Having won both World Championships Ferrari decided not to bother with the United States GP, which was being held at Watkins Glen in upstate New York for the first time.

Both Jack Brabham and Stirling Moss had the new Climax V8 engine on this occasion but Moss decided after practice not to race it. The field was joined by a number of local stars, notably Hap Sharp and Roger Penske in Coopers and Jim Hall and Ken Miles in Lotuses.

Brabham took pole position with Graham Hill alongside while Moss shared the second row with Bruce McLaren in the second factory Cooper.

At the start Moss took the lead from Brabham while Innes Ireland charged through from eighth on the grid to take third place. For the first half of the race Moss and Brabham dueled for the lead, switching places several times but on lap 45 Brabham had to stop with overheating problems. Moss led for the next 12 laps but then he too was forced out with mechanical trouble. This left Ireland in the lead in the factory Lotus but he was in trouble with fuel pressure problems. His chasers were out of luck, however. Graham Hill had to stop when his magneto came loose and Roy Salvadori looked like being a possible winner until a few laps from the finish when his bearings failed. Ireland survived to the finishing line, chased home by Dan Gurney's Porsche and Tony Brooks in his BRM.