By Peter M. DeLorenzo
Detroit. Racing a car, motorcycle or anything with some sort of power is a pursuit like no other. It is a passionate endeavor requiring an obsessive single-mindedness that consumes the people involved to a degree that outsiders find hard to understand. Ask any driver who has competed at the top level, and they will tell you that there is nothing half-assed about what they do, because the focus required is almost incomprehensible. Drivers talk about being in "the zone" - a strange state of mind that takes over their entire being while they're racing - when the faster they go the more things seem to slow down for them. They're aware of everything around them, but at the same time their focus on the task at hand is impenetrable, because anything less can result in a mistake that will likely have severe consequences. Racers are indeed a rare breed, willing to sacrifice everything for the pursuit of what they love to do, to the detriment of everything else. These racers have left an indelible mark on the sport. Drivers who were fierce competitors, flawed heroes and incredible, gifted talents. Their legacies are what make the sport of motor racing so fascinating. In the most recent issues of "Fumes" I have been recalling some of my favorites. This week, we remember the great Ken Miles.
Even though Ford v Ferrari wasn't my favorite racing film by any means, I was pleased that the great Ken Miles finally received proper recognition in it after years of obscurity. Ken Miles was the superbly talented engineer and driver who almost single-handedly propelled Shelby's Cobra to greatness. The British-born Miles was one of the most gifted - if not the most gifted - development drivers of his time, and his tireless dedication to Shelby American's efforts, though very well known in racing circles, was finally brought to the fore in Ford v Ferrari. Every single racing car from the Shelby American stable was developed by Ken Miles. He took the 289 Cobra and turned it into a dominating racing machine. He followed that by developing Peter Brock's beautiful design for the Cobra Daytona Coupe and molded it into a winner. The same goes for the 427 Cobra. But Miles' greatest achievement was turning the Ford GT and Ford Mk II into proper racing machines. Because it's one thing to assemble the right ingredients for a racing machine on paper, and it's quite another to make it all work the way it should, and Miles was a genius at it.
In 1966, at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Miles should have enjoyed his crowning achievement. Driving the No. 1 Shelby American Ford Mk II with co-driver Denny Hulme, Miles had a substantial lead over the No. 2 Shelby American Ford Mk II driven by Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon, although both cars remained on the same lap. A third Ford Mk II entered by Holman & Moody - the No. 4 machine - was driven by Ronnie Bucknum and Dick Hutcherson, and was running behind the two lead cars by a dozen laps. It is said that Leo Beebe, the Ford PR operative assigned to the racing program, came up with the plan after the last round of pit stops to have the three Ford Mk IIs get close together and run in an orchestrated 1-2-3 formation to the finish, in order to irritate Enzo Ferrari. So, Miles was ordered to slow and let the other two Fords catch up for the finish line photo op. The three Ford Mk IIs would cross the finish line together (although not the way the film portrayed it), which inadvertently handed the victory to McLaren and Amon, because the official margin of victory recorded by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, the governing body of Le Mans, was eight meters (just over 26 feet), as the McLaren/Amon Ford Mk II had started farther back in the field than the Miles/Hulme Ford Mk II.
To say Miles was crushed is an understatement. He was bitterly disappointed and livid because he felt he was robbed by the bumbling Ford decision. Some have insisted in hindsight that Ford didn't really want Miles to win, that his abrasive nature rubbed the Ford operatives the wrong way and that they didn't really mind that he came second. So, after all the years of basically propelling Carroll Shelby's success on the race track, Ken Miles was hung out to dry. Miles continued on in his role at Shelby American, with his next project being turning the Ford "J-Car" Prototype into a winning racing machine. Miles was tragically killed testing the "J-Car" at Riverside International Raceway on August 17, 1966, having remained bitter to the end about the Le Mans debacle. The "J-Car" became the Ford Mk IV, which Dan Gurney and A. J. Foyt raced it to victory in the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Carroll Shelby's considerable on-track success with his Shelby American racing team remains as much a tribute to the myriad talents of Ken Miles as it does to Shelby's promotional gift for getting manufacturers to part with copious amounts of cash. Maybe even more so, in fact. The Shelby American racing record remains a tribute to the enduring legacy of Ken Miles.
I was fortunate enough to see Miles in action several times, but the most memorable time was the first race I saw him run. My brother Tony and I and some friends had traveled to Meadowdale Raceway, in Carpentersville, Illinois, back in August of 1964 to see the USRRC series (United States Road Racing Championship) race weekend, which was the pinnacle of American road racing at the time. This was the first professional road racing I had ever seen in person, and it was Tony's second (he had been to Meadowdale the year before). The USRRC race weekends consisted of a GT race (Corvettes, Cobras, Jaguars, etc.) as the opener, followed by the big sports racers (Chaparral, Cooper Monaco, etc.) as the feature. We watched as the factory Shelby American Cobra team led by Ken Miles (No. 98) and Bob Johnson (No. 99) dominated the GT field, finishing 1-2, followed by three independently-entered Cobras. The best Corvettes in the country were there, and they were utterly humiliated, not only racing seconds a lap off of the pace, but none of them finished.
Then something fascinating happened. We watched as the crack Shelby American crew swarmed over Miles' Cobra immediately following the GT race. They took the full windshield off, replacing it with a tiny plexiglass bubble windscreen, filled it up with racing gas, and rolled it to the very back of the USRRC sports car race grid in 27th position. Dead last. It seems that the officials had allowed the team to enter Miles in the race with no qualifying time. We were then treated to one of the most dazzling displays of race driving we had ever seen, and it still resonates to this day. Jim Hall (No. 66 Chaparral 2A Chevrolet) dominated the race, followed by his now-legendary teammate, Roger Penske (No. 67 Chaparral 2A Chevrolet) for a memorable 1-2 for the Texas Road Runners. Dick Doane (No. 29 McKee Chevette Mk 1) finished third (sound familiar? Chevrolet would buy the rights to the Chevette name from McKee for the production car of the same name), and George Wintersteen (No. 12 Cooper Monaco T61M Chevrolet) finished fourth.
And Mr. Miles? He would charge from the back of the field in a jaw-dropping run that would see him finish fifth - in his 289 Cobra - just one lap behind the winners. Believe me, this isn't a case of appreciating something from the past more now - no, we appreciated what we were seeing, in real time. It was simply fantastic and amazing, in the true sense of that overused word.
And that's the High-Octane Truth for this week.
(Photo by John McCollister/Courtesy of RacingSportsCars.com)
Ken Miles in his factory Shelby American Cobra during the USRRC feature at Meadowdale Raceway in August 1964.
(Photo by Dave Friedman)
Riverside, October 13, 1963. Ken Miles prepares to wheel the No. 98 Shelby American Cooper Monaco T61 King Cobra Ford out of the paddock to the false grid. Yes, Miles developed the King Cobra for Shelby too. Dave MacDonald would race in the 200-mile L.A. Times Grand Prix that day, and win. Roger Penske (No. 6 Mecom Racing Zerex Special Climax) finished second and Pedro Rodriguez (No. 166 Genie Mk.8 Ford) was third.
(Dave Friedman)
(Getty images)
(Getty images)
(Dave Friedman)
(Dave Friedman)
Editor's Note: You can access previous issues of AE by clicking on "Next 1 Entries" below. - WG