Ferrari against the Americans
The 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans was the ninth round of the World Sportscar Championship season, and took place on 20 and 21 June 1964. The year marked the arrival of American teams in force, with Ford V8 engines in ten cars. Nevertheless, Ferrari was favourite for the win.
Picture above: The Maranello Concessionaires Ferrari 330P of Graham Hill and Jo Bonnier (will finish second), leads the works Ferrari 275P of Mike Parkes and Ludovico Scarfiotti (dnf), and the winning works Ferrari 275P, driven by Nino Vaccarella and Jean Guichet.
Ferrari was thus the winner for the fifth year in a row – the 275P of Sicilian Nino Vaccarella and former Ferrari-privateer French driver Jean Guichet, covered a record distance of 349 laps.
The Ferrari dominance in the GT-category was broken however. Despite having high engine temperatures, Dan Gurney and Bob Bondurant had a consistent run, and brought their Shelby Daytona Coupé in fourth (picture below), first in the GT category, and a lap ahead of the Équipe Nationale Belge Ferrari 250 GTO of Bianchi-“Beurlys”.