Why was this race so important that its name was informally given to Ferrari’s next supercar and, 55 years later, now officially bequeathed upon the SP3? Revenge, pure and simple.

For the first half of the decade, Ferrari had regarded prototype sports car racing as its own domain. Then Ford had arrived with the GT40. And while Ferrari ruled supreme through 1964 and remained the dominant force in 1965, by 1966 the 7-litre Ford MkIIs had humbled Ferrari at Le Mans which, being in Europe and having won seven of the previous eight races there, was regarded as essentially a home fixture. The Americans took every place on the podium while not one of the Scuderia’s cars even finished the race.

The very next time the teams would meet would be at the Daytona 24 Hours in February the following year. Ferrari only brought two cars, a brand new P4 for Mike Parkes and Ludovico Scarfiotti and a P3 from the previous year updated to P4 specification for Lorenzo Bandini and Chris Amon. They faced no fewer than six factory supported MkIIs, split equally between the Shelby American and Holman Moody squads. It looked the tallest of tall orders.