With 2019’s Le Mans 66 movie now out in physical and digital form for us all to rewatch during the lockdown (details here), now’s the perfect time to dig up some buried treasure from the DSC archives related to the fabled 1966 running of the 24 Hours. The piece below is a look back piece from Dave Friedman on the finish of the race which saw controversy surrounding the two Ford GTs gunning for the win, featuring fabulous shots and direct quotes from the key personalities involved.
It’s the perfect complement to a re-watch of last year’s box-office, Academy Award-winning hit!
Did Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon really win the 1966 race at Le Mans, or did Ken Miles and Denny Hulme win, and have the race stolen away from them in a political move that was well beyond their control? These and other questions have been hotly debated by the Shelby American crew, journalists and historians who were at Le Mans in 1966 – for over 40 years now. I am sure that, after looking at the pictures and reading the quotes by those who were involved with the Ford effort that day, the debate will carry on for another 40 plus years.
1. Following team orders (featured), Dan Gurney leads Ken Miles out of the Mulsanne Hairpin during the early part of the race. According to the official Shelby American race report, Dan Gurney was instructed to lead the race and break the Ferraris. He was instructed to lap at between 3:37.0 and 3:38.0. Ken Miles was to run second and lap one to two seconds slower than Gurney, while Bruce McLaren was to run third and lap between 3:41.0 and 3:42.0.
Dan Gurney: “I didn’t get the best start, but I took the lead on the second lap and Jerry Grant and I never let up. We led most of the race, at record speed, until we retired with an overheating engine at the end of the 17th hour.”
Charlie Agapiou – Crew Chief: “There was some talk in the pits that Ford thought that Ken did not follow team orders and pushed Gurney to the point of breaking. That was absolute bullshit. Ken followed his directions to the letter. When he pitted on the first lap in order to fix the door, Ken lost several places. After returning to the race, he had to go like hell in order to get back in second place behind Gurney. That’s where he was told to be and that’s where he was.”
2. The Bucknum / Hutcherson Holman & Moody entered Ford moved from ninth starting position to third position at the end of the first hour, and that’s where they eventually finished.
Dick Hutcherson: “That race track was kind of neat. In 1966 there wasn’t any guardrails or nothin’, just trees, which people used to hit rather regularly, linin’ the racetrack. When it started raining, I told John Holman that if he wanted that sucker to go any faster he better put someone else in there because I was slowin’ my ass down. He said ‘Just keep it on the road Hutch.’ Ken Miles and them guys drove those cars faster in the rain than they did in the dry, but I’d never driven a race in the rain before. There were times when I was runnin’ down the Mulsanne, in the rain, at night, at over 200 mph, where I thought what the fuck am I doing here.”
3. Bruce McLaren takes the Ford that he shared with fellow New Zealander Chris Amon through the Mulsanne hairpin.
Bruce McLaren: “When Chris and I first saw our car in the garage, we both immediately agreed that we’d never seen a better-prepared car. Chris and I really enjoyed everything about Le Mans. Two New Zealanders in a car painted black and silver, New Zealand’s sporting colours, what could be better?”
4. Ken Miles takes his Ford through the Mulsanne Hairpin.
Ken Miles: “I took my time at the start and did up my belts, something the faster starters failed to do. I was away with the Chaparrals and tried to stay out of harm’s way. Driving into the late afternoon or early morning sun is a bloody nuisance; you can’t see anything, it absolutely blinds you.”
5. Ken Miles and long time friend and crew chief Charlie Agapiou confer during a late-race pit stop.
Charlie Agapiou: “Ford didn’t want Ken to win at Le Mans. They wanted the headlines to read Ford Wins Le Mans, not Miles Becomes The First to Sweep Daytona, Sebring, and Le Mans. Ken told me that, in spite of any Ford decision, he wasn’t going to finish second.”
6. Phil Remington talks to a very distraught Ken Miles, as a less than happy Bruce McLaren (foreground) contemplates the Ford-ordered blanket finish.
Jacque Passino – Special Vehicle Division, Ford Motor Company: “I guess that 1966 will always be remembered for the huge controversy that was created by the arranged finish. As you remember we had three cars running up at the front as the race was drawing to its conclusion. Ken Miles was in one and Dick Hutcherson and Bruce McLaren were in the others. All of those guys were real racers. Miles would race his grandmother to the breakfast table and the other two weren’t much better. We figured that in order to ensure a Ford win and keep those three guys from racing each other to the end, that we would have a dead heat finish. We didn’t want to risk those guys crashing each other or breaking the cars. In hindsight, we probably should have done it differently, but we were trying to control our destiny and insure a Ford win and we did just that.”
7. The final stop for the Miles / Hulme Ford finds Carroll Shelby (far right) telling Ken Miles and Denis Hulme of the decision to have a blanket finish.
Carroll Smith – Shelby American Race Team Manager: “I could tell that something was up regarding the finish but I wasn’t advised of what that decision was. We all wanted Ken to win Le Mans after his successes at Daytona and Sebring because he would have been the first to win all three of those races in one year. I don’t know what they told Ken during that final pit stop, but he wasn’t very happy as he entered the car to finish the race. I leaned over and told him ‘I don’t know what they told you, but you won’t be fired for winning Le Mans.’ He would never talk about it after the race was over and we were the best of friends.”
