The 50° Targa Florio took place on 8 May 1966, on the

Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie The Targa Florio was a public road endurance automobile race held in the mountains of Sicily near the island's capital of Palermo. Founded in 1906, it was the oldest sports car racing event, part of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 a ...

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

(

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

). pp. 58-9

Race

The 50th anniversary edition of the Targa was marred by an inclement weather that turned the road into a quagmire. The winners of the 1965 edition,

Nino Vaccarella Nino Vaccarella (4 March 1933 – 23 September 2021) was an Italian sports car racing and Formula One driver. His principal achievements include having won the 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Targa Florio in 1965, 1971 and 1975, the latter y ...

and

Lorenzo Bandini Lorenzo Bandini (21 December 1935 – 10 May 1967) was an Italian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Bandini won the 1964 Austrian Grand Prix with Ferrari. In endurance racing, Bandini won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in , as w ...

started as favorites driving the powerful, prototype-class

Ferrari 330 P3 The Ferrari P was a series of Italian sports prototype racing cars produced by Ferrari during the 1960s and early 1970s. Although Enzo Ferrari resisted the move even with Cooper dominating F1, Ferrari began producing mid-engined racing cars in th ...

. Indeed it seemed they could led Ferrari to another victory but two laps from the end, a wrong maneuver by Bandini while lapping a slower car resulted in the 330 off the road. This paved the way of the victory for the

factory-backed In motorsports, a factory-backed racing team or driver is one Sponsor (commercial), sponsored by a vehicle Manufacturing, manufacturer in official competitions. Definition As motorsport competition is an expensive endeavor, some degree of f ...

Scuderia Filipinetti Scuderia Filipinetti (also French name ''Ecurie Filipinetti'') was a Switzerland, Swiss motor racing team that competed in sports car racing and occasionally in Formula One between 1962 and 1973. It was founded by Georges Filipinetti (1907-1973) t ...

Porsche 906 The Porsche 906 or Carrera 6 is a street-legal racing car from Porsche. It was announced in January 1966 and 50 examples were subsequently produced, thus meeting the homologation requirements of the FIA's new Group 4 Sports Car category to th ...

of Herbert Müller and

Willy Mairesse Willy Mairesse (; 1 October 1928 – 2 September 1969) was a Formula One and sports-car driver from Belgium. He participated in 13 World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 19 June 1960. He achieved one podium and scored a total of seven cha ...

, followed by the

Dino 206 S The Dino 206 S is a sports prototype produced by Ferrari in 1966–1967 under the Dino (automobile), Dino marque. Ferrari intended to produce at least fifty examples for homologation by the Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile, CSI in t ...

of Guichet/Baghetti, and another 906 of Sicilian duo Pucci/Arena.

Official results

References

{{sportscar-autoracing-stub Targa Florio

Targa Florio The Targa Florio was a public road Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance automobile race held in the mountains of Sicily near the island's capital of Palermo, Sicily, Palermo. Founded in 1906 Targa Florio, 1906, it was the oldest sports car ra ...