Already last year, when his driver Walt Hansgen was killed on Le Mans during the April tests, Ford's race director Jacq Passino, had serious complaints on the safety of the Le Mans track. On coming back to Le Mans, deception of the Americans was indescribable: nothing essentially was changed on the track. History learns that there was a serious controversy between FoMoCo and the FIA. Origin of it was the refusal of the CSI (the FIA's sports commission) to recognise the Mirage-Ford, entered by John Wyer as a 100 per cent Ford. If the CSI accepts Ford's demand then the situation for the Constructors World Championship after the Le Mans 24-hours should be totally different. Without recognition of the Mirage as a real Ford standings for the Constructors World Championship, with one round to go are: 1. Porsche 32 points, 2. Ferrari 31 points, 3. Ford 22 points, what implies that Ford can no longer win the Constructors Worlds, since 9 points is the maximum what can be scored at Brands Hatch. If the CSI recognises the Mirage positions become: 1. Porsche 32 points, 2. Ferrari 31 points, 3. Ford 29 points. However, since only the 5 bests results are considered, the maximum which Porsche ànd Ferrari can get, in case of a victory at Brands Hatch is 37 points, whilst, if Ford wins the BOAC 500, it will always score 38 points and win the World Championship.
At Le Mans the staff of John Cowley, Roy Lunn and Jacq Passino tell the representatives of the organising ACO very clearly, that in case of a refusal of the FIA - dominated by French nobles - to homologate the Mirage as a Ford, and in case of no serious improvements on the safety of the Le Mans circuit, Ford will NOT come back next year. Ford's argument is that you cannot sell total performance to the public, if one of your racers is killed. The fatal accident of Roby Weber in April, is a clear proof that nothing essential was done on safety.
What was never revealed in the continental sports press is that even before the start of the 1967 Le Mans 24-hours, there was really panic among the leaders of the ACO. Contacting Prince Metternich-Winnenburg, vice-president of the CSI (Commission Sportive Internatio-nale), they complain that they have not the money to meet Ford's conditions on improvement of the circuit's safety. So they ask the prince to do something that can convince Ford to stay, without all to high financial efforts of the ACO. Why not restrict the engine capacity of the Group 6 prototypes to 3-litres? Ford has excellent 3-litre motors in F1. By restricting engine capacity of Group 4 (the class of the GT40) to 5 litres one offers Ford an excellent reason to stay: Porsche and Ferrari have not enough financial means to make 50 copies of a 5-litre prototype, being at once a Group 4 car. Why not convincing the others to accept the plan and saving Le Mans without high costs?

Prince Metternich-Winnenburg understands very well the demand of his ACO friends and organises on June 12, the Monday after Le Mans, an emergency meeting on the premises of the Automobile Club de France. Only delegates of France, Italy, Germany, the USA and Britain are invited at the real last minute, having no time to contact the constructors or the organisers. After 8 hours those six persons are ready: they decide that by January 1, 1968, Group 6 will be restricted to 3-litre prototypes and that Group 4 will be restricted to 5-litre sportscars manufactured at at least 50 units per year. A better way to kill long distance racing is hardly thinkable. With one pen stroke the Chaparral 2F, Ferrari P4, Ford MkIV, Mirage and Lola T70 are banned from the circuit. Ten days later constructors, organisers and racers learn the CSI decision from the press - the CSI mandarins forgot to inform them. Once the decision is known the CSI defends its position that it is the best way-out to stop the high speeds and to limit fatal accidents. That however is pure nonsense: light prototypes using extremely expensive F1 engines will go within one year even faster than the now existing prototypes.
Enzo Ferrari is the first to react upon the flagrant idiocy of the CSI: he announces that if this decision is maintained he will stop any further effort in endurance racing. Organisers, manufacturers and racers are all shocked by the CSI/ACO coup. Except for Alan Mann and Bruce McLaren all reactions are negative. The day after the BOAC 500 constructors, private racers and organisers have an own meeting in London at the Carlton Tower Hotel. Present are the organisers of Sebring, of Daytona (Nascar's Bill France sr.) of Monza, of the Nürburgring (however nobody from the most killing circuits as Le Mans or Francorchamps). The constructors are here with Henry Taylor (Ford), Huschke von Hanstein (Porsche), Hap Sharp (Chaparral), Eric Broadley (Lola), David Yorke (JWA Mirage), Claude le Guezec (Matra Sports), Bruce McLaren and Andrew Ferguson (Lotus).
After a seven hour meeting two principal suggestions are forwarded to the CSI. The first claims a 12 month stay of execution before the new rules come into force. The second asks that, failing this, non-championship classes without capacity limits should be permitted.
As could be expected the mandarins of the CSI refuse any compromise. Meantime their decisions are completely illegal. The own stand rules were not respected at the convocation of the emergency meeting, and the own basic principle that changes in the technical rules should be applied not earlier than two years after publication are not respected. Meantime more racers than ever before are killed on unsafe tracks. The end of the story will be that ACO killed its own 24-hours. With no Ferraris at the start the 1968 (postponed) edition goes for less than one third of the 1967 spectators.  The Ford-Ferrari combat is definitively over! [JPVR]

