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.

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.

The enthusiastic acceptance of this arrangement by the European team managers and owners marked a huge philosophical change for the Grand Prix establishment in how to promote a race meeting.

With the prize money system, finishing was doubly important and Clark intended to use the more reliable two-liter Climax engine until he discovered how quick the H16 could be.

The BRM team offered a much-used spare H16 engine, and the Lotus mechanics worked into the night fitting it into Clark's race car.

Sunday was cool, but dry, and a crowd of 75,000 included actors James Garner (Pete Aron), Toshirō Mifune (Mr. Yomura) and Jessica Walter (Pat Stoddard), as well as director John Frankenheimer, who were in the final stages of creating the movie Grand Prix.

He finally chose the Type 43 with BRM's spare H16, and it, too, was leaking oil on the dummy grid before the crew tightened it up and he began his warmup lap.

At the flag, Bandini jumped from the second row into the lead, ahead of Clark, Richie Ginther, Brabham, Surtees, Jackie Stewart, Hill and Denny Hulme.

The win– Clark's first of the year– ended Graham Hill's three-year string at The Glen, but it marked the fourth year in a row that a BRM engine had won the American Grand Prix.