Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt teamed up to drive the #3 Shelby American-entered GT40 Mk II in the 1967 24 Hour race at Daytona. Neither were considered long distance specialists, particularly Foyt who was more accustomed to racing on ovals in open wheeled cars. However, his experience on the high banks of Daytona would prove to be an asset to the Shelby team. Foyts experience driving with Gurney in a 24 hour endurance race would also prepare him for an assault on Le Mans a few months later.
Six Mk II GT40s would start the Daytona classic; a race they had won outright in 1966. Shelby American entered three cars, and Holman Moody the other three. Transmission problems, however, would plague them all because the batch of output shafts brought to Daytona had not been correctly heat treated. The four spare transmissions that Ford brought were used early on; luckily, somebody remembered that two more cars from pre-race tests were at the track and these cars were stripped of their reliable transmissions.
The highest placed Mk II of Gurney/Foyt, running in second place for much of the race, finally broke its transmission. One of the older units was fitted and it lasted until the engine threw a rod. The #3 car lasted 464 laps; the winning Ferrari 330 P4 completed 666 laps. The results were disappointing, but Ford had identified the problem and would not repeat it!