1965 SPA 500-KMS

THE START HAS BEEN GIVEN. POLE SITTER MIKE PARKES IN THE #1 FERRARI 330P IS TOO LATE AWAY AND IS PASSED BY WILLY MAIRESSE (THIRD ON THE GRID) IN THE #2 FERRARI 250 LM. Being faster away than John Whitmore (second on the grid) with the #21 Cobra Daytona Coupe. Mike Salmon (#35 Ferrari 250 GTO-64 in the Maranello red and blue colours), started from the sixth position is already fourth  after having passed Peter Sutcliffe in the dark green ex-Piper #33 Ferrari 250 GTO and Bob Bondurant in the #20 Cobra Daytona Coupe. Behind the top six we find the two orange Porsches 904 GTS of Rob Slotemaker and Ben Pon, having maintained their positions on the grid. In their yellow Ferraris Gerard Langlois van Ophem (mid) and Jean-Claude Franck (extreme left of the pic) have already passed Pierre Noblet in the 5.4 Iso Grifo A3C. The two works Cobras Daytona are no longer prepped by Carroll Shelby himself, but by Alan Mann Racing. Indeed, after the Ford debacle at the Nassau Speed week, end 1964, where GM won it all, Leo Beebe, Lee Iacocca and Roy Lunn obtained that the Ford GT40 moved from Slough, England, to Shelby American Inc. in Texas. Shelby had thus no more time to do the set-up of the Cobras. As Alan Mann obtained in 1964 several spectacular results at the USRRC GT Series with his Fords Cortina Lotus, driven by John Whitmore and Trevor Taylor, and as he dominated the Tour de France with his Mustangs in the touring class, FoMoCo let the Cobras being prepped by Alan Mann's small factory in England. Last year the Cobras were beaten for the Manufacturers World Championship by the Ferraris 250 GTO, despite the fact that Ford succeeded that the FISA refused the homologation of the Ferrari 250 LM as GT car. At Le Mans 1964 a Cobra Daytona succeeded to beat all Ferraris 250 GTO in the GT class. This year Ford succeeds that Ferrari's new weapon for the Manufacturers Worlds - the 275 GTB/C, manufactured at only twelve copies - sees its homologation again refused during the first months of the season. So, Alan Mann will win the 1965 Manufacturers Worlds with his Cobras Daytona. At Le Mans, however, his Cobras will be completely dominated by the Ferrari 275 GTB/C. In hands of Willy Mairesse and Jean Blaton ("Beurlys") Swaters's 275 GTB/C will finish third overall, whilst the first Cobra will finish only eighth. This time the two works Daytonas were prepped by Shelby himself, not by Alan Mann. Shelby hated Enzo Ferrari since 1961. That year he applied for a seat in one of the factory Ferraris, but Il Commendatore was not intended to pay him any wage, considering that it was a honour to be accepted as Ferrari works driver. What Shelby obtained after the refusal to homologate the famous Ferrari 250 LM as GT car, was that Maranello failed to sell enough 250 LMs to be homologated (100 copies necessary!) Indeed, the non-homologated LM was sold at the double of the price for a Cobra Daytona. The financial blow for the Prancing Horse was what Shelby won as revenge.

