Orange Times Issue 9
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The Orange Times Bruce McLaren Trust August / September / October 2015, Issue #9 Monterey Motorsports Report I always wanted to race at Laguna Seca! The stories I had heard of the ‘corkscrew’ and the images of Hulme and McLaren racing there in the Can-Am days made it even more attractive. The USA F5000 President, Seb Coppola, had organised for the F5000s to race at the prestigious Rolex Motorsports Reunion event in August. This was the first time that the F5000 class had been to Laguna Seca since 1976, so it was something of a novelty to the regular classes that compete there. To put it in perspective, this is the biggest historic race meeting outside of Goodwood with 500 carefully selected entries. There were rows and rows of exotic cars including rare pre-war specials and regular Bugattis, Alfa Romeos and others. There was a big field of original Trans-Am cars. These are not replicas, but the genuine period article; Camaros, Mustangs, Challengers and other American classics. Toss in a large field of pre 1980 Formula 1 cars, plus all kinds of sports cars, and the meeting attains new heights! When we arrived on the Friday morning we were welcomed by the sight of forty F5000s lined up facing each across a courtyard between the long marquees. Fellow McLaren racer, Poul Christie, was alongside in his M10B and Bruce Leeson had his M10B just a couple of cars further down. Californian, Tim Arnett had brought his M10A, which is under restoration, to support the F5000s at Laguna Seca. The Kiwis had managed to bring twelve cars to California, which was a great effort. The Australians had brought four cars and the balance was mainly from North America. Twenty one cars, approximately 50% of the field, were the older ‘A’ series F5000s that were raced before the end of 1971, while the balance went through to 1978. In this Issue… Monterey Report, by Tony Roberts P1/2 Trust Register Update . P3 Allan’s Indy 500 Report, part 2 P4/5 A tribute to Phil Kerr - 1934 - 2015 P6 Goodwood Revival, McLaren Documentary P7 General News, Current Calendar P8 Bruce McLaren Trust We had two weekends of racing, so the first weekend included both practise and racing and gave us a good chance to learn the circuit and settle in. The competitors tended to slip into different categories of how hard they pushed and we had dire warnings from the organisers if we did anything wrong! I managed to achieve 3rd in the ‘A’ class for this weekend and totally enjoyed the circuit. Mid-week there was a number of activities that we could partake of and the 60s-themed party was one that Sue had brought some old clothes from NZ to compete in. Clint Eastwood and Marilyn Monroe were the judges and we managed to win a couple of nice bottles of wine for our troubles! The picture doesn’t do it justice! Come the final day of racing on the Sunday and I was feeling pretty good and knew the circuit well by then. I had qualified approximately 14th and got a good start, passing a couple of cars on the first lap. Then on the third lap of the morning race I decided I could take the crest on the front straight at full noise (don’t be a girl I told myself), as I had been easing off and then on again. The McLaren stepped out at the rear at 240 kph and stayed out! There simply wasn’t enough opposite lock to cope with the long slide and the car gently eased its nose into the wall, putting a small hole in the radiator, which put me out for the day. Quite frustrating really, but I figured it could have been a lot worse! I would like to take this opportunity to thank my McLaren friends, Duncan Fox, Roger Williams and Paul Hunter for putting my helmet on the right way and general assistance! At the end of Sunday we packed the cars and spares into the containers, thanked our hosts for the experience and their great hospitality and headed back to our motel in Salinas. After two and half weeks as our home base it was quite sad to move on! Coming up next year is a celebration of Can-Am cars at four historic circuits, a celebration of 50 years since Can-Am started. This will be a series of events not to be missed! Tony Roberts 2 Bruce McLaren Trust Back to McLaren “Indy” cars, this time the M24 which was the third, and last, generation McLaren built for the Indy In the course of research for Register additions or updates 500. The M24 engine was the 2.65 