[TPR] Le Man & Jim Hall 1966 History

[Mad Dog Antenucci]

Hi Team,
Merry Christmas...Everyone who follows Daytona or LeMans may also know about Jim Hall and I am talking about Jim Hall, the Texan who designed, developed and raced the Chaparral race cars. I loved those cars. By 1963 or '64 I had 3 posters in my bedroom at home in Mukilteo Washington. 
One was the Jag XKE which I later owned and raced in the Seattle area in SCCA and EJag club events. The second poster I had was the Shelby 289 Cobra, and the third was the Chaparral that Mr. Hall designed. In 1966 I was also a GI stationed at the time in Bad Tolz Germany (10th SFGA) and interestingly enough not very far from where Peter "the German" Menyhart grew up in Munich.
I wish I could say at the time in 1966, that  I had one of those amazing race cars but instead I had to satisfy myself with a Opal Kaddett. HAHAOf course it had headers and tuned exhaust but not much else to brag about. Every chance I got I loved driving on those Bavarian back roads or blasting away on the Autobahn and had a blast. During 1966 2 of my Army team mates and I went to LeMan for the race. We were able to briefly talk to both Jim and his driver's Phil Hill and Jo Bonnier which was as big an honor as meeting Carroll Shelby years later was for me. Sadly the Chaparral 2D that Jim campaigned and qualified DNF'd.
While I was disappointed that the Chaparral did not finish There was no way we also weren't supporting Ford and Shelby.  but sadly for me the XKE did not race that year because of new rules for its class limiting it to 3.0 liters and the XKE was 3.8., but I regress as usual.....Ford and Shelby did race and WIN. And sadly for me Jaguar did not have an entry.  And as any of you who know that followed the history at LeMans or watched the movie Ford vs Ferrari already know that it was Ford Shelby GT-40's that went 1-2-3. 
Hellva proud day to be an American anywhere or anytime but more so on that date in France if you loved racing. 
By 1967, I was headed to Vietnam for a couple years. But I did make it back to Germany in 1982 as a contractor building underground air defense facilities for DOD in Germany and Saudi Arabia and went to LeMan that same year but of course Porsche not only won 1-2-3 that year they also dominated all the entrys there. There were however TWO American entrys campaigned by Stratograph Energy  out of Louisiana!  one of their Camaro's won 2nd place with a 150+ MPH average and both finished...sadly no Pantera's or Shelby's (haha)....as Carroll was now partnering with Lee Iacocca at Chrysler by then and there were no Hemi's or Corvette's anywhere in sight either...not a great time unless you owned a Pantera and you actually had a sponsor because it was never Ford. 
Someone else can add what they know about the DeTomaso Pantera race history....Maybe you?Share with us where you were in the heyday of racing.
Happy New Year as well.Stay healthy and happy and see ya in 2025


Dennis,  
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