Le Mans 1966

18th & 19th June 1966.

For the 1966 race, no less than 13 GT40s were entered, eight of which were 7 litre MkII's. The line-up was as follows:

No.	Chassis	Drivers	Result	Team
1	1015	Ken Miles/Denny Hulme	2nd	Shelby American
2	1046	Chris Amon/Bruce McLaren	1st	" "
3	1047	Dan Gurney/Jerry Grant	dnf	" "
4	1032	Paul Hawkins/Mark Donohue	"	Holman & Moody
5	1016	Ronnie Bucknum/Dick Hutcherson	3rd	" "
6	1031	Mario Andretti/Lucien Bianchi	"	" "
7	XGT-2	Graham Hill/Brian Muir	"	Alan Mann
8	XGT-1	John Whitmore/Frank Gardner	"	" "
12	1017	Innes Ireland/Jochen Rindt	"	Comstock
14	1040	Peter Sutcliffe/Dieter Spoerry	"	Filipinetti
15	1007	Guy Ligier/Bob Grossman	"	Ford France
59	1038	Skip Scott/Peter Revson	"	Essex Wire
60	1001	Jacky Ickx/Jochen Neerpasch	"	" "

One further car, Scuderia Bear's 1029, had been entered for the race but was written off in an accident during one of the practice sessions.

At the end of the race, only three GT40s remained, occupying the first three places. After an attempt by the Ford hierarchy to stage a photo finish with all three cars crossing the finish line side-by-side, the winner was declared to be car number 2, the MkII driven by Chris Amon and Bruce McLaren, thus robbing Ken Miles of the achievement of winning the three major endurance races, Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring, in the same year.

55 cars started and 15 finished. Fastest lap was set by Dan Gurney with an average speed of 142.979 mph.

One of the cars fielded by the Holman and Moody Team for Le Mans 1966, this is GT40P/1016 which developed a fuel leak during one of the practice sessions, as a result, both bag tanks had to be replaced as can be seen in this picture.

Charlie Agapiou gives the windscreen of GT40P/1015 a final polish just before the start of the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hour Race. Driven by Ken Miles and Denny Hulme, this is the car that would have won but for the Ford decision to stage a photofinish with three cars crossing the finish line simultaneously.

GT40P/1038 coming through the Esses. The car was driven by Skip Scott and Peter Revson but retired after 15 hours whilst in 5th place.

The start of the race draws closer and Dan Gurney prepares to don his crash helmet.

This picture of the start shows Dan Gurney getting underway in 1047. Already out of the picture is Graham Hill in XGT-2 who led for the first lap.

GT40P/1016 being refuelled during the race. Note the two "luggage" boxes.

Another picture of GT40P/1016, this time during the actual race. Driven by Ronnie Bucknum and Dick Hutcherson, it would soldier on to finish in 3rd place.

GT40P/1015 at speed during the race. The bright orange patches on the front wings were added to avoid confusion with the similarly coloured GT40 of Innes Ireland and Jochen Rindt.

The winner: GT40P/1046.