The Orange Times

Bruce McLaren Trust June / July / August 2016, Issue #14

We are very sad to report on the loss of

our Patron, 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 and . 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

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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. The event was held around the regularity groups in particular, must have left the organisers with unsealed streets of Orakei in Auckland on the Sunday and something to think about for next year. One crash – that same bit around 4000 spectators watched the racing. The roads used of Armco – took an hour to clear and repair. were the long straight of Coates Avenue and the hilly twisting Tautari Street below it, a lap was about a mile and three- quarters.

The feature race was the GP for approved racing cars over six laps. This resulted in a fine win in 11min 58s for R.A. Dexter jun., who handled his scarlet Brooklands Riley in confident style. He won from R.M. Grierson by a bare cars length, after a race of nearly ten miles. There was keen competition between the two drivers, who both had thoroughbred road-racing cars; Grierson handling A.J. Roycroft’s racing Austin Seven, which showed great speed, although its ‘blower’ was out of action. Six cars entered the race.

Next on the programme was a motorcycle race, with B. Bray on Frank Karl, M10B. Photo: Peter Ellenbogen a Rudge, L. Perry on a Velocette and A. McLaren (Alan McLaren

– Bruce’s uncle) on a new Imperial, first, second and third.

By the end of our last race, I had knocked 18 secs off my best The afternoon concluded with a display of veteran cars, pre practis e time, the car had run faultlessly and was going home in 1914, in those days deprecatingly called “Old Crocks”. Graham one piece! Because Ernie’s car was going to the F1 event at Albert Long in a 1910 Daimler won the race from a start grid of 8 cars. A novelty event was the appearance of a Tiger Moth aeroplane Park the following weekend, loading the container was slightly which dropped surprise packets. more straightforward than the unloading, although we still had to use the tilt deck to get the upper-level cars in. Because our racing The Prosperity week of events was well supported and in excess was finished by mid-afternoon, we were able to complete this by of £5000 was raised. the end of the day, which made for a relaxed start the next morning.

Tony Roberts, M10A. Photo: Peter Ellenbogen

It was a great weekend, but it was also nice to get back to spend some time with the family before the reality check of the flight David Rhodes home. Roll on October when we get to enjoy the Aussie F5000 Association’s hospitality again with races at Barbagallo (Perth) and Sourced from ‘NZ Herald’ and ‘ Flat to the Boards’ Sandown (Melbourne). Frank Karl

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France’s answer to the iconic Goodwood Revival in Southern England is undoubtedly the Le Mans Classic, held once every two years on the full Circuit de la Sarthe. Having already attended a couple of Revival meetings over the last few years, the Le Mans There was so much to see and do, over 2500 car club displays Classic was on my ‘bucket list’ and this year the timing was good. for example. An amazing display of classic transporters was another exhibit which caught the eye. The adventure started on the Thursday with a drive from England via the Eurotunnel and across Normandy to Le Mans in a 1954 Jowett Jupiter sports car with the top down of course! An interesting drive in any circumstances, but made even more so by an autoroute closure caused by a rolled ‘semi’ loaded with logs, blocking both carriageways. Forced to exit the blocked autoroute, we had to navigate ourselves across Normandy on secondary roads as quickly as possible in order to make our camp at the circuit by 9:30pm . An adventure ensued as we enjoyed some amazing ‘sports car’ back roads and even made an (unplanned) crossing of the river Seine by car ferry at one point! th To mark the 50 Anniversary of the GT40’s first win, the The Jupiter, owned and driven with verve by friend Amy Clements, recently restored winning car of Bruce and Chris (P1046) was went surprisingly well (to me anyway) on the trip to Le Mans and we centre of a large display of iconic cars previously raced in the made it just in time for our pre-booked dinner and tent Le Mans 24 hrs. The car is now exactly as it was at the race accommodation at ‘Camping Bleu-Sud’ near the main gates of the start in 1966, including the BMMR Team decals each side! circuit.

The third placed (No.5) car in 1966 was actually racing this year, photo taken in its paddock bay. What followed was three days of spectacular vintage and classic motor racing on the full circuit, comprising six plateau’s (grids). The grids were generally arranged in car age groups and each had a practis e, qualifying and three 45 minute races, with one of the three being a night race (the meeting ran throughout the Saturday night). There was also a special Classic Jaguar challenge and, for the first time, a grid for Group C cars.

