Review: Shelby Cobra Daytona 1965 season
Background
Having narrowly been defeated by Ferrari in the fight for the 1964 World Sportscar Championship, Shelby returned for another crack in 1965. By this time, the American team’s fleet of Cobra Daytonas had doubled in size from three to six cars.
In addition, Shelby’s workload had increased on account of having been recruited to help Ford with both development and racing of the Prototype class GT (better known as the GT40). To spread the load, Alan Mann Racing in England would manage most of the Cobra Daytona’s European racing exploits in 1965.
Meanwhile, in a similar scenario to 1964 (when the 250 LM’s application had been thrown out), Ferrari’s 1965 challenger (the 275 GTB Competizione) was not accepted into the GT category as it was in blatant breach of chassis regulations.
With no alternative available, Ferrari’s distributor and privateer teams were forced to run the ageing 250 GTO in either its original 1962 Series 1 form or low drag 1964 Series 2 configuration.
Once again, the de facto World Sportscar Championship (dubbed the International Championship for GT Manufacturers) was decided by Grand Touring cars while Prototypes contested the International Trophy for GT Prototypes. Over two-litre Division 3 GT cars were eligible to run in 16 rounds while Prototypes were permitted to attend ten events. Only a manufacturer’s best six race results plus one hillclimb counted towards their final points tally.
1965 was to be the last year that the World Championship would be decided by Group 3 GT cars as a new regularity framework was on the way in for 1966 when Prototype machinery would once again take precedence.
1965 Daytona 2000km
The season kicked off with the Daytona 2000km on February 28th. Shelby ran four Cobra Daytonas: the brand new CSX2601 (for Bob Johnson / Tom Payne) and CSX2602 (for Rick Muther / John Timanus) along with CSX2299 (for Jo Schlesser / Harold Keck) and CSX2300 (for Ed Leslie / Allen Grant).
The top four grid slots were filled by Prototypes. Scuderia Ferrari officially stayed away, but did supply factory drivers to NART. The American distributor team for the Prancing Horse took pole with a 330 P2 and fourth with an older 330 P. In between were Shelby’s brace of Ford GT40 prototypes.
As for the Cobra Daytonas, they took the first four Grand Touring slots on the grid with Leslie / Grant fifth, Johnson / Payne sixth, Schlesser / Keck seventh and Muther / Timanus eighth.
Ferrari’s sole hope in the GT category was Peter Clarke’s privateer Series 1 GTO which lined up 13th. The depleted number of GTO runners was explained by two second generation GTOs having been stuck aboard a ship in Miami which was tied up owing to a dock workers strike.
Although the Leslie / Grant example began to struggle with a slipping clutch at quarter distance, all four Cobra Daytonas generally performed well in the race until mid distance when, on the 166th lap, the Johnson / Payne example blew its engine and retired. The remaining trio pressed on and Schlesser / Keck ultimately finished second overall behind the winning Shelby Ford GT40 driven by Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby.
The sister Ford GT40 of Bob Bondurant / Richie Ginther placed third followed by the Muther / Timanus Cobra Daytona handing Shelby all top four positions.
Next up was a privateer Porsche 904 GTS followed by the Leslie / Grant Cobra Daytona which, despite its troublesome clutch, claimed sixth overall.
1965 Sebring 12 Hours
Having cleaned up with a Division 3 1-2-3 at Daytona, the Shelby squad headed to Florida with the same four cars to contest the Sebring 12 Hours on March 27th. In the absence of any serious GT class threat from Ferrari, the Cobra Daytonas looked set for another good result.
Amid a strong field of Prototype machinery, the Cobra Daytonas qualified 13th (Lew Spencer / Jim Adams, CSX2602), 14th (Leslie / Grant, CSX2300), 15th (Bondurant / Schlesser, CSX2299) and 17th (Johnson / Payne, CSX2601). The next quickest GT car was a privately run Shelby Cobra roadster in 23rd.
The race got underway in searing heat, but there was immediately trouble afoot when Ed Leslie was forced to avoid a stalled car and got hit by Art Riley’s Volvo P1800. Fortunately, both cars were ultimately able to continue. Simultaneously, Lew Spencer’s GT class pole starter began to emit huge clouds of smoke from a carburettor fire which was promptly extinguished. This left two Cobra Daytonas in the pits as the other cars stormed away from the grid.
Meanwhile, the Johnson / Payne example took the lead in the GT class with the Schlesser / Bondurant entry second.
