I couldn’t believe he slowed down
Just to please some corporate BS.
shareI did NOT think he was going to do that.
shareHaven't seen how the portrayed the finish in the movie, but in real life there was a substantial argument about him slowing down. But someone in marketing wanted to have photo of the Ford crossing the finish line in a group for marketing purposes. He finally agreed, pretty much slowing down to a snails pace to allow McLaren catch up... And while he crossed the line first they declared it a dead heat finish which meant that the starting positions came into play in determining who won since it was an endurance race the distance driven was the deciding factor not who cross the line first.
shareThat's pretty close to how it is depicted in the film. To me what he did just undermined the credibility of the race. It's like when a boxer throws a fight. I expect someone in a competitive match to perform as well as they can unless there is some danger to life if they do so. Not to mention it screwed over his partner Denny Hulme.
shareUnfortunately in motor racing teams have a long history of controlling races and the out comes. While not something that happens in the current American racing series, European racing series have long had manipulated results. Even today it is common practice in Formula 1 which claims to be the highest level of open wheel racing, for teams to direct a driver to slow down so a teammate can pass or to try and block another driver from a competing team to aid their other driver. In the 60's when this occurred it was also no big deal to have a driver told to give his car to a teammate.
It frankly leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but that's just the way the people in Europe seem to like their racing, call it a motorized version of the contrived world wrestling where behind the scenes producers decide who will win and who will lose.
No. He did NOT cross the finish line first. In fact, he was about a car length back. Many have suggested it was his way of giving the finger to the photo finish plan.
shareIn those times it would have been considered a dead heat. If you want to get picky you need to get back to the fact that Ken Miles' car had rotors assemblies that were run ready and balanced for the car when they pitted for the last set of brake rotor changes, but McLaren's mechanics stole them and stuck them on Bruce's car leaving Miles' car with unbalanced rotors in which forced him to pit yet again. He had a multi-lap lead but the corporate whores at Ford fucked him over. Then in the final parade to the finish the cunt McLaren started trying to race for the finish as if he somehow deserved it after all his cheating in the garage. Miles didn't bother trying to go any faster because it was already clear that the cunts at Ford wanted the other GT40 to win so it was really decided by some corporate whores at Ford.
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I did not either. That disappointed me.
😎