Mans to date. If the duo hadn't strolled like that in the last phase of the race, the two Americans would probably hold the distance record to this day.

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

Champagne shower and the stop on the route

At the award ceremony, Dan Gurney introduced a procedure that has long since become commonplace at motorsport award ceremonies: He was the first racing driver to splash champagne on the podium .

At around 02:30 am, Mike Parkes tried to provoke Dan Gurney, who was driving in front of him, by constantly flashing the headlights. The American didn't get involved and after several laps he stopped in the meadow at the edge of the track after the Arnage curve. Parkes stopped behind Gurney and the two drivers "watched" each other for a few moments before Parkes drove on and Gurney could continue the race unmolested. The Ferrari was already three laps behind the Ford at this point, and Gurney had had no reason to be provoked.

Results

Pilots by nationality

34 French	20 British	17 Americans	9 Germans	8 Belgians
6 Italians	5 Swiss	3 New Zealanders	2 Australians	1 Mexican
1 Dutch	1 Austrian	1 South African

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	driver	chassis	engine	tires	Round
1	P + 5.0	1	Shelby-American Inc.	Dan Gurney A. J. Foyt	Ford GT40 Mk.IV	Ford 7.0L V8		388
2	P 5.0	21st	Ferrari SEFAC Spa	Ludovico Scarfiotti Mike Parkes	Ferrari 330P4	Ferrari 4.0L V12		384
3	P 5.0	24	Equipe Nationale Belge	Willy Mairesse Jean Blaton	Ferrari 330P4	Ferrari 4.0L V12		377
4th	P 5.0	2	Shelby-American Inc.	Bruce McLaren Mark Donohue	Ford GT40 Mk.IV	Ford 7.0L V8		359
5	P 2.0	41	Porsche System Engineering	Joseph Siffert Hans Herrmann	Porsche 907 / 6L	Porsche 2.0L Flat-6		358
6th	P 2.0	38	Porsche System Engineering	Rolf Stommelen Jochen Neerpasch	Porsche 910 / 6K	Porsche 2.0L Flat-6		351
7th	S 2.0	37	Porsche System Engineering	Vic Elford Ben Pon	Porsche 906K Carrera 6	Porsche 2.0L Flat-6		327
8th	S 2.0	66	Christian Poirot	Christian Poirot Gerhard Koch	Porsche 906 Carrera 6	Porsche 2.0L Flat-6		321
9	P 1.3	46	Société des Automobiles Alpine	Henri Grandsire José Rosinski	Alpine A210	Renault -Gordini 1.3L I4		321
10	P 1.3	49	Ecurie Savin-Calberson	André de Cortanze Alain LeGuellec	Alpine A210	Renault-Gordini 1.3L I4		318
11	GT 5.0	28	Scuderia Filipinetti	Dieter Spoerry Rico Steinemann	Ferrari 275 GTB / C	Ferrari 3.3L V12		317