We had paddock entry tickets so were able to wander at will throughout the various paddocks, a ‘must’ to get a close-up view of the cars being worked on and to talk to the drivers and crews. Allan Horner

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Chris Amon Tribute

It is with great sadness that we learnt of the passing of Chris Amon on Wednesday 3rd August. Chris has been our Patron for nearly 20 years and we have always enjoyed his support, wise words and fun comments over all that time. Our deepest sympathy is with his lovely wife Tish and all the family. It was always a pleasure to work with Chris at the various functions and NZFMR Festivals and especially at the Chris Amon Festival back in 2011.

Look out for our special extended tribute to Chris, his friendship with Bruce and his links with BMMR in the next issue of ‘Orange Times’.

We attach a Youtube link to 10 minutes of film footage taken by Murray Maunder of Vision

Productions in our Bruce McLaren marquee at the aforementioned Chris Amon Festival. Murray has filmed with and for the Trust for over 15 years - it is at times like this that the special historic value of all his wonderful filming is greatly appreciated and valued. https://youtu.be/vwOSGEQu9gw

The Trustees and all at the Bruce McLaren Trust

General News & links

Did you notice? The observant may have noticed that this edition of ‘Orange Times’ has been designated Issue 14 when it is in fact No.13. This is in recognition of the fact that Bruce decided there would be no M13 (superstition?) and went straight to M14.

Max Rutherford Remembers BMT member Max Rutherford has been recalling his experiences as an F1 mechanic in the 60’s. Here is a link to his latest Facebook posting where he talks about Spa. Max’s book “Paddock to Podium” is available to purchase from the Trust.

Continued, page 7

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Back to Le Mans and the McLaren M6GT: Sometimes I seem to spend an excessive amount of research time on just one or a small group of McLaren models in the With the 2016 Le Mans 24 Heures being once again of great course of checking/updating our records and one example has to interest for us Kiwi enthusiasts, I thought that I would cover some do with the M6GT cars. For instance: Trying in vain to verify aspects of the McLaren M6GT cars. Oh: Is there a connection, once and for all that there were/are only three “original” cars you might ask? rather than four, the latter having been suggested in some

Firstly though, let’s return to my challenge for our readers at the written material (some of which does contain incorrect detail). conclusion of my article in the last Issue (#12) of The Orange For many Trust members, perhaps the most well known M6GT is Times: “The sharp eyed McLaren enthusiast should be able to the red one, registration OBH500H, used by Bruce as personal recognise what this McLaren is (was!) but just as a small hint: It transport for evaluation from early 1970 after being built in late was not built by Trojan.” 1969 at BMMR. Readers may recall the photo in TOT Issue #10 showing Bruce’s daughter, Amanda, driving this car, chassis Perhaps having also spotted the little scale model perched on the #M6GTR-01 and the only M6GT built at BMMR, at the 2015 dust covered chassis tub at centre bottom in the photo which we Goodwood Revival event. OBH500H is, by the way, currently published (admittedly, it was of poor quality), some of our readers owned along with a selection of other iconic McLaren cars, by a USA based collector and the other two of the three M6GT probably recognised that the car shown is a McLaren Can-Am car. The really observant might have wondered about the large examples referred to above also reside in the USA, each with a

