05/20/2020
After seeing the movie "Ford vs Ferrari" I wrote an article about Ken Miles' exploits in the USRRC series for Jeff Murray's "Vintage Car Research" newsletter. Here's the text of that article.
The release of the movie "Ford Versus Ferrari" has brought renewed public interest in Ken Miles, Carroll Shelby and their development of the Ford GT-40. Ken's legacy is so much more than developing the Ford GT and coming in second (losing) at Le Mans in 1966, due to Ford team orders for a photo-finish.
Ken started racing in his native England in 1949, for three years, before emigrating to the US as an auto service department manager for Gough Industries. They just happened to have an MG-TD which they let him enter in California Sports Car Club (Cal Club) races. He then built and raced two MG specials, dominating the under 1,500cc class and giving bigger-engined cars a fit. He did this through the end of 1955.
In 1956 he began racing Porsche 550's for Johnnie von Neumann and winning a lot. In 1958 he began a long relationship with Otto Zipper and continued to enhance his reputation as the fastest Porsche racer on the West Coast. Ken's fascination with racing cars extended to developing and racing the Dolphin formula junior car in 1960 and 61. He also worked on turning the Sunbeam Alpine into an SCCA contender. 1961 was also the year he won the USAC Road Racing Championship.
At the end of 1962 he was hired by Carroll Shelby to help develop and race the stunning Shelby Cobra. Ken's first race in a Cobra was February of 1963 at Riverside. He came in second to teammate, Dave MacDonald. Fortunately, in 1963, the Sports Car Club of America held their first professional racing series, the United States Road Racing Championship, or USRRC, for short. The USRRC was actually two championships in one racing series. The main focus was on the Driver's Championship, for unlimited sports racers. While Shelby focused on the Manufacturer's (GT) Championship.
Their first USRRC race was at Pensacola, Florida,. The Cobra team consisted of Ken, MacDonald and Bob Holbert. All of the team cars did not finish, due to a broken distributor, failed rear axle hangers and a severe oil leak. Roger Penske won the race, driving a Ferrari 250 GTO SWB. Miles and Holbert did win the Driver's race, but did not get points for it as it was too short of a race to share driving.
The Shelby team went back to California and beefed up the Cobra racers. The next race was a combined race for all classes. Ken had shift linkage problems that put him down to fourth in class. But MacDonald and Holbert were first and second. The following races at Watkins Glen started a new trend. After placing second in the Manufacturer's race, Holbert ran his own Porsche in the Driver's race. So Ken had Shelby enter his Mfr. car in the Driver's race and won his class (Over Two Liters). This started a trend of running both races with the same car. At Pacific Raceways it looked like the Cobra boys were playing with each other. MacDonald won the Mfr race, with Ken second and Holbert third. In the Driver's race Holbert was fourth overall and third in class, with Ken in fifth and MacDonald in sixth places. Ken missed the next USRRC race at Continental Divide, as he was in England, at Goodwood for the Tourist Trophy. Bob Bondurant filled in for Ken and won the Mfr class. At the Road America USRRC combined race Ken and Holbert were second overall and won the Driver's class. At Mid Ohio for the USRRC finale Holbert won the Mfr race, with Ken second. But in the Driver's race Ken took his same Cobra to victory over the all-out sports racers. Holbert won the Driver's championship with 39 points and Ken was second with 30 points. The Shelby team cleaned up in the Manufacturer's championship with 111 points to second place Ferrari, who had 28 points.
1964 was an even more dominant year for the Shelby Cobra team. Not only did they race the Cobra roadsters in the Mfr races, they also raced the Shelby Cooper Cobra in the Driver's races. There were ten races in '64 and Ken won eight of those races and placed second in the other two. Ken was not a fan of the Shelby Cooper Cobra and raced it once, at Pensacola and did not finish. After that Ken reverted to using the Cobra roadster in the Driver's races and finished the championship in tenth place with six points finishes.
In 1965 Shelby was pulled into the Ford GT program, with Ken doing the bulk of the test and development work. The SCCA staged only two separate Mfr races in 1965, at Riverside and Laguna Seca. Ken won both races.
1966 gave Ken the opportunity to race in the USRRC Driver's races in the Under Two Liter class with Otto Zipper's Porsche 906. Ken was sixth overall and first in class at Stardust. His next USRRC race was at Laguna Seca where he finished fifth overall and first in class. His last USRRC race should have been at Watkins Glen. However the engine in the Porsche blew and Zipper could not get a replacement engine from the West Coast Porsche distributor.
Ken was just dominant in the Mfr races, winning 8 of the 14 separate races and winning the Mfr class 10 times. Bob Johnson, another Cobra driver, won the second most separate races with a total of 2, while four drivers each one 1 race. Johnson also had the second most Mfr class wins at 5.
In the Driver's races Ken had 2 wins (one shared with Holbert). He also tied George Follmer with 6 Driver's class wins. This compares pretty well for both drivers as Mark Donohue had 12 class wins, Jim Hall had 11 and Joe Buzzetta garnered 5 wins. The only class Ken did not have a class win was in the Mfr Under Two Liter class, as he was busy racing the Cobra.
Ken's participation in the USRRC Mfr and Driver's races brought excitement as he fought outright sports racers with his Mfr Cobra and beat a lot of them. RIP Ken.
(sorry for the lack of photos)
