The excellent team of Dan Gurney and Jerry Grant, from whom victory at Sebring was taken in a most unfair way, was reunited to pilot a Shelby American-entered GT40 Mk II at Le Mans a few months later. Gurney set the fastest time in practice at 3:30.6 which equated to 142.98mph around the Circuit de le Sarthe , bettering three other Mk IIs and the rest of the field.
Gurney took the lead from Graham Hill on the third lap and held it throughout the early hours of the 34th 24H du Mans. Gurney and Grant held a commanding lead during the opening hours. Eventually, the blue #1 Miles/Hulme car caught the red #3 and the pair swapped the lead back and forth throughout the night.
Outside the Ford teams, few realized that though Gurney/Grant held the lead, the car was not at all healthy. In the 17th hour, the 7-liter Ford entered the pits for a permanent stop: trouble in the cooling system. Gurney and Grant had once again been cheated of the lead as overheating sidelined the beautiful Ford.