The 1961 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 29th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 10 and 11 June 1961. It was also the 4th round of the 1961 World Sportscar Championship. Ferrari and Maserati were the main title contenders, with Porsche an outside chance for the Championship. Ferrari's competition soon wilted in the race – the Maseratis were fast but fragile. The Aston Martins, though reliable, couldn't match the Italian cars’ pace. In the end it was a race between the two works team cars and the NART entry, And when the Rodriguez brothers’ engine blew with just two hours to go, it was a clear 1–2 victory for the Ferrari works team. A privateer Ferrari GT was third with an American-run Maserati fighting it way back up to fourth, a full 22 laps behind the winner. Regulations The second year of the new FIA regulations did not see significant changes. The controversial windscreen rules regarding minimum height and width were also updated with a maximum slope, which closed the loophole that Maserati had cleverly worked around in the previous year. For its part, race-organisers, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) increased the maximum continuous driving stint up from 52 to 60 laps, given the faster speeds the cars were running at. However, the total driving time remained at 14 hours per driver. The time to complete the final lap time-limit was shortened from 30 to 20 minutes to reduce the incidents of slow or stationary cars out on the circuit trying to run down the clock to finish. Scrutineering was moved from the Place des Jacobins in Le Mans city to the circuit. Finally, this year the ACO trialled a new IBM race-timing computer system (which had a few teething problems) and opened the first French automobile museum. Entries With the dropping interest in the World Championship, from both manufacturers and fans, there were only 65 entries in total for the race. With two entries rejected, there were 55 starters and 8 reserves. It could be said that the modern Le Mans started in 1961 with the presence of significant mid- and rear-engined cars. Official ‘works’ entries numbered 26, although Maserati and Aston Martin both gave support to their customer teams. Biggest team presence was the 5-strong Deutsch & Bonnet team, with 4-car entries from the Scuderia Ferrari, Porsche, Abarth and NART teams. Once again