50 years to the day following the '66 Le Mans 1-2-3, the No. 68 #FordGT has won the GTE Pro Class at #LeMans24 pic.twitter.com/jkMLuWlEYm
— Ford Performance (@FordPerformance) June 19, 2016
The sparks were flying for more reasons than one at last weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans race at the Circuit de la Sarthe in France. Team Chip Ganassi Racing had four Ford GT entries into the GTE Pro class, and they pulled off an incredible victory that nearly replicated the 1-2-3 finish of the GT40 mk. II back in 1966.
Instead of sweeping the podium like they did 50 years ago, Ford's first and third place winners grudgingly shared the glory with the No. 82 Ferrari, which came in second after a heated battle both on and off the track.
The No. 68 Ford GT that held the lead after 20 hours of racing traded between first and second with No. 82 Ferrari at least three times -- enough to get anyone hot-blooded. After the race ended, the tensions only rose as the two rival teams traded official protests.
The winning Ford GT was slapped with a 50-second time penalty, which would have put it behind the Ferrari in the final standings, except that the runner-up Ferrari was hit back with a 20-second penalty.
It sounds juvenile, but without petty antagonism between these two automakers, the iconic Ford GT would never have been built. The reason Ford was entered into that historic race in 1966 was a personal argument between Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari.
Motorsport enthusiasts everywhere are cheering for this decades-old rivalry to reignite. When two of the greatest car manufacturers in the world become fixated on one-upping each other, amazing things happen.
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