“McLAREN” word at the top right corner in the photo, being in fact different owner. One of the latter two cars was the first part of the words “McLAREN CARS” on the bodywork each side of prototype (for production) built by Trojan and after its debut at the cockpit on the BMMR Team Can-Am cars. Believe it or not, the January 1969 Racing Car Show in London, was acquired and the car shown is the Team M8B driven by Bruce for the first 5 of raced mostly by Britain’s David Prophet during 1969 and 1970. the 6 x 1st places he secured in the 1969 Can-Am Series (and with Denny winning the other 5 Rounds in the Series, BMMR won every Round that year). To fast-forward a little, the M8B which Bruce drove for those early rounds in 1969 was sold to Oscar Koveleski, who drove it in the 1970 Can-Am Series, placing 15th overall. The next owner achieved 7th overall in the 1971 Can-Am Series with it, then this M8B passed to another owner for 1972. Now we come to the current ownership which had begun by 1974 and a spe ctacular accident in a hillclimb event that year. Thanks to Oscar Koveleski, the Trust is fortunate to have a detailed account of exactly what happened, written by a chap who was a course marshal at the “turnaround” area just past the Finish line. To sum marise, the M8B arrived sideways and slightly airborne over a crest after the finish and clipped a power pole almost a metre off the ground with the right rear corner (tearing the RR wheel off) Interestingly, the Trust has more recently been in communication before coming to rest back on the road, with a fire developing. with the daughter of the late David Prophet as she embarked on Luckily there was a good supply of extinguishers handy plus a fire documenting his racing career for his grandchildren. The most truck (which in fact narrowly missed being hit by the M8B!) and frustrating aspect for me with this particular car is just what some fast work dealt with the fire as the unharmed owner/driver chassis # it was (there being conflict with M6B chassis clambered out over the front of the car. The whole car in its numbering) and suffice it to say that I am no closer to resolving that confusion than I was two years ago! damaged state has remained in storage ever since, still owned by the same (USA) family. Given the extraordinary 1969 success by BMMR with the M8B (of which there were just three team cars built) it is exciting to think that, all going well, one day this car will be restored to “as original”, which would in fact make it the only

M8B example in the world. Incidentally, I’m sure that some of our readers can relate to car control difficulties just before and/or after the finish line in a hillclimb event. I certainly can!

Whilst Bruce’s idea to develop an M6 based coupe for Group 4 competition did not come to fruition, he nearly made an appearance in an M6 in the 1969 Le Mans. British driver (the late) John Woolfe acquired a Trojan built M6B in late 1968 and had placed 1st in it at a Silverstone MN GT event in March 1969 before having an entry accepted for the forthcoming 1969 Le Mans 24 Hour, driving with Bruce McLaren. 6

Bruce McLaren Trust

A detail I have so far been unable to absolutely verify is that John Current Calendar Woolfe intended to run this car in M6GT form (no doubt using a August 2016 Trojan built GT body enclosure). th th However, for some reason, the M6 was not used. It has been said September 9 – 11

that it was badly damaged in testing prior to the event, but I am Goodwood Revival. The world’s best classic motor racing yet to see or get verification on this. John Woolfe decided to festival. instead start in a new Porsche 917 which he had also acquired and had accepted as an entry. I will not go into his financial backing! September 18th This has been said to have been against advice from Porsche who F1 Round 15 Singapore Grand Prix (night race). were not yet entirely happy (aerodynamics) with this new model themselves and Porsche also advised against his insistence on January 21st & 22nd doing the traditional Le Mans start himself, which turned out to be NZFMR, Hampton Downs. Celebrating Kiwi Motorsport the last time for those famous starts. Why? On the opening lap icon Kenny Smith. the Woolfe 917 crashed spectacularly (and Chris Amon’s Ferrari encountered the flaming debris on the track) when he lost control, February 4th & 5th losing his life when thrown out of the car. He had not yet done up Leadfoot Festival, Hahei, Coromandel NZ. Rod Millen’s his safety harness! There are various accounts on what happened fabulous hillclimb. and film footage which can be viewed on-line, such as at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Woolfe and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b95GLRjPUZM

Roger Wills and a very dapper Scott Dixon. Photographer unknown

There is more than one claimant to the present day ownership of the Woolfe M6B. However, the Trust has a substantiated view on who currently owns the “original” Woolfe car.

Until another time: What happened to an M8 Can-Am car with a Ford DFV F1 engine?

Jens Fogelberg

Continued from page 5

‘Speedy Kiwi’ is back! Team Garage 59 has decided to paint one of its new McLaren 650S GT3’s in a very special colour scheme that acts as homage to BMMR – and its first appearance is scheduled for the upcoming 24 Hours of Spa. Click here for more information. Contact Us 590 Remuera Road, Remuera, Auckland 1050

PO Box 109 050, Newmarket 1149 Phone: 09 522 8224 Mobile: 027 289 7850

Email: [email protected] Roger Wills and a very dapper Scott Dixon. Photo: Mark Donaldson In case You missed it… What would Bruce think of the latest McLaren 570S? In you News Ed: [email protected] missed it, here is a link to a June article by motoring writer David Linklater. “I think Bruce would have approved” – Ed. www.bruce-mclaren.com

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