From 1963 to 1967, as a consequence of the technological innovations after the venue of Ford to European long-distance racing, speed of most prototypes increased seriously. In four years the Le Mans record lap was sharpened with 30 seconds! Most circuits were not adapted at all at such cars. Number of tragic accidents increased exponentially during that period, with a first summit in 1967 (a second in 1970-1971 during the famous Ferrari-Ford combat). The long list of killed racers starts in 1963 when during the Le Mans 24-hours the engine of Bruce McLaren's Aston-Martin P212 suddenly explodes, chucking out over 25 litres of oil at Hunaudières. Mike Salmon (Ferrari 330LM) and Bob Grossman (Jaguar XKE) can hold their car on the track by sheer luck. But the Aston-Martin DB4 GTZ of Dewez spins with Roy Salvadori (Jaguar XKE) crashing in the car. When the Jaguar gets in flames, Dewez can save Salvadori from the cockpit. The young Jean-Pierre Manzon (René Bonnet) crashes into Salvadori's Jaguar and is badly hurt. Then comes Brazilian Bino Heinz, over 220kph in the Alpine A210 M63, smashing against the wrecks, turning over, and being burn alive.
One year later, in 1964, two racers are killed during practice at the Nürburgring 1,000-kms: Rudolf Moser from Frankfurt in his Porsche 904GTS and the Briton Brian Hetreed in the ex-John Wyer Aston Martin P212. Earlier Alberico Passadore had a fatal crash at the Temporada in Buenos Aires. At the Le Mans 24-hours, at 11 p.m. on Saturday three young people (16, 17 and 18 year old) are killed when the AC Shelby Cobra 289 of Peter Bolton quits the road at Maison Blanche. At the Paris 1,000-kms the German Jaguar importer Peter Lindner hurts the Simca-Abarth of Abarth's 23-year old wonder boy Franco Patria. Both racers and three marshals are killed.
On April 1965, at the Le Mans April tests the American racer Lucky Casner (39 years), is killed when his Maserati 151/1 quits the track at full speed at the end of Mulsanne. At the Monza 1,000-kms Switzerland's Tommy Spychiger is killed when, after a brake failure, his Ferrari 365P goes off in a big way, somersaulting into the trees. At the Nürburgring 1,000-kms Luxembourg driver Honoré Wagner fatally crashes his Alfa Romeo TZ1. At the Rheims 12-hours the Ferrari 250LM of Gerald Langlois van Ophem quits the road, killing two marshals.
In 1966 Canada's Bob McLean is killed at the Sebring 12-hours when his Ford GT40 hurts a non-protected telephone pole. Another Ford racer, a factory driver, Walt Hansgen is killed at Le Mans during the April tests, when his Ford MkIIA quits the road. Former Jaguar racer Dick Protheroe is killed on practicing with his new Ferrari 330 P/P3 for the Tourist Trophy at Oulton Park. Tony Flory is killed at the wheel of a Cobra 289 Roadster at the Brands Hatch 500-miles. Bruno Deserti is killed in his Ferrari on testing at Monza. On August 17 FoMoCo looses its best long-distance racer, Ken Miles, testing at Riverside the Ford J in view of the CANAM races.

Then comes 1967 with a real cascade of fatal accidents. Billy Foster (USA) is killed on practice for the Riverside 500-miles. Roby Weber is after Casner (1965) and Hansgen (1966) already the third racer killed at Le Mans during the April tests. On May 10 Ferrari looses its best driver, Lorenzo Bandini, after an accident at the Monaco GP. England's Boley Pittard is involved in a crash at the Spa 1,000-kms. His transported with 80 per cent burns into hospital, where he'll die on June 12. At a F3 race in Italy, at Caserta, three young racers die after a pile-up with 11 cars. When Swiss racers Beat Fehr stops his car and tries to warn the others that the road is blocked he's killed by the car of Giacomo "Geki" Rosso (I), loosing himself control over his car catching fire. With no rescue people around he dies in the flames. Another victim of the pile-up, Giuseppe Perdoni "Tiger" (I) will die three days later at the hospital of Naples. In England Michael Chipperfield, racing under the name "Michael Johnson" is killed when his formule libre goes off the road at Oulton Park and hits a tree.
One week before the start of the last great endurance race of the season, two young racers are killed at the Spa 24-hours: Holland's Wim Loos (21 years) and Belgium's Eric de Keyn (22 years, dying one week later). The same July 23 Ferrari's factory driver Günther Klass (D) is killed at Mugello on testing the hill-climb Dino. Always the same week-end France's Jean-Claude Bernasconi succumbs from injuries occurred two weeks earlier at a Renault R8 race at Rouen. At a race for saloon cars at the Nürburgring a spectator is killed on August 6 when Roland Cantz left the road with his Mercedes 300SE. Always the same week-end, on July 23, Luki Botha quits the track at a F1 race at Lourenço Marques in Mozambique, killing eight spectators and gravely injuring nine others. And still the same week-end, at a F3-meeting in Denmark, at the Djurslandring, Doug Revson (USA, 26 years), brother of Peter Revson, looses control over his Brabham BT21 and is killed. Another racer, Ray O'Connor, goes into a group of marshals, killing Jans Christian Legarth, the owner of the Djurslandring.  Fifteen persons killed during one and the same week-end on tracks in Belgium, Germany, Mozambique and Denmark, it proves at what point there is no substantial security on the race tracks. But it is not the end of the story. The same day as the BOAC Tim Cash (GB) is killed at the Portugal F3 GP. Two weeks after Brands Hatch F1 racer Bob Anderson (GB) will be killed, testing his Brabham BT11 at Silverstone. On September 17 the Alfa Romeo works racer Jean Rolland (F) is killed at Montlhéry, testing his Alfa Rome T33 V8. On October 8 USAC driver Gary Congdon dies as result of a sad crash on dirt-track midget racing in Indiana.  Belgium's Jojo Berger will be killed at the Nürburgring during the Marathon. Ian Raby (GB), victim of an accident at Zandvoort in a F3 race of July 30 will fight more than three months for his life, before to die on November 7 in a London hospital. There is no doubt: 1967 is the most killing year in autosport, where at least 20 famous racers lost their life due to unsafe circuits rather than to unsafe cars.[JPVR]

