The entry list for the 1969 BOAC 500 World Sportscar Championship race saw four Ford GT40s enter the six-hour event. The photograph shows GT40 P/1081 in the holding paddock at Brands Hatch prior to the start of the race.
It was one of the last four GT40s to leave the premises of J.W.Automotive in Slough and was ordered by a German customer, Hans Lehmann of the motoring publication Deutsche Auto Zeitung. It was painted white with three six-inch wide black, red and gold stripes which corresponded with the National colours and those of the magazine. Following an initial test drive at Thruxton, conducted by David Hobbs, it arrived at Brands Hatch to take part in its first race. Driven by Reinhold Joest and Helmut Kelleners it qualified ninth and at the end of the six hours it was classified sixteenth overall having retired before the end due to gearbox problems. However, it went on to compete at the following WSC race at Monza where it finished fourth, then tenth at Spa and sixth at the Nurburgring. By now the heavy but reliable GT40 was becoming less competitive but a six car entry at the 1969 Le Mans 24-Hour endurance race saw the two works JWA-Gulf GT40s come home in first and third places backed up by P/1081 in sixth place. That result saw 1081 create a small piece of racing history as it became the only privately entered GT40 to finish the Le Mans 24 Hours. It’s final race of the year was at Watkins Glen in the USA where it finished fifth. It was then displayed at the Stuttgart Motor Show early in 1970 before being sold to a private owner who modified it for road use. In 1980 in was purchased by a long-term owner in Switzerland.
From ‘Moments in Motorsport’ by Trevor Legate.
