Porsche arrived at Sebring in 1967 with four white cars: a pair of Carrera 6s and a pair of new 910s, fresh from their debut at Daytona. Each one featured the unmistakable Porsche name painted on the sills.
While Ford and Chaparral were out for overall victory, Porsche was facing tough competition in the 2-liter Prototype class from a quartet of 206S Dino Ferraris and a pair of new T33 Alfa Romeos. Of course, the 5-liter displacement handicap wasn't going to stop Porsche from aiming to take top honors away from the American entries!
The little Alfa T33 was first away, following the traditional foot race to the waiting cars, and led the first lap before the big factory Fords and thundering Chaparral charged through. The #36 Porsche 910 driven by Patrick/Mitter got away well and was mixing it up with the frontrunners in the early laps. Within a couple hours the Dinos started dropping out, and at four hours the Alfa Romeos were starting to suffer minor failures. The Porsche 910s kept up the pace, running like clockwork, and at 8 hours #36 was in third place, 8 laps behind the Ford Mk IV and 6 laps back from the factory-entered GT40 Mk II. The #37 Porsche 910 had also recovered from a slow getaway and had charged through the field into fourth position.
With 30 minutes to go, the second-place Ford stopped in the pits for a regular stop but refused to start again. As the Ford sat immobile, the Porsches in third and fourth places gained ground at an alarming rate: at 11pm the sleek white and red 910 was on the same lap! Unfortunately, #36 fell just 8 seconds shy of taking over second place. Though the clock foiled Porsches climb up the podium, the German team could now taste overall victory!