     Billy Foster (USA, 1938-1967)
killed at Riverside  in March

     "Geki" G. Russo (I, 1938-1967)
killed at Caserta  on June 18

    Bob Anderson (GB, 1932-1967)
killed at Silverstone on Aug 14

This year the BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch is the most important long-distance race of the year. Contrary to other years, where the Le Mans 24-hours were always the championship's decider, everything is still open before the start. At FoMoCo they wait until the last minute if yes or not they'll send their army of Fords MkIV and MkIIB to England. They refuse to accept FIA's decision that the Spa-winning Mirage is not a Ford and say that the FIA are oversimplifying the issue. The Mirage is in fact as much a Ford as a GT40, being in effect a further sorted, Group 6 version of the GT40 designed by Len Bailey -  a Ford employee - at Ford Advanced Vehicles before the JW Automotive takeover. The Mirages are sponsored by Gulf Oil; but the engines remain the property of the Ford Motor Co. All this arguments are of not avail. The apparatchiks in Paris refuse to alter their decision. That implies that - after the CSI bomb shell - the MkIV will no more be seen in competition. Also for the Chaparral 2F it will be the real last race. American involvement in European long-distance racing will be definitively over after Brands Hatch - killed by the CSI in order to help the ACO doing no extra costs to improve the safety of their killing circuit.
With Ford out of competition the two remaining contenders, Porsche and Ferrari do great efforts to win the Constructors World Championship. Ferrari needs absolutely to finish as second, with no Porsche as winner, if they wish to clinch the title. Their main problem is that after Lorenzo Bandini - killed at Monaco - they need also to replace Mike Parkes, injured at the Belgian F1 Grand Prix and Günther Klass, killed at Mugello. They succeed to attract Paul Hawkins, the independent racer who won for Porsche the Targa Florio and finished for the Germans at 2/10 of a second behind the winning Porsche at the Nürburgring. Moreover they contract the most promising F1 racer of the moment, Jackie Stewart, together with Jonathan Williams. At Porsche they can count on two other top-drivers in F1: Jo Siffert and Jochen Rindt (two later F1 world champions). But they have also the former world champion Graham Hill and all-rounders Bruce McLaren, Lucien Bianchi and Vic Elford behind the wheel of one of their cars. They know very well that the short and bumpy track of Brands Hatch is very difficult for the hairy Ferraris 330P4, and believe fully in their chances that, after the Targa Florio and the Nürburgring, they are able to win Brands Hatch and the world title. The racer's field at the BOAC 500 is the strongest of the whole year.

Four long-distance races, over 1,000-kilometres or more are on the 1967 international calendar: the Rheims 12-hours, contested two weeks after Le Mans (and long before the decisive round at Brands Hatch), Surfer's Paradise 12-hours in Australia, the Paris 1,000-kms and the Kyalami 9-hours. Report on the last named race is to be found at our Springbok pages. The three others are grouped here under. At none of those races Ferrari will send works cars. Ford limits its efforts to a MkIIB lent to Ford France and to the JWA Mirage entered at Paris and at Kyalami. Other makes like Matra, Renault Lola and Porsche use those races to test their machineries. The Ferraris seen at the start of those races are private entries. At Rheims we find the N.A.R.T. Ferrari 330P3/P4 and David Piper's Ferrari P2/P3. Once it is obvious that the CSI will maintain its decision to ban over-three litre prototypes from the tracks Maranello Concessionaires will sell its Ferrari 330 P3/P4 to David Piper, who'll enter the car at Paris and at the Kyalami 9-hours. The last episode in the artificially shortened Ford-Ferrari combat will be essentially written by gentleman-racers.