SHORTLY LATER MAIRESSE AND THE #2 FERRARI 250 LM ARE ALREADY THROUGH. We see that Parkes in the #1 4.0 Ferrari 330P has already moved in second position, followed now by John Whitmore in the #21 Cobra. Mike Salmon could maintain his fourth position in the ex-Maranello #35 Ferrari 250 GTO-64. Peter Sutcliffe, in the dark green ex-Piper Ferrari 250 GTO missed a gear and is passed by the #20 Cobra of Bob Bondurant and by the two Dutch Porsches 904 GTS, with Slotemaker always leading Ben Pon. Léon Dernier (Eldé), in the metallic silver Porsche 904 GTS with the yellow nose - on the first pic still twelfth - has now passed the #4 Ferrari 250 LM of Jean-Claude Franck and the #31 yellow Ferrari 250 GTO of Langlois van Ophem and is now ninth. That's the car which won the 1964 Tour de France when it was still in silver colour with the yellow transversal stripe on the nose. Brilliant start of Tony Hegbourne in the red 1.6 Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ1 having moved from rank 15 on the grid to the twelfth position. The poor Hegbourne will be victim of a fatal accident 25 laps later when, in a gruelling combat with his team mate Boley Pittard in the team's other Alfa, he went of at Malmédy, just before the Masta straight. It will take more than a half hour before the ambulance reaches the crashed Alfa Romeo. He'll be transported to the Verviers hospital with a broken spine and a fractured leg. After he was transported to a hospital in Stanmore, but passed away six weeks after the accident. In 1964 at one of the supporting races for the British F1 Grand Prix, he drove Ian Walker's Lotus 30 Ford with chassis 30/L/1 - the real first Lotus 30 ever built - but he broke the Lotus in two at the end of Dingle Dell. Amazingly hot shoe Tony walked away from the accident with only minor injuries, whilst the Lotus was completely destroyed.
The Iso Grifo of Pierre Noblet, having started from eighth position is now attacked by the white #50 Alfa Romeo with the yellow transversal stripes of Taf Gosselin (extreme right of the pic), by the #3 Ferrari 250 LM of Annie Soisbault and by the red #53 Alfa Romeo of Boley Pittard. Two years later, in a Lola T60 Ford single seater, Pittard will die after having been burned at the start of a race at Monza. So the Ian Walker Racing Team lost its two drivers in two years time. The Cobra, following the Ferrari 250 LM of Annie Soisbault was bought by Radford Racing for $ 7,500 from Carroll Shelby. It's an ex-works car. Eleven months later Tony Flory will die in this car during practice for the Ilford 500 miles at Brands Hatch. David Piper, having missed his start, is still among the backmarkers with his green #5 Ferrari 250 LM.

ALWAYS THE FIRST LAP. EIGHT CARS ARE ALREADY THROUGH WHEN JEAN-CLAUDE FRANCK, in the #4 Ferrari 250 LM - owned by the Écurie Francorchamps, starts his climb to Burnenville. The young Franck came from formula junior and formula 3 racing, and it was only his second drive in the car. One month later the same car was found out on the lead at the Le Mans 24 hours, where in hands of Pierre Dumay and Taf Gosselin, it finished as runner-up. In tenth position "Eldé" still heads Gérard Langlois van Ophem in the 1964 Tour de France winning 250 GTO. Tony Hegbourne in the #52 still resists the attacks of Pierre Noblet in the #8 Iso Grifo. Hegbourne's team mate Boley Pittard (#53) has now already passed the #3 Ferrari 250 LM of Annie Soisbault, but is still headed by the #50 Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ1 of Taf Gosselin.  With the ex-works Cobra (chassis CSX2601, last year most driven by Bob Bondurant, Jo Schlesser and Jochen Neerpash) of Radford Racing Christopher McLaren has also passed the LM of Annie Soisbault. The #26 A.C. Cobra Hardtop of Nicholas Granville-Smith heads the second Radford Shelby Cobra 289 Roadster (also an ex-factory car, driven last year mostly by Jo Schlesser, Masten Gregory, Jo Siffert, Jean Guichet, etc.) and the Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ1 of Nicolas Koob. David Piper - who'll finish second overall! - is still with the backmarkers. He's followed by the Porsche 911 of Jacques Thenaers and the Porsche 904 GTS of Lacourbe de Vost. Later in the race, this French driver will be involved after eleven laps in an accident. Not on the picture are a Lotus Elan (Mark König), the Ferrari 275 GTB/C of Xavier Boulanger (suffering from the start all kind of woes and retiring without having completed the first lap), the TVR Grantura of John Wingfield and the Ferrari 250 GTE of "Bouchon". The last one's inexperience is that high that, when he enters the pits for refuelling, he even don't know where to go. Initially he was put on the entry list with a brand new #7 Ferrari 275 GTB, but he showed with an old 250 GTE.