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Home , Argentine Grand Prix, Australian Grand Prix, Bruce McLaren, Chris Amon, David Oxton, Denny Hulme

The Orange Times

Bruce McLaren Trust Dec. Jan. Feb. 2017, Issue #16

The ‘Festival of Motor Racing’ at Hampton Downs celebrating Kenny Smith saw the little legend racing three cars over the weekend – his Lola, the Swift DB-4 ‘Atlantic car’ that he regularly uses in racing, and a borrowed off Phil Foulkes. He did ok – he won all three ‘5000’ races, won all four

Formula Libres and three of the four Formula Ford races…so eleven starts for ten wins and a second – and one of the FF wins came after he started from pit lane.

That might be possible in some categories but is unheard of in the ‘hurly burly’ of the wheel to wheel racing in Formula Ford. But racing was only part of Kenny’s duties over the weekend – there were cars to demonstrate during lunchtime parades, book signings to do, and the Saturday night dinner in his honour. Three of his Australian buddies from the good old days made the trip – Kevin Bartlett, and Bruce Allison, and all spoke with warmth and humour about the incomparable Kenny. Towards the end of the evening, the MC got two of Ken’s oldest friends up on the stage – both guys that Kenny says he could race with wheel to wheel without ever wondering if there would be any ‘funny business’.

Graeme Lawrence wrote the ‘foreword’ in the Kenny book and describes their relationship as being more like that of brothers – both he and added further hilarity combined with thoughtful reflection on just how much Kenny has continued to improve as a driver at a time when many people his age are weighing up which retirement village to move into. Tony Quinn also spoke on the night and suggested that Kenny should be employed by the Government to go around rest homes and show people what they could be doing at 75. It’s a superb idea…

Towards the end of the evening, Warwick Mortimer sidled up to me and said ‘In your book there is a section about cars Kenny would have loved to have raced - the first one is a Can-Am McLaren and I wonder if he’d like to drive mine tomorrow.’ I pointed out to Warwick that Kenny was standing but a metre or two from us and suggested he ask him – ‘I’d like you to.’ So that was the easiest question of the night – ‘Kenny, would you like to drive Mort’s McLaren tomorrow in the lunchtime display?’

Despite the car not quite fitting him properly, Kenny loved the experience – despite a few specks of rain near the end. So how was it out there? “I tell you, they’re men’s cars. A 5000 is a man’s car but these even more so. It took a while to get used to all that bodywork around me but I just loved it. It got a bit slippery near the end and there was no point being a hero – fantastic, makes you think how it would have been back in the day with two dozen of those things racing.” Michael Clark

In this Issue…

NZFMR Ken Smith Festival Report P1 NZFMR Photo Gallery P2 Vale P3 The McLaren Typewriter P4

Trust Register - part two P5/6/7 Formula SAE Update P7

General News, Events Calendar P8

Bruce McLaren Trust

NZFMR 2017 -- Photo Gallery

Thanks to Trust volunteers Heath Richards and Taylor Storr

How to change a crankshaft??

Frank Karl works on his M10B

Jan, McLaren Old Boy Edi Wys, Pat Kerr

Photo’s thanks to: Kevin Porter and Mark Donaldson

‘Years Gone By’ Dec 16 - Feb 17

Feb 4th-5th 1967 – Chris Amon wins Daytona

24 Hours with in a

330P4 st Feb 1 1987 – wins Pukekohe 500 with in a Commodore Book Signing - Kenny, with Michael Clark while Max Rutherford chats with a young fan

2 Bruce McLaren Trust

Whilst Bruce’s passion was “very Ferrari” he was also a Vale McLaren fan and I will never forget Bruce joining us on a Doug Lawrence, Bruce Wilson, Allan McCall Trust tour to the GP and proudly getting off the The year has started off again on a sad note as we have plane wearing his Bruce McLaren Trust cap and attending learned of the passing of two wonderful old New Zealand his first GP for many many years. stalwarts, Bruce Wilson and Doug Lawrence.

