Orange Times Issue 4
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The Orange Times Bruce McLaren Trust October / November 2014, Issue #4 Trustee Update Having completed the sale of the M8A, and with the shipment to America this past week, the Trust is now restructuring to refine its operational activities and plan for the future. The five Trustees, Duncan Fox, Jan McLaren, Tony Roberts, Paul Hunter and Max Colman now share the day to day management of the Trust. The CEO role, as you have all known it for the last 18 years, is deemed no longer necessary. We look forward to updating you on these plans as they proceed. Celebrating 50 Years of Exciting times are ahead of us all and especially for Amanda McLaren Racing McLaren – Amanda and her husband Stephen Donnell are moving to the UK. Stephen is working with McLaren Automotive and Amanda will be with McLaren Group. We wish them well for these Oct - Nov 1964 wonderful new roles. And as new doors open, old doors close so were saddened to hear Bruce raced four times in October – all in North America. The US GP at Watkins Glen in of the passing of Eoin Young. His career and connection with the Cooper was a DNF due to engine failure. McLaren and the McLaren family has been a long one. It was back Then at Riverside in the McLaren M1 the in the late 50’s that Bruce first met Eoin and as Eoin himself said, his life in the motorsport arena sure beat working. We will miss his cooling system failed. Back in the Cooper F1 tales and hilarious stories and his presence at the motorsport car for the last race of the season at Mexico th events will surely be missed by all. and the result was 7 . Then the following weekend the M1 at Laguna Seca had a repeat The Trustees of the Riverside cooling system failure - so a disappointing month. November was more of the same but this time racing for the Ford Motor Co. in a Ford GT40 at the Nassau Speed Week, held over two consecutive weekends. The suspension let Bruce down in the first race and it was unable to be fixed in time for the Nassau Tourist Trophy that afternoon. They hoped for more success the following weekend in early December, when Bruce would be running in other cars. While all this was going on the construction of two Cooper cars for the 1965 Tasman series was well under way, and so were the negotiations for the number two driver….. Eoin Young - Levin ‘69 In this Issue… Celebrating 50 Years – 1964 – 2014 P1 Trustee Update P1 A tribute to Eoin S Young (ESY) P2 Coast to Coast Run P3 McLarens at Monterey P4 McLarens at Monterey, Years Gone By P5 Trust Register Update P6 Silverstone Classic P7 General News, Current Calendar P8 Bruce McLaren Trust A tribute to Eoin S Young - aka ‘ESY’ Styling his name after his hero in Road & Track, Henry N Eoin first met with Bruce McLaren back in 1958 during the Manney III, Eoin started writing for South Island Newspapers in Teretonga meeting in New Zealand. By 1962 Bruce had the 1950’s. In his own autobiography he recounts his School decided he needed a secretary as a lot of the other teams had Certificate results ‘scraped through with 51% and topped the one. The following excerpt from Eoin’s own biography “It Beats class in English, failed miserably in maths, history, and Working” outlines how things developed – geography’. He learnt early on that ‘I have never been able to “The upshot of our conversation was that the idea of spending learn anything in which I have no interest’. While he started his the rest of my life in Tasmania was cancelled and I would go working career as a bank teller he found that boring and one back to England as Bruce’s secretary. (Diary: “he’s not sure Christmas Eve when balancing and going home was on the what a secretary does, but the other drivers have one, so I can minds of the entire branch Eoin was ₤100 up, the following be his.’) He told me that he wouldn’t have enough work for a week – New Years Eve - ₤100 down – and not the most popular full week, so he suggested a 20 hour week for the first year person in the branch. and he would pay me ₤600. This would allow time for freelance writing and I would also be ghost writing his columns, which at The writing came about after attending a race with a friend and the time ran in several NZ newspapers and later in Autosport, then reading the story in the Timaru Herald - the friend, who for which he would pay me 25% of the column fee on top of won the race, did not get the recognition Eoin felt he deserved. my salary. With Bruce’s name on the columns they fetched a So an indignant Eoin stomped into the editorial office and minimum of ₤20, a great rate for the time. This also meant demanded the matter be put to rights – only to be told ‘if you’re that I would go to most of the races with Bruce, and he agreed so clever, why don’t you write it?’ to pay 75% of my hotel and travel costs. But he wasn’t going totally overboard with the largesse. I was in Australia and the Which resulted in a 200 word race report tapped out on the job was in England. Bruce advanced me a cheque for ₤300 for bank’s typewriter. The sub-editor re-wrote it, but it was a start. an air ticket, which would come out of my salary, so I was Eoin sailed to Europe in 1961, off on the big OE. Denny Hulme embarking on the best job in the world for probably the was already there and asked Eoin if he wanted to join him on smallest salary - ₤6 a week plus percentages!” the European Formula Junior series. He jumped at the chance. When Bruce formed his Bruce McLaren Motor Racing team in Denny had a Ford Zodiac with the race car on a trailer and the 1963 ESY was one of the early directors whilst continuing to back seat full of tools, spares and fuel cans. It was during these attend motor race events and write about them. travels that Denny came to realise that ESY was neither a mechanic nor was he very good at navigation. The gearbox Many of the stories that were told across a table about a funny ratios needed changing so Denny told him how to take the box event at a race (or more likely during the after match event) off and what he wanted done and left him to it. However, when have been gathered and written. Several books written by Eoin presented with a few surplus parts, Denny was furious and have been published (now even more collectable), and called into question his mechanical abilities, to which ESY probably thousands of articles written for magazines. pointed out that he had never done any mechanical work in his life. Denny had to set to and re-do the gearbox. As a Kiwi and close associate and friend of Bruce, Denny and Chris, Eoin had ‘inside’ access to a very special era of While Denny slept ESY was driving, albeit on unfamiliar roads motorsport and this inside association to the many other great and with road signs in a foreign language, but that did not drivers, team owners, and motorsport characters lasted right through until his recent passing. please Denny when he was woken to find that they were lost. There was no place to turn a car and trailer on the tight and His Autobiographies “It Beats Working” and “It Still Beats twisty road and he could not back a trailer, but Denny could and Working” sum upKevin his own & Jackie story best. did for 2 miles. Moral of the story never assume that someone is a mechanic; and ask first! ESY however, did want to see the Eoin Spence (Buster) Young 9.6.1939 – 5.9.2014 racing and wrote in his diary each day of the people and events, RIP our old friend and Denny got on with sorting the gearbox. Rod Coppins, Puke ’63 Levin ’64 Bruce & Jack, Wigram ’64 Tony Maggs, Puke ‘63 2 Bruce McLaren Trust Coast to Coast Run 2014 The Coast to Coast run is an annual event held by the Trust in Auckland on the weekend closest to Bruce’s th birthday (August 30 1937) with the intention to see both the east and west coasts somewhere along the run. A social run and really a good opportunity for people to get out their classic, historic or even modern car and have a run, charge the battery and be guided by some Mick & Jody si mple instructions (so you don’t get lost). For those that are more competitive, we have some questions to answer and the overall winner is presented with a trophy which they hold until the following year. Each year we feature a marque - this year was Morgan. I was keen to see if a three wheeler might come along, and sure enough Allan Duffy, President of the Morgan Club, arrived in his silver 1933 model. The driver and passenger were well rugged up! The weather on the day looked threatening but with the exception of an occasional shower and a damp start, it was not an issue. Some friendly rivalry came into play between Morgan and MG with bragging rights for who had the most cars – with a repeat challenge on the cards Morgan President Allan Duffy and Co-Driver for next year! For the record we had 50 entries and 43 cars on the day (the iffy weather did discourage some).