1968 Le Mans

1968 — The experts barely took notice when Jacky Ickx’s JWA GT40 was the fastest car in practice for the 24 Hours of Daytona. The Speedway had practically been a Ford sporting preserve since 1965, except during the previous February when Ferrari needed revenge for his first Le Mans defeat in six years. New rules banished the 7.0-liter monsters from Ford and Chaparral and even Ferrari’s svelte 4.0-liter P4s. Porsche saw itself as the premier Le Mans favorite.

But it took four drivers to get Porsche home first at Daytona. Stuttgart even managed a perfect three-car photo-op formation finish for anyone who brought a camera to the opening round of the '68 sports car championship season. The victory should have assured Porsche favorite status for Le Mans. But even after the 2.2-liter boxers won Sebring one-two, they were not automatically anointed, merely tipped as likely winners – especially in their own minds. Porsche lusted for an overall victory at Le Mans and entered a fleet of 3.0-liter 906 Group Six prototypes.

The race was delayed until late September, the same weekend as the new Edmonton Can-Am. Politics and protest made the results of the April test weekend suspect. No one wanted to believe that the nine-second advantage posted by Jacky Ickx in one of John Wyer’s aging GT40s would mean much in September.

A new section of pavement was added between Maison Blanche and start/finish to slow the cars on the narrow run between the pits and tribunes. The changes added at least 10sec to a lap, made for greater wear and tear on transmissions and kept the Ferodo brake pad gents busier than usual. Ford bankrolled this road building. The A.C.O. christened the new pavement Virage Ford.

For the first time since the Fifties, a French car was a candidate for an overall victory. The Matra with its Formula 1-based 3.0-liter V12 made a glorious noise that was at once organic and mechanical. Porsche’s 3.0-liter cars had only the vaguest link to F1: the eight-cylinder boxers descended from the lovely and nearly impotent 1.5-liter 804 air-cooler that delivered Porsche its only F1 win, courtesy of Dan Gurney in France six summers before.

John Wyer’s Gulf GT40 team was playing hurt: Jacky Ickx had broken his leg practicing for the Canadian GP, and Brian Redman was still out after his horrific crash in the Belgian GP at Spa. Porsche was at full strength. The 908 long-tail was a new deal. Jo Siffert led the way with the fastest practice time and a bonus 200mph on Mulsanne, best ever for a 3.0-liter.

The atmosphere in September altered the character of the race, and the heavy coats, empty campgrounds and the diminished front gate certainly didn’t help the demi monde. The '68 version of the 24 Hours was also the final round of the World Sports Car Championship and a winner-take-all battle between the old Fords and the new Porsches.

From the moment Fiat boss Giovani Agnelli dropped the tricolor – two hours early to accommodate 13 hours of September darkness – the race was a contest between the 908s and John Wyer’s GT40s. Porsche won the first lap 1-2-3-4. Siffert took his natural position in front on the fourth lap and immediately began picking up the back markers. Behind the long-tailed white cars, Wyer’s Gulf-blue Ford V8s lurked with typical JWE patience.

The Porsches (starring Jo Siffert who had started the race on slicks despite a shower just 10 minutes before the flag) were all but dominant until dusk. Then a litany of little things began to pester the new 908s: fan belts and wheel bearings and unhappy clutches nagged at the mechanics and frittered away minutes and hours. John Wyer’s old Fords were simply grinding out laps until dark, when Siffert pitted for some clutch work. Finally the Swiss abandoned the No. 31 908 on the course with a dead clutch.

The 2.0-liter T33 Alfa prototypes were running well in the overall and occupied the top four spots in the Index of Performance. The best blue car, aside from the JWA GT40s, was the Johnny Servoz-Gavin/Henri Pescarolo MS630 Matra, already in third and representing the Group 6 contingent in fine voice.

By midnight, when these things are usually decided, Ford was down to one car. Fortunately for John Wyer it was leading; but the crown did not rest easy. Many tribune dwellers prayed silently that the new day would not see a Ford hat trick.

Porsche was in the speed business; Wyer was trading in conservation and restraint. It was strategy, intellectual clarity and public school discipline that won Le Mans for Wyer and Aston in ’59. Now, with just one car remaining, he could bring his considerable talents to bear on the progress of the leading GT40 of Pedro Rodriguez and Lucien Bianchi. The Belgian got the famous JW "death ray" stare when he made a small mistake, a quick no-harm/no-foul spin, ironically in Virage Ford, practically under Wyer’s long nose.

By dawn, the Wyer men had produced an eight-lap lead and began a measured run to 4:00 o’clock. Behind them a brawl flared between the MS630, the 2.0-liter T33 Alfas and the surviving Porsche 908. The V12 Matra eventually worked into second, only to be robbed of a certain podium finish by a flat tire and burned out wiring, the result a stray pass into the debris field of a burning Renault A220 prototype. They retired officially with just two hours remaining. Porsche was in trouble with the little bits: the big important parts performed flawlessly, only to be betrayed by alternators and belts and bearings.

Rodriguez finally won the 24 Hours. His best previous finish on the Sarthe had been seventh in '65. It was Wyer’s second Le Mans win and third straight for Ford. Bianchi remarked that the new chicane and the rain made this the hardest of his 14-race career at Le Mans. He praised GT40 "1075" and said the big car ran faultlessly and felt like a big, comfortable armchair. Firestone sent R-106 wet compound F1 tires and some of the now-legendary R-125 intermediates that seemed custom-made for this late-season Le Mans.

Alfa Romeo impressed totally with a three-car sweep of the 2.0-liter prototype class led by the Nanni Galli/Ignazio Giunti T33, fourth overall. Porsche’s best finisher was a 2.2-liter 907 second, followed by the new 908 in third: both just one lap behind the winning GT40.

Noble privateer David Piper and co-driver Richard Attwood represented Maranello well, seventh overall in Piper’s 250 LM, an aging contemporary of the winning GT40.

Ford had scored the Le Mans hat trick, joining Ferrari, Jaguar, Alfa and Bentley. Wyer had won Ford the best-of-five World Sports Car Championship. Ferrari started making noises about returning to the Sarthe, which made perfect sense. The CSI’s Group 6 rules were perfect for his new 3.0-liter 12-cylinder boxer engines. Porsche’s Ferdinand Piech carefully reread the revised language of the CSI’s Group 4 rules and found what they said to his liking.