12	P 1.3	48	Ecurie Savin-Calberson	Roger Delageneste Jacques Cheinisse	Alpine A210	Renault-Gordini 1.3L I4		311
13	P 1.6	45	Société des Automobiles Alpine	Mauro Bianchi Jean Vinatier	Alpine A210	Renault-Gordini 1.5L I4		311
14th	GT 2.0	42	Auguste Veuillet	Robert Buchet Herbert Linge	Porche 911S	Porsche 2.0L Flat-6		308
15th	P 1.3	51	Donald Healey Motor Company	Clive Baker Andrew Hedges	Austin-Healey Sprite Le Mans	BMC 1.3L I4		289
16	P 1.3	64	Ecurie du Maine	Marcel Martin Jean Mésange	Abarth 1300	Fiat 1.3L I4		262
Failed
17th	P 5.0	19th	Ferrari SEFAC Spa	Günter Klass Peter Sutcliffe	Ferrari 330P4	Ferrari 4.0L V12		296
18th	P + 5.0	57	Shelby-American Inc.	Ronnie Bucknum Paul Hawkins	Ford GT40 Mk.IIB	Ford 7.0L V8		271
19th	P + 5.0	7th	Chaparral Cars Inc.	Phil Hill Mike Spence	Chaparral 2F	Chevrolet 7.0L V8	F.	225
20th	P 1.3	47	Société des Automobiles Alpine	Jean-Claude Andruet Robert Bouharde	Alpine A210	Renault-Gordini 1.3L I4		219
21st	P 5.0	23	Maranello Concessionaires	Richard Attwood Piers Courage	Ferrari 412P	Ferrari 4.0L V12		208
22nd	P 1.15	56	Ecurie Savin-Calberson	Gérard Larrousse Patrick Depailler	Alpine A210	Renault-Gordini 1.0L I4		204
23	P 1.15	55	North American Racing Team	Jean-Luc Thérier Francois Chevalier	Alpine M64	Renault-Gordini 1.0L I4		201
24	P + 5.0	3	Holman & Moody	Mario Andretti Lucien Bianchi	Ford GT40 Mk.IV	Ford 7.0L V8		188
25th	P + 5.0	6th	Ford France SA	Jo Schlesser Guy Ligier	Ford GT40 Mk.IIB	Ford 7.0L V8		183
26th	S 5.0	16	Ford France SA	Pierre Dumay Henri Greder	Ford GT40 Mk.I	Ford 4.7L V8		179
27	P + 5.0	5	Holman & Moody	Roger McCluskey Frank Gardner	Ford GT40 Mk.IIB	Ford 7.0L V8		179
28	GT + 5.0	9	Dana Chevrolet Inc.	Bob Bondurant Dick Guldstrand	Chevrolet Corvette	Chevrolet 7.0L V8		167
29	P 2.0	29	Equipe Matra Sports	Jean-Pierre Beltoise Johnny Servoz-Gavin	Matra MS630	BRM 2.0L V8		155
30th	P 5.0	25th	North American Racing Team	Pedro Rodríguez Giancarlo Baghetti	Ferrari 412P	Ferrari 4.0L V12		144
31	GT 2.0	67	Pierre Boutin	Pierre Boutin Patrice Sanson	Porsche 911S	Porsche 2.0L Flat-6		134
32	GT 2.0	60	Philippe Farjon	Philippe Farjon André Wicky	Porsche 911S	Porsche 2.0L Flat-6		126
33	S 5.0	18th	Scuderia Filipinetti	Umberto Maglioli Mario Casoni	Ford GT40 Mk.I	Ford 4.7L V8		116
34	P 5.0	20th	Ferrari SEFAC Spa	Chris Amon Nino Vaccarella	Ferrari 330P3 Spyder	Ferrari 4.0L V12		105
35	P 2.0	40	Porsche System Engineering	Gerhard Mitter Jochen Rindt	Porsche 907 / 6L	Porsche 2.0L Flat-6		103
