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The 1965 Le Mans winning NART Ferrari 250LM on
display at the IMS Hall of Fame museum 'Wayback in 2010. (The Tomaso
Collection)
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Although Audi has
more victories overall with thirteen and is honing in on Porsche's
record sixteen overall wins, it's still Ferrari (with nine wins) which along
with Porsche, excites Mwah over this epic Sports Car classic event. Not to
mention those iconic Ford GT40's which won four times at Le Mans...
Racing at Le Mans began in 1923 and lasted thru
the 1939 event, when war broke out in Europe with the invasion of Poland in the
fall of 1939. As France and the "Low Countries" were invaded on May
10, 1940, with Germany arriving in Paris on June 14th - before occupying France
through the duration of World War II.
. Naturally all racing ceased during the
second great war, (WWII) being a further decade before racing resumed at le
Circuit de la Sarthe after France's reconstruction.
In 1949, Luigi Chinetti, who convinced Il Commendatore,
nee Enzo Ferrari to engage him as his American importer drove an unbelievable
23.5hrs solo, with the virtually unheard of Peter Mitchell-Thomson relieving
the exhausted Chinetti
for some 40mins plus, as the pair are credited with winning Ferrari's first Le
Mans race in the iconic 166MM. As the rosso 166 Mille Miglia Barchetta is the vehicle inspiring
the 'Kuhnaidiun Power Trio RUSh's epic hit song Red Barchetta...
In 1954, Argentina's José Froilán González,
aka "The Pampas
Bull," who'd earlier won Scuderia Ferrari's maiden
Formula 1 victory in 1951 at Silverstone, partnered with another Formula 1
driver of the day, Maurice
Trintignant. As the pair drove their brutish five liter
V-12 375+ to victory ahead of the more
aerodynamic Jaguar D-Types which would win the next three years in-a-row.
Ferrari claimed its third Le Mans victory in
'58 with the chassis that arguably made it a legend in Sports Car racing the
world over, the iconic 250 Testa Rossa series,
which would win one-third (plus) proper of la Scuderia's total victories at Le
Mans.
For 1958, the 250 TR58 was chauffeured to
victory by a pair of drivers who'd be quite successful at the Sarthe, when
Belgium's Olivier
Gendebien and future American Formula 1 world champion
Phil Hill were victorious ahead of the Aston Martin driven by the Brothers
Whitehead, with a miniscule 1600cc Porsche RSK taking third overall.
And while Aston Martin with America's Carol
Shelby and Great Britain's Roy Salvadori not only winning the following 24
Heurs du Mans, but the 1959 World Sports Car championship as well, Enzo would
need to wait until 1960 to begin his
company's final dynasty at Le Mans, as 'Ol Shel (Shelby) would become a
future thorn in Enzo's side less than a decade later.
Yet with a refined 250 TR variant, a pair of
Belgian's were triumphant for la Scuderia in 1960, when Olivier Gendebien
was partnered by fellow countryman Paul Frère, who subsequently became Road &
Track's European editor after his racing career. As the 1960 win would become
the start of Ferrari's final dominance in Sports Car racing, and the 250 Testa
Rossa's finest hour, when it would score a Hat-trick of victories at Le Mans.
For 1961-62, Phil Hill returned as Gendebien 's
co-driver, with the pair winning back-to-back victories in the tried and true
250TR, which had been upgraded over the years, as although the '62 chassis is
denoted as a 330TRi LM, it had started life as a 250TR which the factory had
revived for competition in Le Mans experimental E-class which utilized
four-liter engine displacement.
Presumably the pair of Formula 1 racing
drivers also made history with Gendebien
becoming the first four-time winner with Hill becoming America's first triple
victor. As Gendebien
retired from racing after his 1962 victory while Hill left la Scuderia at the
end of the same year as part of the great Ferrari Walkout and defected to rival
Formula 1 Constructor ATS...
After the '62 success, Ferrari retired its
250 TR racing cars, and promptly won Le Mans for a fourth year in-a-row with
the first ever mid-engine chassis to do so! As the 250P, an open top racecar
was piloted to victory by Italy's Lorenzo Bandini and
Ludovico
Scarfiotti, both of whom would later perish in motor
racing accidents.
