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«About ten minutes later, Surtees called into his pits and they had to
change their brake pads. So they not only had to refuel and change their
tyres, but they had to fit new brake pads as well – they had been completely
worn out. This set them back quite a while; it’s a long job changing
pads and it completely messed-up their race strategy.
«With Surtees stuck in the pits, Bonnier was able to go into the lead.
By the time Surtees rejoined, Bonnier had a 1¾-minute lead over him. But
Surtees started to whittle down the time on Bonnier. Jo would ease up a
bit – realising that he had about 100 seconds in hand over Surtees – and
he naturally wanted to be sure of finishing the race. Surtees was going like
a dingbat trying to whittle his lead down. He was knocking about three or
four seconds a lap off Bonnier, which meant that at the end of the race he
ought to be just about level with him…
THE 250LM TRIUMPHED AT LE MANS,
AND AT REIMS, AND IT TRIUMPHED AGAINST ALL
ODDS. THAT IS WHAT THE CAR WAS ALL ABOUT.
«The whole thing was getting pretty exciting, but then – all of a sudden
– Surtees was overdue. Finally he came limping back towards the
pits with a flat tyre. In one of his do-or-die efforts to make up time he
had locked-up a front wheel under braking at one of the hairpins and
worn straight through the tyre and burst it. He had to come in and have it
changed, which put him right out of the running.
«We were able to coast home and win the race. It was most exciting –
one of those unforgettable experiences… The race was run from start to
finish like a two-hour Grand Prix and each time a driver got into the driving
seat for his stint he just ran as fast as he could. The Ford did expire out
on the circuit, but the two Ferraris were going just as strongly at the end
as they had at the beginning, having done the equivalent of six Grands
Prix on a high-speed circuit where the engine is really going full-bore for a
longer period than anywhere except Le Mans.
«The Ferraris had beautiful engines and they came through with flying
colours. In the dark we were reaching about 180mph down the straight
and averaging 130mph per lap including two 40mph hairpins, which
gives you some idea of the high speeds involved…».
In fact Graham Hill and Jo Bonnier’s gorgeous Italian racing red and
Cambridge-blue Ferrari 250LM had scored a major World Championshipqualifying
victory for Colonel Hoare’s British-based Ferrari team. They had
completed no fewer than 1,522 miles’ racing at an average speed of over
126mph, and Graham had also set the fastest race lap at 133.437mph – on
lap 254!
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John Surtees and Lorenzo Bandini finished second in their works-prepared/NART-entered
sister Ferrari 250LM, less than a lap behind, and the
Maranello Concessionaires team’s triumphant day was capped by Michael
Parkes/Ludovico Scarfiotti brining their red-and-blue front-engined Ferrari
250GTO/64 home third overall, as winner of the important Grand Touring
category.
Colonel Hoare recalled that 1964 Reims 12-Hours classic as having
been: «Quite our most outstanding race, and one of the most exciting
long-distance races of all time…».
The roofed-in, rear-engined Ferrari would remain confined Internationally
to the sports-prototype category for 1965, as that season saw Shelby
American’s Ford V8-engined Cobra Daytona Coupes chime onto full song
with GT World Championship-winning effect. Even so, Mr Ferrari still
emerged with the last laugh, as the NART-entered 250LM – chassis ‘5893
LM’ – of Masten Gregory/Jochen Rindt won the Le Mans 24-Hours from
the sister Ecurie Francorchamps car – chassis ‘6313’ – of Pierre Dumay/‘Taf’
Gosselin.
And back at the Reims 12-Hours that year, while big 4.4-litre Ferrari
365P2 sports-prototypes finished first and second, Willy Mairesse/’Beurlys’
finished third in Ecurie Francorchamps’ 250LM ‘6023’ and private owner
David Piper finished third in his BP-green 250LM – ‘5897’ – co-driven by
Richard Attwood.
Richard’s most vivid memory of the LM at Reims perhaps sums up
this immortal Ferrari’s best feature for spectators: «It had small-diameter
exhaust tail-pipes and when wound up to around 8,200-8,300rpm, absolutely
full-throttle on the long, long straight past the pits, it really made the
most FABULOUS sound! It absolutely shrieked, and I remember hearing it
lap after lap while I was resting in the paddock behind the pits. It just kept
howling by during that night at Reims – and I didn’t need a lap chart to tell
me we were still in the race, and still in with a chance…».
That is what the 250LM was all about. Mr. Ferrari had taken a chance
with the FIA, which for once did not pay off. But even against that background
of political failure, and racing outside the category for which it
had been intended, the model still triumphed at Le Mans and at Reims,
and remains today one of the most mouth-watering of Maranello’s entire,
magnificent breed.