Amon: Le Mans win a half century ago still special
Fifty years on, the dead-heat involving three Kiwi drivers remains one of the race’s most talked about finishes, reports
As Bruce McLaren led three grimy Fords out of the drizzle to take the chequered flag at Le Mans in 1966, team-mate Chris Amon prepared himself to celebrate.
Despite confusion around who had won, or whether the dead-heat would stand after the American manufacturer had ordered the trio to cross the line together, Amon had a feeling the Kiwi duo had made history. Standing beside Ford team legend Carroll Shelby over the last few laps, as the situation slowly become clearer, turned out to be the ideal spot.
‘‘I had an inkling we’d won but I really wasn’t sure,’’ Amon said ahead of the 50th anniversary of his win. To commemorate it, Ford have made a comeback with four remodelled versions of the 1966 GT40 for this year’s Le Mans, which started overnight (1am NZ time).
‘‘At a certain point Carroll had found out there wouldn’t be a deadheat because the organisers wouldn’t allow it. I got the impression as the finish came closer that I should go and get ready because we were going to win.’’
Amon was right and, 50 years on, the finish remains one of the most talked about in the 92-year history of the world’s most prestigious 24-hour race.
Arriving in France determined to overpower Ferrari, two Fordpowered teams had the podium sewn up heading into the closing stages.
What followed has been debated since, but ultimately the American company made a statement to their Italian rivals by staging a unified finish.
To the ire of US driver Ken Miles, who had partnered Kiwi Denny Hulme in the No 1 GT40, Amon and McLaren were then declared victorious.
With rules stipulating no deadheat finishes and the race based on distance travelled, the No 2 Ford took overall honours thanks to starting further back on the grid.
Amon, 72, is understandably hazy on some of the finer details of that day, but on the most crucial element he remains crystal clear.
‘‘We were told to slow down and [Miles] didn’t. The decision was probably then made by Ford that if teams can’t control their drivers they’d have a dead-heat so there is no incentive to race each other.
‘‘It was all a bit messy but what I do know is that in terms of sheer pace we would have won comfortably.’’
As it turns out, Ford’s decision was not the only time during those 24 hours when motor racing politics played a significant part for Amon and McLaren, who died in a crash at a track in England less than four years later.
With McLaren at the wheel for the first stint of the race, the No 2 car twice lost the tread on a tyre at high speed down the circuit’s famous Mulsanne straight.
McLaren’s fledgling team were contracted to and running Firestone tyres, but as he dropped further down the field it became clear something had to be done. McLaren pitted for a driver swap with Amon, passing on a message to ‘‘be careful’’ and making a beeline for Firestone officials.
He explained the team would either have to swap onto tyres from rival company Goodyear or withdraw from the race, before asking for permission to make the change. That was granted, and it proved the turning point in the Kiwi pair’s race.
‘‘They called me in for a tyre change to go to Goodyears. Bruce lent in the window and said ‘we’ve lost a lot of time, go like hell, we have nothing to lose’, which is exactly what we did. By mid-morning we were leading quite comfortably, we’d made up over a lap, and then they decided they’d slow the cars down.’’