Soon after the mid-way point (4pm), the skies above Sebring begin to turn extremely dark. The rain storm that arrived 90 minutes later saw the circuit become awash with water as lightning began to flash and thunder rolled in. Huge lakes formed out on the circuit as speeds were reduced to around 30mph.
Blinded by the deluge, one of the works Iso Grifo A3/Cs hit the Mercedes bridge and was spectacularly sliced in two. The driver, Mile Gammino, miraculously emerged unhurt. In the pits, one of the Shelby mechanics was discovered unconscious in a deepening pool of water – he had been electrocuted when he stepped on a live wire taking power to a trailer but eventually recovered.
The rain fell relentlessly for an hour then eased off around 6:30pm at which point the circuit rapidly dried out.
When the chequered flag fell at 10pm, the Bondurant / Schlesser Cobra Daytona was best of the GT class contenders. It placed fourth overall behind the winning General Motors-backed Chaparral 2A, a Shelby Ford GT40 in second and David Piper’s privateer Ferrari 250 LM.
Fifth and sixth positions went to a brace of works 904 GTS Porsches while the Johnson / Payne Cobra Daytona came home seventh. Despite the early problems that had afflicted the other pair of Cobra Daytonas, the damaged Leslie / Grant machine placed 13th overall (third in class) and the fire-affected Spencer / Adams car (which Phil Hill joined once his Ford GT40 retired) managed 21st overall (fifth in class).
The result meant Shelby left Sebring with a commanding lead over Ferrari in the GT championship standings.
1965 Monza 1000km
The next event for over two-litre Division 3 GT cars was the Monza 1000km on April 25th.
Scuderia Ferrari were out in force to challenge the Shelby Ford GT40s the Prototype class, but opposition for the Cobra Daytonas in the Grand Touring category was restricted to a couple of not very fast GTOs and a Radford Racing Cobra roadster.
For this outing, two Cobra Daytonas were run by Alan Mann Racing on Shelby’s behalf: CSX2601 for Bondurant / Grant (qualified ninth) and CSX2602 for Jack Sears / John Whitmore (qualified 13th). To underline the paucity of opposition, the next quickest GT qualifier was a works 1.6-litre Alfa Romeo TZ2 in 16th.
The race was expected to be a walkover for the Cobra Daytonas so long as they stayed reliable. Unfortunately, an otherwise fairly unremarkable event was marred by a tragic crash just before half distance when, on the 33rd lap, Tommy Spychiger’s Scuderia Filipinetti Ferrari 365 P suffered a brake failure on the flat out approach to Parabolica. In a decidedly unpleasant accident, the car somersaulted into the trees and Spychiger was decapitated.
The remaining Filipinetti cars were subsequently withdrawn.
As for the Cobra Daytonas, they continued to circulate at a steady rate to ensure maximum World Championship points. Bondurant / Grant came home eighth overall and Sears / Whitmore were just behind in ninth. Their pace was sufficiently leisurely that a pair of under two-litre cars finished further up the road with the Racing Team Holland Porsche 904 GTS fourth overall and an Autodelta Alfa Romeo TZ2 seventh.
The outright win went to Ferrari whose P2 models took first and second. The final podium slot went to Shelby’s Ford GT40 driven by Bruce McLaren and Ken Miles.
1965 Oulton Park Tourist Trophy
One week later, Alan Mann ran a single Cobra Daytona for Shelby at the fourth World Championship race for Division 3 cars: the Oulton Park Tourist Trophy on May 1st.
1965 marked the first time Britain’s illustrious Tourist Trophy had taken place at Oulton Park, the event comprised a pair of two-hour races for Prototype and GT cars separated by a 90 minute interval with the winner decided on aggregate.
The Alan Mann squad ran CSX2299 for Jack Sears to drive in both heats along with a Shelby Cobra roadster for John Whitmore. The rest of the Division 3 GT field comprised AC’s own Willment-bodied Cobra Coupe, four additional Cobra roadsters, a pair of Ferrari 250 GTOs and a brace of Jaguar E-types. Outright victory was expected to go to one of the myriad super light weight open-bodied Brabham, Lola, Lotus, McLaren or Elvas in attendance.
Sears was fastest of the GT qualifiers in 13th with the next quickest machine having been a Cobra roadster run by The Chequered Flag in 15th and the Dawnay Racing Series 2 Ferrari 250 GTO in 16th.
During the build-up to the race, a last minute drama unfolded when the Cobra Daytona wouldn’t start on the grid. It had to be wheeled off to the pits and given a push start once the rest of the field had departed for the warm-up lap. Sears was able to take up a position at the back of the grid, but he incurred a two lap penalty which thwarted any realistic chance of victory.