John Collins – Shelby Team Mechanic: “After Carroll talked to Ken during the final pit stop, I heard Ken say, in a loud voice, ‘So ends my contribution to this bloody motor race,’’ and he threw his sunglasses across the pit.”
8. Bruce McLaren prepares to leave the pits after his car’s final pit stop is completed. Mechanics Charlie Agapiou, Max Kelly and Phil Remington watch from the pit wall, while Ford racing boss Leo Beebe points out something to Ford Division Vice President Don Frey in the top right corner.
Chris Amon: “I remember when I came in for our last pit stop and Bruce told me that Ford wanted to do a blanket finish, I said ‘ Who is supposed to win?’ Bruce said ‘I don’t know, but I’m not going to lose.’ “
9. Bruce McLaren leads Ken Miles and Dick Hutcherson across the finish line in one of the most controversial finishes in the history of Le Mans.
Leo Beebe – Manager of Ford’s Special Vehicle Dept.: “I wanted Ford to win. We called Ken in and slowed him down so that Bruce and Chris would win. I think that they deserved to win. They ran a good race and did what we had told them to do.”
10. Bruce McLaren drives to the victory stand with Chris Amon sitting on the deck lid. But had they really won?
11. Ken Miles heads for the victory stand, with Denny Hulme sitting on the deck lid waving to the crowd. Who had won?
Charlie Agapiou: “We thought we had won and we attempted to push the car to the victory stand. The French officials stopped us and said that we didn’t belong there, that we’d finished second. Ken was sitting in the car and said to me ‘I think I’ve been fucked’. We were all under the distinct impression that, despite the finish, that we were a lap ahead at the end.”
12. A shocked and dismayed Denis Hulme and Ken Miles enjoy a glass of champagne on the winner’s stand, as Bruce McLaren (far left) and Chris Amon (far right) enjoy the victor’s laurels.
Bruce McLaren: “After the win at Daytona I said that the Fords could and should win at Le Mans. No one in England would believe me. They all said Le Mans is different, Le Mans is a car breaker and you can’t beat Ferrari there. Well, now it’s all history. This is by far the biggest race that I’ve ever won and the same goes for Chris. The whole thing really seemed to be so simple.”
13. The Miles / Hulme Ford Mk. II sits abandoned at the finish line as the victory celebration continues in the background.
Bob Negstad – Senior Project Engineer, Ford Motor Company: “At Le Mans, I was the guy that Jacque Passino sent over to Ken Miles to tell him to back off and let the other guys catch up. Ken got tears in his eyes and said: ‘No, this is my only opportunity to do this and I can’t do that and I won’t do that.’
During the next pit stop, Ken’s co-driver was told to slow down and let the others catch up and Denny did as he was told. It was during this time that Passino sent John Cowley down to the scorer’s and timer’s tower and told them that we had miscredited a lap on Ken’s car and to take a lap away from that car.
When the car came in for its final stop, Ken got back into the car and refused to participate in the prescribed finish. That’s why he laid back when the three cars crossed the finish line. Ken was a lap ahead at the finish, that’s true, that’s absolutely, totally, true. He was a lap ahead and Passino and Cowley went down and took the lap away. They absolutely stole that race from Ken and it’s about time that the truth is told, Ken’s memory deserves that.”
When I showed this quotation to Carroll Smith and asked for his opinion, he told me “Bob Negstad is one of the most truthful people that I have ever known.” Bob died shortly after this interview was conducted and many of us feel that it was a dying declaration to see justice finally done for his good friend, Ken Miles.
14. Ken Miles is besieged by spectators seeking autographs, and press and photographers wanting to know what happened at the finish.
Carroll Shelby: “In 1966, Ford didn’t cost Ken Miles the race at Le Mans, I did, and I regret it to this day. Leo Beebe came up to me and said ‘ Who do you think should win the race?’ I thought, well hell, Ken’s been leading for all of these hours, he should win the race. I looked at Leo Beebe and said ‘What do you think ought to happen Leo?’ He said ‘ I don’t know, I’d kind of like to see all three of them cross the finish line together.’
Leo Beebe did not tell me what to say or do so I said: ‘Oh hell, let’s do it that way then,’ not knowing that the French would interpret the rules the way that they did. Ken should have won the race, and in most everyone’s mind, he did win the race. That was my fuck up, I take full responsibility for it, and I’m very sorry for it because, as you know, Ken was killed at Riverside two months later. Every time you go racing, you put your reputation on the line.”
Carroll Smith – Shelby American Race Team Manager: “I knew the ramifications of a dead heat at Le Mans. My job was to know all of those things, but I wasn’t consulted when the decision was being discussed.”
A close examination of the official ACO scoring records of the Miles / Hulme car, of which I have copies, does not indicate that any lap was ever deleted from the final tally of laps run during the race. The only other source that might have revealed any possibility of an irregularity in the scoring would have been the official Shelby American scorers. Unfortunately, their records are lost and they have both passed away. At this point, there seems to be no clear cut answer and I’m sure that the controversy will continue to rage on in the eyes of those of us who were there.
