12 Hours of Sebring Car Race 1966

The 1966 12 Hours of Sebring car race was an endurance race held at the 5.2 mile (8.3 km) Sebring International Raceway in 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 1966, with two of their 7-liter engined Ford GT40 Mk II’s being raced by Carroll Shelby. Ford had effectively trounced Ferrari and Porsche, and was looking to do the same thing at the 12 Hours of Sebring car race in March 1966. Ford’s assault on Sebring (which had always been a good preparation run for Le Mans) was unprecedented. There were eleven Ford GT40 Mk I’s, Ford GT40 Mk II’s and a special Ford GT40 X-1 Roadster (which was a heavily modified Ford GT40 Mk I with an aluminum chassis, a Ford GT40 MkII nose, no roof and a 7-liter 427 engine, the same motor in a Ford GT40 Mk II) at 12 Hours of Sebring. These cars were entered by at least five 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 two works Ferrari’s (originally there were supposed to be five) and two Chaparral 2D’s. American Dan Gurney qualified his Shelby-entered Ford GT Mk II on pole position with a lap record of 2:54.6, followed by the new Ferrari 330P3 of Bob Bondurant and Mike Parkes, then a Ford GT MkI of Britons Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart, then another Ford GT Mk II of Americans Mark Donohue and Walt Hansgen, then the Ford GT40 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 Ford GT40 X-1. Gurney was pushing his Ford GT40 MkII on the course, and he made it to the finish line. But pushing a car during the race was illegal, and the car was disqualified. The Holman & Moody team-entered Ford GT40 Mk II was awarded 2nd place. 3rd place in the car race was an Essex Wire entered Ford GT40 Mk I of Skip Scott and Peter Revson. A works Porsche finished 4th place in the 12 Hours of Sebring. #autoracing #carrace #Ford GT40 #CarollShelby #racecar Text credit: For availability and licensing inquiries, please contact: Ref: CO22