36	P + 5.0	8th	Chaparral Cars Inc.	Bob Johnson Bruce Jennings	Chaparral 2F	Chevrolet 7.0L V8	F.	91
37	P 5.0	22nd	Scuderia Filipinetti	Jean Guichet Herbert Müller	Ferrari 412P	Ferrari 4.0L V12		88
38	P + 5.0	4th	Holman & Moody	Denis Hulme Lloyd Ruby	Ford GT40 Mk.IV	Ford 7.0L V8		86
39	P 2.0	39	Porsche System Engineering	Udo Schütz Joe Buzzetta	Porsche 910 / 6L	Porsche 2.0L Flat-6		84
40	P 1.15	58	Société des Automobiles Alpine	Philippe Vidal Leo Cella	Alpine A210	Renault-Gordini 1.0L I4 #		67
41	P + 5.0	14th	John Wyer Automotive Engineering	David Piper Dick Thompson	Mirage M1	Ford 5.7L V8	F.	59
42	GT 5.0	17th	Claude Dubois	Claude Dubois Chris Tuerlinx	Shelby Mustang GT350	Ford 4.7L V8		58
43	P 2.0	30th	Equipe Matra Sports	Jean-Pierre Jaussaud Henri Pescarolo	Matra MS630	BRM 2.0L V8		55
44	P 1.6	44	Team elite	David Preston John Wagstaff	Lotus Europa Mk.47	Cosworth 1.6L I4		42
45	P 1.15	53	SEC Automobiles CD	André Guilhaudin Alain Bertaut	CD SP66C	Peugeot 1.1L I4		35
46	P 5.0	26th	North American Racing Team	Ricardo Rodríguez-Cavazo's Chuck Parsons	Ferrari 365P2	Ferrari 4.4L V12		30th
47	P + 5.0	15th	John Wyer Automotive Engineering	Jacky Ickx Brian Muir	Mirage M1	Ford 5.7L V8		29
48	P 1.15	52	SEC Automobiles CD	Denis Dayan Claude Ballot-Léna	CD SP66C	Peugeot 1.1L I4		25th
49	P + 5.0	12	Lola Cars Ltd.	Peter de Klerk Chris Irwin	Lola T70 Mk.III	Aston Martin 5.0L V8	F.	25th
50	S 5.0	62	John Wyer Automotive Engineering	Mike Salmon Brian Redman	Ford GT40 Mk.I	Ford 4.7L V8		20th
51	P 1.15	54	Roger Nathan Racing Ltd.	Roger Nathan Mike Beckwith	Costin Nathan	Hillman 1.0L I4		15th
52	P 1.3	50	Marcos Racing Ltd.	Chris Lawrence Jem Marsh	Marcos Mini GT	BMC 1.3L I4		13
53	P + 5.0	11	Lola Cars Ltd.	John Surtees David Hobbs	Lola T70 Mk.III	Aston Martin 5.0L V8	F.	3
54	GT 2.0	43	Jacques Dewez	Jacques Dewez Anton Fischhaber	Porsche 911S	Porsche 2.0L Flat-6		2
Not started
55	P + 5.0	10	Prototipi Bizzarini	Edgar Berney Giancarlo Naddeo	Bizzarini GT Strada 5300	Chevrolet 5.3L V8		1
Not qualified
56	GT 5.0	60	Ecurie Francorchamps	Plate Gosselin Hughes de Fierlant	Ferrari 275GTB / C	Ferrari 3.3L V12		2
57	P 1.3	68	Jean-Claude Hrubon	Johnny Rives Jean-Louis Marnat	Hrubon	Renault-Gordini 1.3L L4		3
reserve
58	GT 2.0	66	Christian Poirot	Christian Poirot Roland Lefevre	Porsche 904GTS	Porsche 2.0L Flat-6		4th
59	GT 2.0		Sylvain Garant	Sylvain Garant	Porsche 911	Porsche 2.0L Flat-6		5
60	S 5.0		Essex Wire Corp.	Peter Revson Skip Scott	Ford GT40	Ford 7.0L V8		6th