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| The #21 NART Ferrari 250LM serves as a backdrop during another Hall of Fame museum visit, circa 2012. (The Tomaso Collection) |
For 1964, a "New Kid in Town"
arrived on the scene, when Ford's GT 40 made its debut at Circuit de la Sarthe,
although not expected to win due to its initial instability at high speed on
the Mulsanne straight, Ford sent a trio of its newest weapons to France.
Ironically it was Phil Hill behind the wheel of
the highest finishing GT 40, partnered
with 'Kiwi Bruce McLaren retiring on Lap-192., with Ford's highest finisher
being Shelby American's Cobra Daytona coupe fourth overall with Dan Gurney and
Bob Bondurant at the controls.
Nonetheless, Ferrari took this new threat
seriously and defended its Le Mans winning stature with four Factory Prototypes
and six customer GT racecars contesting the 32nd Grand Prix of Endurance event.
The winning 275P was a derivative of the 250P
and was piloted by two virtual unknown drivers to Mwah, France's Jean Guichet and Italy's Nino Vaccarella,
the latter who raced briefly for Ferrari in Formula 1.
For 1965, Ferrari would see Luigi Chinetti's
North America Racing Team's (NART) customer 250LM take the chequered flag first
for Scuderia Ferrari's last overall victory at Le Mans.
The 250LM was a somewhat controversial
chassis, as Enzo in his typical fashion, had tried "Hoodwinking" the CSI
organizing body into homologating this racecar as a GT car, contending it was a
new variant of the legendary 250 TR's and GTO's, which the CSI officials were
not impressed, especially since only some 30-plus examples had been built to
meet the 100-minimum homologation standards and thus, Ferrari was forced to
race it as a Prototype instead.
Chinetti's
NART was driven to victory by future Austrian Formula 1 world champion Jochen
Rindt and American F1 racer Masten Gregory, with a third relief driver never
credited with victory, while the Factory Ferrari's suffered from brake wear and
the "gentler" 250LM was victorious...
LE MANS VICTORIES
(OVERALL)
Interestingly, albeit in true
Il Commendatore fashion, all of
Ferrari's 24 Heurs du Mans winners were propelled by V-12 powerplants, with tenF1
Drivers at the wheel. With multiple Grand Prix victories, along with two of
these becoming F1 world champions; America's first world champion Phil Hill for
Ferrari in 1961 and future Lotus Grand Prix world champion Jochen Rindt, the
only posthumous F1 world champion, (1970) who sadly lost his life at Scuderia
Ferrari's home track Monza...
1949
Chassis: 166MM
Engine:
2.0-liter V-12
Drivers: Luigi Chinetti; USA,
Peter Mitchell-Thomson; United Kingdom
1954
Chassis: 375+
Engine: 4.9-liter
V-12
Drivers: José
Froilán González; Argentina, Maurice
Trintignant; France
1958
Chassis: 250
TR58
Engine: 3.0-liter
V-12
Drivers: Olivier
Gendebien; Belgium, Phil Hill; USA.
1960
Chassis: 250
TR59/60
Engine:
3.0-liter V-12
Drivers: Olivier
Gendebien; Belgium, Paul Frere; Belgium
1961
Chassis: 250 TRi/61
Engine:
3.0-liter V-12
Drivers: Olivier
Gendebien; Belgium, Phil Hill; USA.
1962
Chassis: 330 TRi
LM
Engine: 4.0-liter
V-12
Drivers: Olivier
Gendebien; Belgium, Phil Hill; USA.
1963
Chassis: 250P
Engine: 3.0-liter
V-12
Drivers: Lorenzo
Bandini; Italy, Ludovico
Scarfiotti; Italy
1964
Chassis: 275P
Engine: 3.3-liter
V-12
Drivers: Jean Guichet; France, Nino Vaccarella; Italy
1965
Chassis: 250LM
Engine: 3.3-liter
V-12
Drivers: Jochen
Rindt; Austria, Masten Gregory; USA
(Photos Courtesy of No Fenders ‘Offical
Photographer ‘CARPETS)