litre Cosworth DFX I frequently run into interesting stories and, in the last turbocharged V8 which was the new popular engine for Register article - in The Orange Times #8, I touched on the 1977 Indy, the first Indy 500 for the M24. Just seven M24s were built, the last being the one and only M24B the pleas from others for a drive in the BMMR team spare Mick & Jody M8B during the later 1969 Can-Am Rounds. BMMR’s new team car to be driven by Johnny Rutherford for the 1978 Indy 500 – and again in 1979. The Trust is Behold: At the Michigan round, Jack Brabham - a surprise excited to know that one of the M24 cars has recently late entry in a Ford G7A car - was less than happy, been landed in NZ for some restoration work for its th especially with the G7A engine. After qualifying on the 5 private owner. More on this particular M24 at a later row Bruce offered him another qualifying drive using the date. BMMR team spare M8B - amazingly, also decaled with Jack’s G7A racing #15. Surely this would be unheard of Another M24, last raced in 1982, has been on display for nowadays! Jack recorded a time four seconds faster than some years at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of with the G7A, which would have put him on the second Fame Museum. The picture of this car, shown here, was row of the start grid. However, for the Michigan race taken at the Indy 500 in May by Mark Donaldson. itself, BMMR agreed for Dan Gurney, whose McLeagle had engine problems, to drive the spare M8B. Dan had to start off the rear of the start grid, but swiftly moved up into third place soon after passing 12 cars on the first lap! Dan politely - in the circumstances - finished third, a miserly 0.05 seconds behind Denny Hulme. To get this into perspective, Denny’s race time was 1 hr 48 min 14.1 sec. Meanwhile, a tricky one for readers: Which McLaren M24 car (chassis # and its driver) was officially recorded as the first ever to achieve an over 200 mph average speed lap at Indianapolis? Now to those M2 questions for you in the last issue of The Then, after his Ferrari engine failed, again, pre-race at the Orange Times: “Where would you have gone to look at an M2B and what happened to the only M2A to be built, Laguna Seca round, Chris Amon was given the spare M8B being the very first McLaren single seat and F1 car”? to drive as #3 for the race, also having to start off the rear Those of you who have visited the Donington Collection in of the grid. Chris proceeded to pass eight cars on the first lap but, unluckily, suffered a DNF after the differential England may recall viewing the M2B on display there for failed - and this was just the second failure in 20 starts for many years. This was the first M2 which Bruce McLaren th the three BMMR team cars. debuted, at Monaco on 20 May 1966, when the engine failed. The other completed M2B, which Bruce placed 5th In case some of you are not familiar with where this in its debut race at Watkins Glen in October 1966, has somewhat famous McLaren is now, the short answer is been privately owned in the US for many years and is that it is in fact the M8A restored by the Trust over many undergoing restoration. As for the M2A, BMMR used it years and sold in 2014 to an American enthusiast who has during 1965/66 for Firestone tyre testing plus some acquired a number of iconic McLarens in recent years. engine testing and it was not raced at all until 1967, after These include the M15 “Indy” car and the M2 F1 car it had been sold by BMMR. Sadly, in November 1969, it mentioned in the last Orange Times. The genealogy for was destroyed by fire in the garage of its last owner. this M8 is outlined in more detail under “Trust's M8A/The Jens Fogelberg History of M8A-2” on the Trust website (click here). 3 Bruce McLaren Trust Experiencing the “Indy 500”… Part two, race weekend Saturday morning was perfect, a beautiful day with no wind, and we were inside the speedway bright and early to attend the Indy 500 Memorabilia Show. All sorts of stuff on sale here, with about 90 traders offering everything from genuine certified Indy speedway bricks to model cars and aircraft. Plenty of books, magazines and apparel also going cheap. We had to drag Mark out of there before he spent all of his ‘allowance’ - both baggage & financial! Besides we needed to be back at the camp to be ready for our next excursion, that being the 500 Grand Parade, another local tradition.