1966 United States Grand Prix
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 8 of 9 in the 1966 Formula One season | |||
 |
|||
| Date | October 2, 1966 | ||
| Official name | IX United States Grand Prix | ||
| Location |
Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course Watkins Glen, New York |
||
| Course | Permanent road course | ||
| Course length | 3.78 km (2.35 mi) | ||
| Distance | 108 laps, 408.2 km (253.8 mi) | ||
| Weather | Cool, dry | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Brabham-Repco | ||
| Time | 1:08.42 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |
 John Surtees
|
Cooper-Maserati | |
| Time | 1:09.67 on lap 31 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | Lotus-BRM | ||
| Second | Cooper-Maserati | ||
| Third | Cooper-Maserati | ||
The 1966 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on October 2, 1966, at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York. It was the eighth and penultimate round of the 1966 World Championship. The race was the ninth United States Grand Prix (16th including the American Grand Prize races of 1908–16). It was the sixth to be held at Watkins Glen. The race was held over 108 laps of the 3.78-kilometre circuit for a total race distance of 408 kilometres.
The race was won by British driver Jim Clark driving a Lotus 43 for Team Lotus. Clark lapped the field to claim his 20th World Championship win by over a lap. The podium places were filled by Cooper Car Company team mates; Austrian driver Jochen Rindt and British driver John Surtees in their Cooper T81s.
While none of the Brabhams finished, the engine failure of Lorenzo Bandini's Ferrari 312 saw that the Anglo-Australian team could not be caught in the race for the Constructors' championship with only the Mexican Grand Prix. This gave Jack Brabham a unique double, World Drivers' and Constructors' championships in a car of his own make.
With most of the teams struggling to come to grips with the new 3-liter formula in 1966, Jack Brabham won the World Championship with a neat, simple and lightweight chassis, the Brabham BT19. It was the Australian's third Drivers' title, and the first by a driver in a car of his own manufacture. But it was Jim Clark's Lotus, with the powerful, normally unreliable, BRM H16 engine, that crossed the line first at Watkins Glen. Inheriting the lead when Lorenzo Bandini and Brabham retired, Clark finished a full lap ahead of Austrian Jochen Rindt, and recorded the ill-fated H16's only win.
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