The staged spraying of champagne by the race winners actually started as a spontaneous reaction by Dan Gurney after winning the 1967 Le Mans 24 Hour race. Gurney and AJ Foyt were the improbable winners of the event. The two, while fast, were not expected to last the distance, much less lead the majority of the race at a record pace. Dan Gurney led a number of races for Ford only to retire due to mechanical problems; it was Foyt’s first visit to the French race. The Gurney/Foyt team moved into the lead of the race in the second hour and led until the end. The Scarfiotti/Parkes Ferrari 330P4 team drove flat-out for the last hours of the race in an effort to catch the leading Ford. But the Ford Mk IV never missed a beat and won by over four laps.
At the 2004 Monterey Historic Races I was talking with the owner of one of the Gulf Mirage M6 from the early 1970s. Jeff was interesting in photographs that I might have of the car when it was racing in World Championship events. The problem we had was tracking down the specific events that his car had participated in. During the conversation, Jeff mentioned that John Horsman, the Managing Director of Gulf Research Racing at the time, was now living in the states.