Driven by Mark Donohue and Walt Hansgen and entered by Holman Moody, the #95 GT40 Mk II qualified third for the race in Daytona, Florida. For 1966 the race would, for the first time, become a 24 hour event! As with Le Mans and Sebring, victory rarely goes to the fastest car, but to the car that is fast and durable enough to hold up to 24 hours of relentless abuse.
Donohue and Hansgen ran as high as second overall, where they stayed for much of the race, but fell back to third spot in the later hours as directed by the Ford team orders. The end result was a 1-2-3 sweep led by Miles/Ruby, Gurney/Grant and Donohue/Hansgen. A fourth Mk II driven by McLaren/Amon finished 5th overall.
Of course, success in racing doesn’t come easily, and so the cars went back to Shelby American in California for a rebuild prior to Sebring.