Orange Times Issue 14

The Orange Times Bruce McLaren Trust June / July / August 2016, Issue #14 We are very sad to report on the loss of our Patron, Chris Amon th In this edition of Orange Times we celebrate another 50 Anniversary, the The Trust wishes to extend Le Mans 24 Hour race of 1966 when Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon won sincere condolences to Chris’ in the 7 litre Ford GT40 Mk2. As history tells us, the iconic Fords filled all wife tish and family. three podium places that year after failing in the previous two years due See tribute page 5 to reliability issues. The winning No.2 car driven by Bruce and Chris was one of a pair entered by Shelby-American Inc. The other being the second placed (No.1) car of Denny Hulme and Ken Miles. Making up the podium was the Holman & Moody / Essex Wire Corp entered car (No.5) driven by Americans Ronnie Bucknum and Dick Hutcherson. The result was somewhat controversial , as our brief summary below reminds us: At the last pit stop, the three Mark IIs were in front. Ken and Denny were leading, followed by Bruce and Chris on the same lap. Ronnie Bucknum and Dick Hutcherson were third, but twelve laps behind. At the end of the race, Ford decided to stage a publicity photo. The plan was to have the top three podium finishers (car numbers 1, 2, and 5, in that order) cross the line near one another to provide a photographic finish, depicting Ford's dominating race performance. Miles's No.1 car crossed the line slightly ahead of McLaren's No.2 car, as was planned, with the No.5 close behind. The race course announcer declared Miles and the No.1 car the winner by a close margin. A detail of the Le Mans rules cost the Shelby-American No.1 car of Hulme / Miles its win. This car had qualified second, and the No.2 car qualified fourth, about eight metres further back at the race start. The 1966 Le Mans rules specified that the race winner was the car to complete the greatest distance as of the end of the last lap. Since the cars crossed the line nearly side by side, the determination was that the Shelby-American No.2 car won the 1966 Le Mans by a margin of approximately 8 metres, their spread at the start of the race. The stewards' determination was a terrible disappointment for Ken Miles, who expected the triple-crown Daytona-Sebring- Le Mans as a reward for his investment in the GT40 development. Ken said; "I'm disappointed, of course, but what are you going to do about it." In this Issue… Le Mans 1966, looking back 50 years P1 F5000’s at Phillip Island P2/3 Prosperity Week Grand Prix P3 Le Mans Classic 2016 P4 Chris Amon tribute P5 Trust Register Update P6/7 General News, Events Calendar P7 Bruce in M2B Bruce McLaren Trust Friday morning was further practice, and the afternoon was supposed to be qualifying, but our group had it changed to another practise session to allow those who were here for the first time to become more comfortable with what is a very fast and technical circuit. The racing line was now definitely dry, so no tyre decisions to be made. I was just starting to get some temperature in the tyres, when the car faltered and I had to pull off into the infield track exit road. After having a check around F5000’s at Phillip Island the car, and finding nothing obvious, I turned the master, the A report on the Annual VHHR Festival of Motorsport from Frank ignition and the fuel pump back on, and it became immediately Karl, who along with Tony Roberts, took their McLaren M10s to apparent where the issue lay. Dumbass had not made the event in March. Kenny Smith was there too. allowances for length of Phillip Island’s circuit and I had run out of fuel! It all started late February with loading of the cars at Hampton Downs. That should have been straight forward, but Tony The afternoon went off without any further drama, at least for Roberts had agreed to put Ernie Nagamatsu’s 356 Porsche in the 5000s. An M8 found the Armco at the start of the start/finish without realising issues that the car’s roll hoop would cause. In straight. Actually, several people found that bit of Armco during the end, putting the Porsche off centre, letting air out of the the course of the weekend – fast and technical. tyres, and jacking up the left rear of my M10, we had enough clearance between the hoop and the bottom of the M10’s tub. Saturday – qualifying and race 1. During my spanner check first thing, I noticed the starter motor power lead dangling on the Maggie and I flew to Melbourne on the 7th March to have a floor. Harry jumped – read that as crawled - into action and couple of days with our daughter Liz and her family prior to my after robbing Tony’s now unusable unit (another story resulting going down to the circuit. Agriculture clearance was scheduled in him requiring push starting for the rest of the weekend), I was for lunchtime on the Wednesday, so I duly set off for the Island all set to go. My car is probably about 100BHP down on the mid -morning and eventually found where the containers had front runners, but I’m quite happy playing down the back with been parked on the infield. It had been some 15 years since I the “gentleman racers”. Kenny on the other hand, was being raced my Healey there, so it took a few minutes to orientate kept honest by a couple of younger Aussie hotshots. After myself. The good news was that we had a good sized team able having no competition at the NZ rounds, he was enjoying to arrive early for the unloading of the three containers (13 cars himself! plus support gear) – the bad news was that our container had been placed the wrong way round. The unloading end with the The start of the first race was a shambles. The cars were ramp system for the upper level cars was hard up against nowhere near in Kevinformation & Jackie when the flag dropped, so the another lot of containers. In the end, a tilt-deck truck was spectacle of 27 F5000 going onto full throttle all neatly lined up organised to push the cars on to, and from there to the ground. never happened. At the end of the day’s briefing, us at the back of the pack were given a bollocking for not getting our act The next problem was getting Ernie’s roll hoop past the upper together, but then it wasn’t our fault. The dummy grid setup frame. In the end, we had to dismantle it – the container frame, meant that by that time the last car got onto the track, the lead not the car. Entertainment for the day was provided by Aussie cars were half way round, so on cold tyres we were never going Ag when they opened a box of English bone china (tea set) that I to be able to form up. The following day the leaders were held had packed in my car for our daughter. They didn’t believe me in pit lane until everyone was in Indian file – problem solved. when I told them that that was the way we always partook of our track side refreshments! Actually they were more interested in the packaging – it was an old fruit box. It was duly incinerated. Thursday was practice day. There had been a few skiffs of rain go through first thing, but by the time our turn came, there appeared to be a dry line, so I left the slicks on. It was not the Mick & Jody right decision – the track was still slippery and I found myself crossed-up on more than one occasion. Still, it was great to reacquaint myself with the circuit, and what a circuit it is. Great for drivers and spectators. Scrutineering, documentation and briefings were all sorted without any issues during the course of the day. Actually, that’s not quite true. Tony had quite a job convincing the scrutineers that his American HANS device, which wasn’t listed in the CAMS manual, was legal. In the end, common sense prevailed. Tony Roberts, M10A. Photo: Peter Ellenbogen 2 Bruce McLaren Trust Continued from P2 Prosperity Week Grand Prix That night the organisers put on a gala dinner for overseas th drivers, their partners and crew, and assorted guests, at the Cape Prosperity Week Grand Prix was held 83 Years ago on July 29 1933 in the Auckland suburb of Orakei as part of an organised Kitchen Restaurant. Good food, more speeches and much hilarity, series of events to raise funds in Auckland for the relief of mostly generated by the Kiwi contingent. Kenny and Jim Richards unemployment and distress. Many functions were planned and did their bit on the microphone, and it was good to listen to, as the central feature of the campaign was the Queen contest, for they were amusing and kept to the point. A nice touch was the which there were 10 contestants. presentation of “Appreciation of Support” plaques to the overseas drivers. Organised jointly by the AA, the Auckland Motor Trade Association, the NZMRDA and the Auckland Motor Cycle Club, Sunday was all plain sailing for our group, but the carnage in two the Prosperity Week Grand Prix was in support of the Transport Queen, Miss Adele Hogan.

Load more