Ken Miles

Kenneth Henry Miles was a British sports car racing engineer and driver best known for his career in the USA and with American teams on the international scene.

Miles raced motorcycles before he served as a tank sergeant in the British Army in World War II.

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Kenneth Henry Miles was a British sports car racing engineer and driver best known for his career in the USA and with American teams on the international scene.

Miles raced motorcycles before he served as a tank sergeant in the British Army in World War II.

After the war he raced Bugattis, Alfa Romeos and Alvises with the Vintage Sports Car Club. He then turned to a Ford V-8 Frazer-Nash.

Miles then moved from England to the Los Angeles, California area. In 1953 he won 14 straight victories in SCCA racing in an MG-based special of his own design and construction.

Because of his great skill and talent both as a driver and as a mechanic and engineer, Miles was a key member of the Shelby/Cobra race team in the early 1960s.

In 1966 he won the 24 Hours of Daytona (pictured) with Lloyd Ruby, and the 12 Hours of Sebring in the Ford GT Mk.II. Miles was leading near the end of the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, when Ford management, desiring a publicity photo of the three Mk.IIs crossing the finish line together, ordered him to slow down to cross the line together with the second place car, driven by Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon, and the third place car. It is rumoured that Miles, bitter at this perceived slight by his employers, after his considerable commitment to the Ford racing programme, issued a form of protest by allowing Ford #2 car, driven by Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon, to cross the line first and be declared the winner. Miles was thus denied the unique achievement of winning Sebring, Daytona, and Le Mans in the same year.

Subject ID: 16707

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