Undeterred, Sears pressed on; he finished Heat 1 in 15th overall (eighth in class) and Heat 2 in third overall (first in class). This placed him seventh overall in the final standings (fourth in class). Victory in the over two-litre GT category went to team-mate John Whitmore in the Shelby Cobra roadster (fourth overall). In fifth overall (second in class) was Peter Sutcliffe’s privateer Series 2 Ferrari 250 GTO while in sixth spot (third in class) was Allen Grant driving The Chequered Flag Cobra roadster.
1965 Targa Florio
One week after the Oulton Park TT, the World Championship headed to Siciliy for the Targa Florio which Shelby elected to skip.
Outright victory went to a works Ferrari P2 and although the best Ferrari GTO (the second series variant of privateer Clemente Ravetto) was actually the sixth Grand Touring class home, Ferrari still bagged a full complement of Division 3 points.
1965 Spa 500km
The following weekend (May 16th), Spa Francorchamps hosted a 500km race for which the Alan Mann squad entered two Cobra Daytonas: CSX2601 for Bob Bondurant and CSX602 for John Whitmore.
On pole was the Maranello Concessionaires Ferrari 330 P with Whitmore’s Cobra Daytona second. The sister car of Bondurant lined up fifth having been split by the Ecurie Francorchamps Ferrari 250 LM of Willy Mairesse and Peter Sutcliffe’s privateer 250 GTO.
The opening stages of the 36 lap race saw the Ferraris of Parkes and Mairesse head the field with Whitmore and Bondurant third and fourth in their Cobra Daytonas.
It seemed as though the two Brits had the GT class sewn up until just before quarter distance when, on lap seven, Whitmore collided with the errant Cobra of Harry Digby on the approach to Stavelot; Digby moved over just as Whitmore tried to go past which crunched the Cobra Daytona’s nose while Digby ended up in a ditch. A frantic pit stop then ensued as Whitmore lost much time before he eventually rejoined well down the order.
More drama followed on lap eight when Bondurant’s car dropped to seven cylinders and the problem couldn’t be rectified. CSX2601 pressed on regardless and, like the hastily repaired CSX2602, both Cobra Daytonas steadily climbed back up the field.
With just a few laps to go, Bondurant had recovered to fifth and Whitmore was just behind in sixth. However, on lap 32 Whitmore came into the pits complaining of excessive transmission vibration and his car was withdrawn.
The final result saw Peter Sutcliffe’s Ferrari GTO take Division 3 class honours thanks to his fourth place finish just six seconds clear of Bondurant in the sole remaining Cobra Daytona.
Outright victory went to the Ferrari 250 LM of Willy Mairesse. David Piper was second in a similar car. The final podium slot went to the Racing Team Holland Porsche 904 GTS of Ben Bon (which was the first GT car home).
1965 Nurburgring 1000km
Just another week later, the World Championship headed to Germany for the Nurburgring 1000km (May 23rd).
This time, three Cobra Daytonas were on hand. Alan Mann ran CSX2601 for Bob Bondurant / Jochen Neerpasch and CSX2602 for Jack Sears / Frank Gardner. The third car, CSX2300, was loaned to Ford France and appeared in the French outfit’s trademark white, blue and red colour scheme for Jo Schlesser and Andre Simon.
Despite the tight and twisty Nurburgring track not having been obviously well-suited to the Cobra Daytona’s characteristics, the Alan Mann pair of Bondurant / Neerpasch were by far the quickest in qualifying and lined up eleventh.
The next quickest GT car was an under two-litre works Porsche 904 GTS followed by the white Ford France Cobra Daytona of Schlesser / Simon in 18th and the second Alan Mann machine of Sears / Gardner in 20th. Interestingly, also in attendance at the Nurburgring was the car Ferrari had hoped to race against Shelby in 1965: the 275 GTB Competizione. Running in the over three-litre Prototype class, it qualified 22nd with Giampiero Biscaldi and Giancarlo Baghetti at the wheel.
The first three positions on the grid were taken by P2 Ferraris while the Shelby Ford GT40s lined up fourth and fifth.
Unfortunately, the Nurburgring meeting was marred by two nasty accidents. In practice, Maurice Caillet went off at the Flugplatz in the Wicky Racing Team Jaguar E-type and sustained severe head injuries. In the race, Honore Wagner fatally crashed the Equipe Grand-Ducale Luxembourgeoise Alfa Romeo TZ just above Adenau Bridge.
