The Shelby American (Fall 2021)

1.5 that year in a Porsche 550A RS). A three-year run at the Tour de France Automobile with the great Olivier Gendebien brought three straight vic- tories in 1956, ’57 and ’58 in a Ferrari 250 GT for Ecurie Francorchamps. Bianchi made his first trip to the States in 1962 where he and Jo Bon- nier won the Sebring 12 Hours in a Ferrari 250 TRI/61; that day 10 laps ahead of Phil Hill and Olivier Gende- bien in a Ferrari 250 GTO. Bianchi tested for LeMans in 1963 for Aston Martin and was paired a couple of months later with Phil Hill in an Aston Martin DP215 which, unfortu- nately, retired after just 29 laps. The 1963 LeMans race was the first race attended by Ford Executives (with Shelby) to better inform themselves about the great race. We can speculate the Ford guys paid some attention to Phil Hill and his young co-driver. The 2000KM of Daytona in 1964 found Bianchi paired with David Piper (the car owner that day) in a Ferrari 250 GTO that they brought home 2nd OA, four laps behind Phil Hill and Pedro Rodriguez in a N.A.R.T. Ferrari GTO/64. Although the Daytona Coupe of Bob Holbert and Dave MacDonald almost surely would have won the race but for a pit-stop fire, Shelby Cobras finished 4th, 7th and 10th that day. The point is Lucien Bianchi was achieving success in international sports car racing and which put him on the radar for Ford as they were looking for European drivers for their GT40 effort at LeMans. In June 1965 Bianchi drove a Mus- tang at Zolder (Belgium) in a Euro- pean Touring Car Championship race; he finished 2nd OA among a 1-2-3 fin- ish for Ford Mustangs that day. Ear- lier in the week he had run a Ferrari 250LM at LeMans for Maranello Con- cessionaires, but DNF’d with a broken gear box at 99 laps. Daytona and Se- bring in 1966 brought a DNF in each case for Lucien Bianchi, but none-the- less he was invited to the LeMans test in a GT40 for Ford in April 1966, along with Miles, Hansgen, McLaren, Amon, G. Hill and Stewart. Race day at LeMans found Bianchi paired with Mario Andretti in P/1031. At the 1967 version of the 24 Hours of Daytona Ford paired Bianchi with Bruce McLaren in P/1012 for SAI, which they brought home 7th OA; the only MK II to finish the race, only be- cause it received the only spare trans- mission from a different production batch from all the others that failed that day. At LeMans in June 1967, Bianchi was again paired with Mario Andretti, but this time Andretti would commence a slow developing chain re- action wreck at 3:30 AM which would take out all three Holman-Moody en- trants. Regrettably, their car was run- ning 2nd OA at the time. Bianchi next appeared in a GT40 at the 6 Hours at Watkins Glen, co-driving with fellow Belgian Jacky Ickx in P/1075 for John Wyer Automotive (Ford having left the stage), configured with a 302 cu. in. engine. About ten weeks later in Septem- ber 1968, Bianchi paired with Pedro Rodriguez in P/1075 to take 1st OA at LeMans for John Wyer. (As an aside, P/1075 would win LeMans again in 1969 under Jackies Ickx and Oliver, something not repeated for almost 20 years when a Porsche 956 pulled off the double win in 1984 – 1985.) Mean- while Bianchi tried his hand at Indy in 1967; unfortunately a busy racing schedule (he left Indy to finish 4th OA, 1st P+2.0 in a Porsche 910 2.2 at the 1000KM of Nürburgring in May 28, the plan being to fly back for the Indy race) kept him from protecting his po- sition at Indy and he was the last car put off the grid on Bump Day. His first F1 ride came early, in 1959, but in 1968 he focused more at- tention on that discipline and finished tied for 5th (with Vic Elford) on points that year after a 3rd at Monaco, 5th at Spa and 7th at Mont-Tremblant. But rally and long distance races were his first love, first in a Jaguar and then a Ferrari starting in 1952, but by the mid to late ‘60s most often in a Cit- roen, with Bianchi often on or near the podium. His long distance career culminated at the London-Sydney Marathon in November/December 1968; a rally running from London to Dover, ferry across the Channel, Calais to Bombay, India, cartage to Australia, then Perth to the finish in Sydney. Traversing eleven countries and 16,000 KMs in eleven driving days, Bianchi and his co-driver (driving their Citroen DS21 prototype that last day) were 156 kms from the finish and victory in Sydney when they were hit head on the last stage by two 18 year-olds in a Mini Cooper racing the wrong way on the closed course. Bianchi was badly in- jured in the wreck; the second place team led by Paddy Hopkirk stopped to help and in the process gave up their chance to win the event. The third car by also stopped but when told things were in hand by that time, they pro- ceeded on to the victory. Thus closed 1968 for Lucien Bianchi: a win at Le- Mans, a podium at Monaco, numerous other wins and a certain win at the longest rally ever attempted, but for a couple wrong way hoonigans. After two months recovery from his injuries, Bianchi picked up a ride in an Alpha Romeo T33/3 for LeMans in 1969. Unfortunately, he was killed in a fiery wreck in the car at the LeMans test days on March 30, 1969. He was 34. P/1032 MK II: Paul Hawkins and Mark Donohue drivers. Shipped to SAI in November 1965 as a replace- ment for GT107 which was one of the four original lightweight GT40s and one of two 427 prototypes. GT107 was being used as windtunnel test mule in late 1965 and would ultimately be used in a crash test in early 1967 after the deaths of Walt Hansgen and Ken Miles. Meanwhile P/1032 was built to MK II specs for Holman-Moody in time for Sebring in March 1966 where Mark Donohue and Walt Hansgen brought the new car home 2nd OA (a month earlier the pair had finished 3rd OA in P/1031). After being used for endurance testing at Ford’s highspeed test track at Kingman, Arizona and Riverside, California (where some of the NASCAR boys got their first taste of a GT40) P/1032 was prepared for LeMans, now painted Mustang Em- berglow, where it never ran better than 30th OA while making pit stops to repair a broken half-shaft and to The SHELBY AMERICAN Fall 2021 73