In his own bubble

The lanky Mike Parkes got a little more room for his helmet, hence the bubble clearly visible in the photo above, in the superb Ferrari 312P entered by the NART, which he shared with Chuck Parsons at the 1970 12 Hours of Sebring. This crew would finish sixth.

A major attraction of this event was the presence of Steve McQueen at the wheel of a Porsche 908/02 entered by Solar Productions. Steve McQueen, ably assisted by Peter Revson, narrowly missed victory, and it was the Ferrari 512S of Ignazio Giunti, Nino Vaccarella, and Mario Andretti that took the win.

It should be noted that Andretti, after being delayed, unable to bear being beaten by a movie actor (admittedly much slower than Revson and himself), went into overdrive and drove like never before to win this prestigious race.

Mike Parkes (1931-1977) was an English racing driver and engineer who participated in six Grand Prix in 1966 and 1967, (second in France in 1966 and fifth in Holland in 1967) who had a successful career in endurance racing, and who, among other things, won the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1964 with Ferrari.