45-Year old missing trophy returned to Ford

A trophy from one of Ford Motor Company’s greatest racing triumphs has just returned home in time to help celebrate the 45th anniversary of Ford Racing's 1967 victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The victory that day was piloted by the All-American team of Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt in a car prepared by Carroll Shelby and his Shelby-American race team. The trophy was recently returned to Edsel B. Ford II, a Ford Motor Company board member.

“It is a very important milestone for Ford to have this great and historic trophy returned to the Company," said Ford. “The win in the No. 1 Ford Mark IV with Gurney and Foyt was memorable in so many ways and proved beyond doubt that our dominant victory at Le Mans in 1966 was not a one-time occurrence."

The 1967 victory still remains the only time an American car, prepared by an American team with American drivers, has ever won the world’s greatest endurance sports car race. The Ford team took the lead 90 minutes into the event and won going away, winning by four laps over the second-place Ferrari.

Edsel B. Ford II with 67 trophy

The trophy was preserved by an individual following the company’s pull-out from racing in 1970. It was recently shipped to Dearborn with the wish that it be returned to Ford Racing. The trophy is currently in the hands of expert curators at the Henry Ford Museum, who are conserving it for display later.

Henry Ford Museum is the owner of the famous red No. 1 Ford Mark IV that Gurney and Foyt drove that day in France. The winning car is one of the prized pieces of the museum’s Racing in America collection.

“It’s great to have this trophy back 45 years after the historic win," said Ford. “It gives us hope that one of these days the greatest missing artifact in our company’s racing history – my great-grandfather’s punch bowl trophy from 1901 – may someday be found as well."