5 replies to this topic

[Fr@nk]

I need some more informations about afthermats for Ferrari (if afthermaths there had been...) following Sebring 1966 Don Wester's accident in which four people were killed.
The accident involved the Porsche 906 drove by Dan Wester and the NART Ferrari 365 P2 drove by Mario Andretti.
I've found on www.motorsportmemorial.com the following description of the accident.:

Minutes after the Ferrari 330P3 of Mike Parkes and Bob Boundurant retired from the 1966 12 Hours of Sebring with a blocked gear just after the Hairpin, the only other official Ferrari - although entered under the NART banner - in the race, the 365P2 driven by Pedro Rodríguez and Mario Andretti begun to suffer similar woes. With the situation getting progressively, Andretti, spins the Ferrari on its 189th lap when struggling with the shift. Don Wester, driving Porsche 906P and running six laps behind Andretti, arrives at the scene and tries to avoid the spinning Ferrari but touches it and goes off course, where the German car hit and killed four spectators. Earlier in that race Canadian driver Bob McLean had died in a fiery crash at the wheel of a private Ford GT40, and Sebring security standards came under heavy criticism after these accidents.

I have three questions :

1.) Mario Andretti after the accident continued his race and he went back to the pits because when the Ferrari front smashed onto the Porsche a frontlight was broken. He was blamed for that ?
And Ferrari (or NART) was blamed too ?

2) In the 1967 Enzo Ferrari did'nt send his cars to Sebring, someone tell because he had had some troubles with Florida State as results of the accident. Do you think it's the truth ?


Thanks

[RA Historian]

As far as I know it was adjudged a racing accident. The four spectators who died were all in a restricted area where they had no business being. If any blame was to be apportioned, it should have been with the track for not having proper security. I never heard of Ferrari staying away from Sebring 1967 because of the accident and have my doubts about that theory. Any other thoughts out there?

[JB Miltonian]

According to press reports at the time in the monthly magazines, Andretti was able to return to the pits after the accident, but an electrical short circuit in the car caused a fire which forced its retirement before it could again leave the pits. The Ferrari had damage to the front end before the accident with Wester's Porsche, and "had been circulating in the dark, with one headlight out and the other pointing up at the sky."

In 1967, Ferrari entered a full team at Daytona (also in Florida, of course) with excellent results, but did not field their team cars at Sebring, concentrating instead on the LeMans test days. According to the report in Road & Track:

"A week before the race (1967 Sebring) an $800,000 lawsuit was filed in Sebring against Mario Andretti, Ferrari, the Sebring organizers, and Don Wester, all the result of last year's tragic Ferrari-Porsche accident in which four spectators were killed. Luigi Chinetti of the North American Racing Team said he feared the action might result in a writ of attachment which would prevent him, as Ferrari's U.S. representative, from removing his cars from Florida after the race so he wasn't going to come."

So I don't think the problem relating to a lawsuit was with Florida state, and the lawsuit was filed well after Ferrari had made the decision NOT to officially enter a team in the 1967 race.

[Macca]

IIRC, DSJ reported in Motor Sport that the Andretti Ferrari wouldn't start on the button at its last pit stop, and after churning away on the starter there was a cloud of fuel vapour under and around the car - someone yelled something about being careful of it, and a crewman who heard the word 'fuel' (and probably forgot it wasn't ethanol) sloshed a bucket of water under the car; the bucket struck the ground and caused a spark that ignited the vapour.

(There was a photo as well, I believe.)

Paul M

[Fr@nk]

In 1967, Ferrari entered a full team at Daytona (also in Florida, of course) with excellent results, but did not field their team cars at Sebring, concentrating instead on the LeMans test days. According to the report in Road & Track:
"A week before the race (1967 Sebring) an $800,000 lawsuit was filed in Sebring against Mario Andretti, Ferrari, the Sebring organizers, and Don Wester, all the result of last year's tragic Ferrari-Porsche accident in which four spectators were killed. Luigi Chinetti of the North American Racing Team said he feared the action might result in a writ of attachment which would prevent him, as Ferrari's U.S. representative, from removing his cars from Florida after the race so he wasn't going to come."

Thank you for your useful answer.
Also in my opinion Mr Ferrari didn't send his cars to Sebring because he decided to concentrate his efforts in the Le Mans Test, but the report you attached in your mail confirms (in such a manner ...)the "rumors" about the troubles Mr Ferrari feared as aftermath of the tragic accident that involved Andretti's car the year before.
The lawsuit, the report was speaking about, was reported (at least by the italian press I think) as one of the justifications for Ferrari' s missed participation at Sebring 1967.
In particular - I'm right with you - Mr Ferrari feared a writ attachment for his cars as an aftermath of the lawsuit (in according with the R&T report).

[RA Historian]

Originally posted by RA Historian
I never heard of Ferrari staying away from Sebring 1967 because of the accident

Well now I have!