12 Hours of Sebring Race 1966

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•Jun 7, 2014

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112K subscribersThe 1966 12 Hours of Sebring was an endurance race held at the 5.2 mile (8.3 km) Sebring International Raceway, Sebring, Florida, United States on March 26, 1966. It was the sixteenth running of the endurance classic and the second round of the 1966 World Sportscar Championship season.

The race proved to be a disastrous event; one of the darkest in American motorsports history. Ford had just come off a 1-2-3 triumph at the first 24 Hours of Daytona in February, with 2 of their 7-liter engined GT40 Mk.II's being run by Carroll Shelby. They had effectively trounced Ferrari and Porsche, and were looking to do the same thing at Sebring in March.

Ford's assault on Sebring (which has always been a good preparation run for Le Mans) was unprecedented. There were 11 GT40 Mk.I's, Mk.II's and a special X-1 Roadster (which was a heavily modified GT40 Mk.I with an aluminum chassis, a Mk.II nose, no roof and a 7-liter 427 engine, the same motor in a Mk.II) at Sebring- these cars were entered by at least 5 different teams- all of whom

had direct factory support. The two main works teams, however, were Shelby-American, a team with direct connections to Ford and seasoned with lots of road-racing experience; and the Holman & Moody team, which was known for its successes in NASCAR. There were also 2 works Ferrari's (originally there were supposed to be 5) and 2 Chaparral 2D's.

American Dan Gurney qualified his Shelby-entered Mk.II on pole position with a lap record of ​.6, followed by the new Ferrari 330P3 of Bob Bondurant and Mike Parkes, then a Mk.I of Britons Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart, then another Mk.II of Americans Mark Donohue and Walt Hansgen, then the X-1 of Briton Ken Miles and American Lloyd Ruby and then a Chaparral 2D of Americans Jim Hall and Hap Sharp. Ford would dominate yet again.

Gurney and Grant were leading- and on the last lap, while Gurney was driving, the car's engine failed. People at the pits were expecting Gurney to take victory- but Ken Miles crossed the finish line first in the GT40 X-1. Gurney was pushing his GT40 Mk.II on the course, and he made it to the finish line.

Although pushing a car during the race was illegal- and the car was disqualified, and the Holman/Moody with a stock car NASCAR crew entered GT40 Mk.II was awarded 2nd place. 3rd was an Essex Wire entered GT40 Mk.I of Skip Scott and Peter Revson, and then a works Porsche finished 4th. Text from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_12_...

 

allan polk
I was at this race standing on the inside of the hairpin when McLean crashed his Ford GT not 50 feet from me. It was a very sobering experience for a 16 year old to witness. I remember trying to back away from the snow fence but the press of the crowd that rushed to the fence to see the burning car was too much.

The heat coming from the magnesium wheels burning was intense and they were glowing white hot. It was painfully obvious that the driver had not survived and was no more than charcoal at this point. Very grue-some.and an experience that I will never forget. It is forever etched into my mind how dangerous racing can be.

 

Matthew Greenwood
Thank-you for finding and sharing this archival '66 12 Hours of Sebring film footage. My brother-in-law, Merle Van Steenwyk, was part of this Ford GT40 program that raced at Sebring in this era. He primary job was that of a machinist & fabricator. The team dominated GT prototype racing for several years back in the late 1960's.

Merle, or 'Van' as we called him, was a fabulous story teller and it was fascinating to hear him tell stories about the men and machines from this golden age of racing. Through Van, I got to meet a bunch of the old racers from this era who would come by and visit with him at his vintage race car restoration shop on Gasoline Alley, just outside the Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana.

 

David !
I don't know where you found this but thank you. damn good video, these men had to be machines driving these back in the day, especially since they partied all the time, ( the stories the old drivers tell makes it seem like all they did was party anyway), oh well like I said awesome video, THANKS

 

caribman10
Just to jump right to the point, in that era, correctly, no one dwelled on death during a race and unless it created a barrier against doing so, seldom was a race cancelled because of a fatality. This was and is the correct way of things. No driver goes into a race expecting to get killed and I'd wager just as few want a race stopped because of a fatality.

Auto racing is dangerous; people get hurt, and killed. But they don't close highways all day because of a fatal accident, do they? It in no way reflects negatively on the victims - but it shouldn't be the bellweather for the race, either. Finish the race.

 

Roger Brown
Shows how attitudes have changed given the tragic fatality only garnered a mention in the video. Australian Bob McLean was the 1965 Canadian driving champion and an incredibly talented driver. Heat seized wheel lugs on his GT-40 forced a cool off lap, and while pitted for refueling the brake fluid boiled. With no brakes, he attempted to spin in the infield, but hit a partially buried concrete footing, launching him into a pole with full fuel tanks.

 

Tom Foster
Shoot! This race (Sebring) IS a tough event! And this 1966 race - Gurney had it literally after a tough start. What a driver Dan Gurney was! Sport car & just any road course track was his gem. And Lloyd Ruby...he was in his prime years in racing...just a shame he never won Indy. As to this '66 event - sorry to watch tragic deaths that make racing a dangerous but spectacular sport. Think what the Sebring course would be if it were a 10 mile course...quite fast, I think.

 

Dan Gurney had starting problems at the beginning, and was last away..... and maybe 60 cars were all in front but within a few laps Gurney had caught all of them but 6 or 7......and then he started reeling the leaders in.

One of the GT40's had starting problems during a pit stop but they had drilled tiny holes just above the carburetors and when the car stalled, they took a squirt car and squirted gas down into the carbs.
...Gotta remember that trick.... lol

 

Dan Gurney pushed his car the last quarter mile.......heart breaker.....
pushing his car got a disqualification....after 12 hours of racing.....
may have took third otherwise ...would have won it.........he had set a course record earlier in the day. Fords still took 1 2 3.
In the interview, Gurney says the car stopped running........that sounds to me like he ran out of gas.

Just stopped running?
At that point nothing could be done anyway...and I certainly would not say that there was anything wrong with the car since I might like to drive for FORD again.
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At one point back when the Daytona 24 was sponsored by Prestolite battery,,,,the speedway had it written into the rules that you could power your car in gear across the finish line, using the electric starter motor,
which they may have presumed to be a Prestolite battery lol
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