A nd then, in mid-February, the passing of McLaren Old I did have to laugh when, by day two at the Grand Prix, he Boy, Allan McCall. was carrying a Ferrari bag and, by day three, the full Ferrari regalia and just a small McLaren Pin on his Ferrari hat. It was a wonderful trip and Bruce always looked us up at many of the events at which the Trust was appearing. For the NZFMR Amon Festival we had the pleasure of getting him into one of the parade Ferrari’s for a few laps of the circuit. Getting him out again was the challenge! His cheerful presence will be missed by us all.

Doug Lawrence, a centenarian, is of course father of Graeme and Brian Lawrence. Doug’s own motor racing history goes way back to the early days of Ohakea and those special days of motorsport shortly after WW2. We were delighted to see Doug in our marquee at Hampton Downs at the 2016 NZFMR when Graeme brought him to look at Peter Herbert’s recently restored McLaren M4 – a car that in the past had been owned and raced by Kevin & Jackie Graeme. Our collection of Bruce Watt photos from the

1950s has great photos of Doug racing and we will look to do a feature on Doug later in the year.

Allan McCall, a McLaren Old Boy of amazing talent and a well-respected team member from Bruce McLaren Motor Racing days. Allan worked with the team in the late sixties and the photograph shown with Bruce and the boys at would probably be the last photo of them taken together as it is dated May 1970. Allan, like some others in the BMMR team, went on to design and build

cars of his own and the “Tui” was born. In the early days

of the Trust, Allan was very supportive in the initial stages

of the M8AMick restora & Jodytion project. It was Allan who painstakingly dismantled the old original tub and drilled

out the approximately 1,000 rivets – a major job - and Bruce Wilson was, as per the title of his recently these pieces formed the patterns for the rebuild of the published book, The Master Mechanic. In Chris Amon’s monocoque chassis. Allan, aged 76, passed away on th foreword in that book he says that he can’t emphasise February 19 after undergoing triple bypass surgery. enough how critical Bruce was to his motor racing career Jan McLaren and that, without him, he wouldn’t have progressed beyond his first little Cooper. Bruce worked with Chris Amon for many years and right through into the heady

Ferrari days.

3 Bruce McLaren Trust

THE TYPEWRITER However, the most intriguing talent that has recently been showcased is Pat's knowledge of and skill at Whilst you may not recognise the name, many of you will repairing typewriters. For many years the McLaren recognise the face of one of our stalwart New Zealand Service Station had in its office a trusty old American- members, Pat Stephens, from Paekakariki. For many years made Remington Standard typewriter. I say 'old' Pat has been a wonderful supporter at our events and because, judging from the serial number LK11 811, it every NZ Festival of Motor Racing has always seen Pat as was made some time between 1908 and 1926. the first on site in the mornings, opening up the Trust's Coincidentally, 1926 is the year the service station was marquee and getting it ready for our many supporters to built at 590 Remuera Road. Jan says she remembers, as enjoy. a child, learning to 'hunt and peck' on it.

During the two weekends of the 2016 NZ Festival of Motor Racing, celebrating Porsche, Pat spent some time with us and overhauled the Remington which, until then,

had not seen active service for decades. He made a As a young man Pat grew up in Durban, , wonderful job of it and it now, with a brand new black emigrating to New Zealand in 1963. He was bitten by the and red ribbon, courtesy of another member, Ken Valder, ca r bug early on and he and his friends travelled long it works perfectly. It will eventually go on display again, distances to follow motor racing at various South African for all to see, at the new Bruce McLaren Trust Heritage venues. Centre at Hampton Downs.

It was this passion, and meeting the trustees at a Manfeild Mark Donaldson meeting in 1998, that saw him joining the Bruce McLaren

Trust. He had already begun building a database on Bruce, but it was a chance encounter some ten years earlier, at a Wellington Street Race, that started an even larger one. Pat and a friend were watching a practise race on a Friday evening after the streets were closed off. A man standing beside him asked "What do you think of this?" Pat replied that he thought it was great, and likened it to with its busy waterfront. The man then continued on his way. "Do you know who that was?" asked his friend. "That was Denny Hulme."

And so began a comprehensive database on Denny. Pat is a wonderful creator of databases and has compiled some amazing records that have formed the bases of many of the Trust’s archives.

