Field day for Ferrari

1 June 1962

ASIDE FROM A couple of narrow title losses, Ferrari dominated the sports car world championship right from its genesis in 1953.

For 1962, the focus shifted to road-based GTS, so Maranello introduced the 250 GTO: one of the greatest racing cars ever.

At the Nürburgring 1000km, the halfway point of the season, Ferrari won both the headline GT class and the sports car class. And to own the Scuderia’s line-up from that weekend would now need the most passionate of billionaires.

The sports cars were a 196SP for Giancarlo Baghetti and Lorenzo Bandini; a 246SP for Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien; and a 268SP for Pedro and Ricardo Rodríguez.

There was a 250 GTO Berlinetta for Michael Parkes and Willy Mairesse running as a prototype, plus two in the GT class, albeit privately entered.

At the end of the first 14-mile lap, Jim Clark emerged from the drizzle in the lead in his Lotus 23, ahead of Porsche’s Dan Gurney then Mairesse.

By the 10th, the Belgian had moved into second and cut Clark’s overall lead to 54sec, while two of the 250 GTOS led the GTS, but then a gearbox issue sent the Brit off the road.

Another 10 laps on and Gendebien was leading, with Parkes 60sec behind, while Peter Nöcker and Wolfgang Seidel continued to command the GT class.

Porsche closed the gap late on but Parkes in second had plenty in hand.

Autocar concluded that while it was “good to see once again that well-nigh invincible pair win”, it had not been an exciting race and that having so many classes was too confusing.