As for the Cobra Daytonas, Bondurant / Neerpasch romped home to an easy Division 3 GT class victory with seventh overall while the sister car of Sears / Gardner placed tenth and Schlesser / Simon were twelfth in the white Ford France entry (giving Shelby a class 1-2-3). Biscaldi / Baghetti were one place further back in the works Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione in what proved a tantalising taste of what could have been during the 1965 season.
1965 Le Mans 24 Hours
No less than five of the six Cobra Daytonas were subsequently on hand for the Le Mans 24 Hours which took place over the weekend of June 19th and 20th.
In addition to a brace of brand new seven-litre Ford GTs, Shelby had two Cobra Daytonas in attendance while the other trio were allocated to AC Cars, Ford France and Scuderia Filipinetti. The Ford France entry once again appeared in the team’s white, blue and red livery as seen at the Nurburgring while Filipinetti’s machine ran in the Swiss colours of red with a white stripe to match the team’s on-loan GT40 and Ferrari 250 LM.
Opposition in the GT class was severely limited; the only car realistically capable of stealing Shelby’s thunder was the solitary Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione which had appeared at the Nurburgring four weeks prior. Since then, the car had been repainted yellow as it was appearing under an Ecurie Francorchamps entry (the Ferrari distributor for Belgium). For this outing, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest allowed the 275 to run in the under four-litre GT class.
Owing to gale force winds and flooding, much of qualifying had to be cancelled which led to an extra session being organised on the Saturday morning ahead of the race. Best of the Cobra Daytonas was the Shelby entry of Dan Gurney / Jerry Grant which lined up twelfth (CSX2286) while two places back in 14th was the Francorchamps Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione of Willy Mairesse / Jean Blaton.
As for the remaining four Cobra Daytonas, they started 19th (Peter Sutcliffe / Peter Harper in CSX2602 for Scuderia Filipinetti), 20th (Jack Sears / Dick Thompson in CSX2299 for AC Cars), 23rd (Jo Schlesser / Allen Grant in CSX2601 for Ford France) and 26th (Bob Johnson / Tom Payne in CSX2287 for Shelby).
At the sharp end of the grid it was Ford-Ferrari-Ford-Ford-Ford.
The early stages of the race saw the Gurney / Grant Cobra Daytona move up to sixth and easily lead the GT category. At the two hour mark it was fourth and the last car to still be on the lead lap as the Ford challenge began to wilt. By 7pm, CSX2286 was the only American entry anywhere near the lead trio of Ferraris.
At around 9:30pm, the lead Cobra Daytona began to encounter low oil pressure and it looked as though Shelby’s quickest GT machine would have trouble staying in the race. Within half an hour it had dropped behind the Sears / Thompson AC Cars entry which lay seventh and was chasing a half dozen Ferraris to include the Francorchamps 275 GTB Competizione.
Overnight, the Gurney / Grant entry dropped a cylinder, the lead AC Cars Cobra Daytona of Sears / Thompson had a lengthy stop for radiator repairs and the Ford France entry of Schlesser / Grant needed a replacement half shaft before it retired with clutch failure. The Filipinetti machine of Sutcliffe / Harper then became the second Cobra Daytona to drop out when, just after 1am, it put a rod through the block while flying down the Mulsanne Straight.
By this time, the Gurney / Grant Cobra Daytona seemed to be going well again and rapidly began to overhaul the sister car of Johnson / Payne before that car blew a head gasket and became the third Cobra Daytona retirement.
Come 3am, Gurney / Grant had moved back into fifth while the Sears / Thompson entry up ahead was suffering from falling oil pressure. However, the Shelby entry’s progress was curtailed soon after following a 20 minute stop to address some vibration issues. Unfortunately, these became progressively worse owing to a broken engine mount and, at 7:30am, Gurney / Grant retired with a broken camshaft damper.
Although by now sounding a little sick, the AC Cars entry of Sears / Thompson soldiered on to record an eighth place finish and five-litre GT class win. However, it crossed the line a distant 36 laps behind the Mairesse / Blaton Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione which was the first Grand Touring car home and bagged an impressive third overall with privateer 250 LMs taking first and second.
1965 Reims 12 Hours
After their disappointing showing at Le Mans, the Cobra Daytonas returned to action two weeks later for the Reims 12 Hours on July 4th.
