Winning Ferrari 512S at Sebring 1970

Nino Vaccarella (driving) and Ignazio Giunti drove most of the 1970 Sebring in this factory Ferrari 512S. They were in 4th place when the excitement began during the last couple of hours when the leading 512S of Mario Andretti and Arturo Merzario retired with a broken transmission. A Gulf Porsche 917K went into the lead with the Porsche 908/02 of Steve McQueen and Peter Revson in second and Vaccarella and Giunti now in third. Mario Andretti was placed in the Vaccarella/Giunti Ferrari with orders to put pressure on the two Porsches especially the 3-liter McQueen car. Then the leading 917 pits with a broken wheel hub. The McQueen/Revson car took the lead briefly until Andretti, driving flat out, caught up to them and won the race by only 23.8 seconds. Nino Vaccarella told me in an email that he thought that he and Giunti could have won the race without the help of Andretti. He thinks that Andretti was put into his car (by Forghieri) because Sebring was an American race that needed an American driver to take the checkered flag.