How do you top drama that starts when Enzo Ferrari, pissed off by the news that his cars had engines that were too big for the prototype class and therefore had to be in the Unrestricted class, fighting against Chaparrals that would easily stomp them? How did you overshadow the raging Ford versus Ferrari drama that saw Henry Ford II, still raging like a Vesuvius explosion, focused on stomping Ferrari into the ground at all costs with Carroll Shelby acting as the colonel to his general, barking out the marching orders and making sure that the machines were ready for war. With all of that going on, with the 12 Hours of Sebring looming as the forerunner to that year’s 24 Hours of LeMans, what could possibly top that?

Well…how about one hell of a rainstorm.

Towards the later afternoon, it became apparent that the dark clouds dropping down from the north were not going to be friendly, and at 5:25 P.M., they proved that they wouldn’t be. The storm hit so hard that the Goodyear blimp “Mayflower” stood on it’s nose while attached to it’s mooring tower. Tents and small covers were blown away and the rains slammed down, an estimated five inches in the first thirty minutes alone. The drainage system at Sebring didn’t have a prayer, and in some sections of the track over eight inches of water was standing. Cars were drowning, especially the Chaparrals, Lolas, Ford GTs and Ferraris. Giotto Bizzarrini had set his leather shoes aside to save them from the floodwater, but they were eventually overtaken and floated off to parts unknown. Mike Gammino’s Iso Grifo hydroplaned and struck a bridge abutment, splitting the car in half just behind the seats. Gammino didn’t even know how bad the car was until he walked back with co-driver Charlie Rainville and saw what was left…and promptly passed out.

With teams punching holes in the car for drainage and cars that were lapping the track at ten minutes, you’d think that the race would be called. Nope, never happened…as GT40s were tip-toeing through the flood, Sebring Sprites were lapping the faster cars. An hour and a half later, the rains stopped and at 10 P.M., the Jim Hall/Hap Sharp Chaparral took first, with the Ken Miles/Bruce McLaren GT40 taking second four laps down.