The sparse Division 3 GT entry comprised two Cobra Daytonas: a Shelby-entered example for Bob Bondurant / Jo Schlesser (CSX2601) and a sister car which appeared under a Willment Racing Team entry for Jack Sears / John Whitmore (CSX2300). The Willment squad also ran AC Cars’ own Cobra Coupe for Frank Gardner while the Ferrari challenge was limited to a trio of Series 1 250 GTOs.
The surprise of qualifying was Peter Sutcliffe’s GTO that he was sharing with William Bradley and which lined up fourth on the grid behind a trio of Ferrari Prototypes. A batch of four Ferrari 250 LMs occupied fifth through eighth, after which came the Cobra Daytonas of Bondurant / Schlesser (ninth) and Sears / Whitmore (tenth). AC Cars’ Cobra Coupe of Gardner / Ireland started eleventh.
For 1965, the normal midnight start at Reims was moved forward by an hour (to 11pm). The early stages saw Sears and Bondurant running together in eighth and ninth. There was also a nasty accident when, just before midnight, the Ecurie Francorchamps Ferrari 250 LM of Gerald Langlois van Ophem went off at one of the very fast swerves after Gueux and killed two marshals.
The race nevertheless continued and at the end of the sixth hour Sears / Whitmore lay sixth ahead of the Bondurant / Schlesser sister car in seventh with all the other Division 3 entries having retired.
Soon afterwards, the Sears / Whitmore Cobra Daytona found itself in the pits with a thrown rod, however, the offending piston was simply removed and the car was amazingly able to press on for another five hours.
Bondurant / Schlesser ultimately crossed the line in fifth behind a batch of four Ferrari Prototypes while Sears / Whitmore came home in ninth for another class 1-2. The result meant Shelby now had an unassailable lead in the World Championship standings.
1965 Coppa Citta di Enna
Six weeks later, the Cobra Daytonas had their final World Championship outing at the Coppa Citta di Enna (August 15th). The 105 lap race for over two-litre Division 3 GT cars served as the curtain raiser to that weekend’s Mediterranean GP non-championship F1 race. To bolster the grid, the organisers laid on a special GTN class which permitted the Ferrari 250 LM to compete (as had been the case at all Italian rounds of the World Championship thus far).
In addition to a trio of 250 LMs and a brace of Alan Mann-run Cobra Daytonas (CSX2601 for Bondurant and CSX2299 for Seas), three 250 GTOs were in attendance at Enna to include one of the updated Series 2 variants.
Qualifying saw the privateer 250 LMs of David Piper and Mario Casoni take first and second with Bondurant third and Nino Vaccarella’s works 250 LM fourth. Sears lined up in fifth spot followed by the 250 GTO trio of Ferdinando Latteri, Mike de Udy and Clemente Ravetto.
In the race, Casoni and Piper bagged the first two positions followed by Bondurant and Sears to give Shelby another Division 3 GT one-two. Bondurant had in fact been in the hunt for an overall win until a pair of late stops dropped him out of contention.
1965 Championship Standings
Shelby ended the season on 90 points compared to Ferrari’s 71.3. However, given the lack of an up-to-date challenger from the Italian firm together with the 275 GTB Competizione’s Grand Touring class win at the Le Mans 24 Hours, Shelby’s victory proved somewhat hollow.
1965 Bonneville Speed Records
With the World Sportscar Championship having long since concluded and the 1966 regulation changes ruling out any further participation, it may have seemed that the Cobra Daytona would see no further action. However, on November 2nd Goodyear’s Director of Racing, Tony Webner, put a call into Shelby as the tyre giant had the Bonneville Salt Flats reserved for the next four days but no car to run; Walt Arfons' Wingfoot Express rocket car had some major problems with its propulsion system and Craig Breedlove's jet-powered Spirit of America needed several days of work before it could make another attempt.
As Bonneville rules stated that if your cars were not in a position to run the salt flats had to be given up for other record attempts, Goodyear was at risk of the Firestone-shod Green Monster jet car driven by Art Arfons stealing their thunder just before the weather changed.
As a Goodyear distributor in Los Angeles, Shelby agreed to send chassis CSX2287 up to Bonneville. The car, which had last appeared at Le Mans back in June, was fitted with a rebuilt engine that was sitting in the shop and a new set of racing tyres. The long 2.88:1 Le Mans rear axle ratio was retained.
Following a 700 mile night drive, CSX2287 set 23 National and International FIA speed records to include a 1931 mile run around Bonneville’s twelve mile loop during which Craig Breedlove and Bobby Tatroe averaged 150mph.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Ford - https://www.ford.com, Dave Friedman / The Henry Ford - https://www.thehenryford.org/
