In 1967 the sports car prototypes competed in the ‘International Championship for Makes’, a ten-part series of long-distance races beginning in Daytona, Florida in February and culminating at Le Mans which, in that year was held in September.
In the previous year, 1966, the Le Mans 24-Hours had been won by Ford’s 7-litre MkII, an evolution of the 4.7-litre GT40, and this in turn was replaced by the Ford MkIV that competed during the 1967 season. The cars had been prepared and entered on Ford’s behalf by Shelby American and Holman & Moody but having secured victory at Le Mans, Ford began to wind down its sports car race programme. A great deal of time and money had been lavished on the development of the MkIV so Ford was persuaded to compete for one final season but the cars were now officially entered by Ford and the names of Shelby American no longer appeared as the entrants as both companies began to turn their attention to other projects.
Ford was no doubt pleased to see its MkIV secure victory in the two opening races in the 1967 championship that were held in America at Daytona and Sebring. The publicity photograph above was taken at Sebring prior to the race and shows the winning Ford MkIV, chassis J5, with its drivers, Bruce McLaren (left) and Mario Andretti (right). At the end of the twelve-hour race the winning car completed 238 laps of the Sebring circuit, twelve laps ahead of the second-place car, a Ford MkIIB.