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

Only in the entry list

Here you can find teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the race, but did not take part for various reasons.

Item	class	No.	team	driver	chassis	engine	tires
61	P 4.0	6th		Andreas von Wernitz Jochen Rindt Gerhard Mitter	Porsche 910 / 6K	Porsche 2.0L Flat-6
62	S 5.0	15th	Ford France		Ford GT40	Ford 4.7L V8
63	P 2.0	19th	Equipe Matra Sports	Robby Weber Jean-Pierre Jaussaud	Matra MS620	Ford 2.0L V8
64	P 5.0	22nd	Ferrari SEFAC Spa	Lorenzo Bandini	Ferrari 330P4	Ferrari 4.0L V12
65	P 5.0	26th	North American Racing Team	Bob Grossman Jean de Mortemart	Ferrari 365P2 / P3	Ferrari 4.0L V12
66	GT 5.0	27	North American Racing Team		Ferrari 275GTB / 4	Ferrari 3.3L V12
67	P 3.0	29	Société des Automobiles Alpine		Alpine A211	Renault-Gordini 3.0L V8
68	P 3.0	30th	Société des Automobiles Alpine		Alpine A211	Renault-Gordini 3.0L V8
69	P 2.0	31	Equipe Nationale Belge	Taf Gosselin	Ferrari Dino 206SP	Ferrari 2.0L V6
70	P 2.0	31	Equipe Matra Sports	Robby Weber Jean-Pierre Jaussaud	Matra MS630	BRM 2.0L V8
71	P 2.0	32	North American Racing Team	Charlie Kolb	Ferrari 206SP	Ferrari 2.0L V6
72	P 2.0	33	Ferrari SEFAC Spa	Jonathan Williams	Ferrari 206SP	Ferrari 2.0L V6
73	P 2.0	33	Equipe Matra Sports	Johnny Servoz-Gavin Henri Pescarolo	Matra MS630	BRM 2.0L V8
74	P 2.0	34	Autodelta SpA	Andrea de Adamich Ignazio Giunti Jean Rolland	Alfa Romeo T33
75	P 2.0	35	Autodelta SpA	Andrea de Adamich Roberto Bussinello Jean Guichet Teodoro Zeccoli	Alfa Romeo T33
76	P 2.0	36	Autodelta SpA	Nanni Galli Teodoro Zeccoli Enrico Pinto	Alfa Romeo T33
77	P	50	Société des Automobiles Alpine	Jean-Claude Andruet Jean-François Piot Gérard Larrousse André de Cortanze	Alpine M64
78	P 1.3	50	North American Racing Team		ASA 411
79	P 5.0	60	John Wyer Automotive Engineering		Ford GT40	Ford 4.7L V8
80	P 1.3	63	Marcos Racing Ltd.		Marcos Mini GT	BMC 1.3L I4
81	P 3.0		Porsche System Engineering	Joseph Siffert Hans Herrmann	Porsche 910	Porsche 2.0L Flat-6
82	P 3.0		Porsche System Engineering	Jochen Rindt Gerhard Mitter	Porsche 910	Porsche 2.0L Flat-6
83	GT 5.0		Equipe Nationale Belge	Bouchon	Ferrari GTB
84	P 5.0		Scuderia Filipinetti	Herbert Müller Peter Sutcliffe	Ford GT40	Ford 4.7L V8
85					AC Ace

Class winner

class	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
Index of Performance	Hans Herrmann	Joseph Siffert	Porsche 907 / 6L	Rank 5
Index of Thermal Efficiency	Dan Gurney	AJ Foyt	Ford GT40 MK IV	Overall victory
Prototype over 5000 cm³	Dan Gurney	AJ Foyt	Ford GT40 MK IV	Overall victory
Prototype 4001-5000 cc	Ludovico Scarfiotti	Mike Parkes	Ferrari 330P4	Rank 2
Prototype 1601-2000 cm³	Hans Herrmann	Joseph Siffert	Porsche 907 / 6L	Rank 5
Prototype 1301-1600 cc	Jean Vinatier	Mauro Bianchi	Alpine A210	Rank 13
Prototype 1151-1300 cc	Henri Grandsire	José Rosinski	Alpine A210	Rank 9
Sports car 1601–2000 cm³	Vic Elford	Ben Pon	Porsche 906K Carrera 6	Rank 7
Sports car 1151-1300 cm³	Marcel Martin	Jean Mésange	Abarth 1300	Rank 16
GT car	Rico Steinemann	Dieter Spoerry	Ferrari 275GTB / C	Rank 11

Racing data

• Registered: 85
• Started: 54
• Valued: 15
• Race classes: 10
• Spectators: 310,000
• Honorary starter of the race: François Missoffe , French Minister for Youth and Sport
• Weather on the race weekend: cloudy and warm
• Route length: 13.461 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 24: 00: 00,000 hours
• Total laps of the winning team: 396
• Distance of the winning team: 5232.900 km
• Winner's average: 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
• Racing series: 7th round of the 1967 Sports Car World Championship

literature

• Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .

Web links

Commons : 24 Hours of Le Mans 1967  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Helmut Zwickl: The fastest. Famous racing cars, legendary drivers. Ueberreuter, Vienna et al. 1974, ISBN 3-8000-3125-6 , p. 80.
2. ↑ Helmut Zwickl: The fastest. Famous racing cars, legendary drivers. Ueberreuter, Vienna et al. 1974, ISBN 3-8000-3125-6 , p. 82.
3. ^ Ronnie Spain: GT 40. An Individual History and Race Record. Osprey, London 2003, ISBN 0-85045-637-1 , p. 106.
4. ^ The 1967 Ford Mark IV: Legend of Le Mans. Accessed November 20, 2019 (German). 

Previous race 1000 km race on the Nürburgring in 1967

Sports car world championship

Successor race of the Hockenheim Grand Prix in 1967