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McLaren M1B (Chassis #65-1):

The first half of this article in TOT #15 finished with:  29th May 1966 – Labatt 50 at Mont Tremblant:

Chris Amon qualified on Grid P2 with 1m 42.4 sec. Bruce, now running with a Chev engine, was on P1 with 1m 41.6 sec and Chris posted the 2nd fastest race lap time before suffering a DNF after 63 out of the 75 race laps.

To continue from there:  4th – Players 200 at Mosport: Starting in his #2 M1B (colour red with yellow striping) from nd 2 on the Grid, alongside Bruce, who was trying a Ford engine in his M1B, Chris experienced “mechanical gremlins” th after contact with a Porsche and finished 10 in Race #1, but managed 3rd in Race 2. Notably, Chris Amon was

credited with the fastest race lap (1m 25.0 sec on lap #38).

 14th August 1966 - British Sports Car Championship Round #6, for Wills Trophy, at Croft: Also now running with a Chev 5.5 litre engine and this time as car race #7, Chris took P2 on the Start Grid with 1m 14.4

sec. Bruce was in P3 with 1m 15.2 sec. Chris posted a DNF The first half of this article was published on pages 5 and 6 in the after 10 laps in the 30 lap event. th last edition (#15) of The Orange Times (TOT).  28 August 1966 - Guards Trophy at : Starting as car race #9 from Grid P3, with Bruce on P2, Chris As I wrote in the opening part, any TOT reader feedback which came 2nd for the 1st race, and again a close 2nd, just metres can add to or correct our information records will be greatly behind John , for Race 2, from Grid P2. Notably, appreciated. To my delight, there has been some informed Chris Amon was credited with the fastest race lap time (1m comment and information since, some of which should be covered 35.6 sec). briefly here before the article continues: The Trust has been able to keep in touch with the recent, US based, ownership of this M1B.  1965 events in the McLaren entered Ford GTX-1: It seems far more certain that the best result for Chris Amon, McLaren M1B (Chassis #01-66): at Riverside on 31st October, was in fact 5th (as opposed to With Bruce McLaren now driving a second BMMR Team M1B, 3rd). chassis #02-66, colour red with white striping and on Firestone Also in TOT #15, in purely trying to be polite, I said: “Lower tyres of course, Chris Amon had taken over the #01-66 car, places were achieved at the last two events”. In reality, both entered as car race #5, and joined Bruce for a two car BMMR (during the December 1965 Nassau Speed Week) were DNF’s. assault on all six Can-Am Rounds in the latter part of 1966. I really did not need to be polite because one only has to read the very scathing comment about the Ford GTX-1 by Chris in at least one of his books: “- - far too heavy to be competitive with the engine it had.” It was certainly not a McLaren race car!  1965 events, driving the McLaren M1 (chassis #64-2):

In TOT #15 I advised that to the best of our knowledge, the McLaren M1 (Chassis #64-2) does not exist today. This was because I had, until then, not identified any ongoing ownership and/or race history for this particular McLaren once no longer used by BMMR. Well, I am now delighted to advise that the Trust has been in recent contact with the current th owner of this car who has in fact owned it for some 30 years  11 Sept 1966 - Can-Am Round #1 at St Jovite: and happens to be visiting NZ (without the car!) around about Starting from Grid P3 with a 1m 38.8sec compared to Bruce the time you will be reading this. Excited! on P2 with 1m 38.5 sec, the young Chris Amon treated race fans to a “spectacular catch up effort” from the start, on the  July 1965 crash when tyre testing: outside into Turn 1, a long sweeping right hander, to snatch It follows from the above latter detail that the more likely scenario is that the serious crash which Chris had in late July the lead before running off the track after a few more corners. A after 1 lap to clear dirt out of the now 1965, when tyre testing, would have been in the M1A, chassis #64-3. I shall continue to try to verify this or otherwise. sticking throttles, plus remove the damaged front spoiler, cost Chris 1.5 laps and then: “Amon put on the greatest Now on to the second half of this article on Chris Amon’s display of driving that Le Circuit’s fans had ever seen” - to achievements driving McLaren cars: quote Autosport at the time. 5 Bruce McLaren Trust

Another reporter wrote: McLaren M1B (Chassis #30-12): “Tires screaming on the knife-edge of adhesion and running  16th July 1966 - GP Brands Hatch: every lap below the previous record, Amon sliced his way A 3rd place for Chris Amon, from a “one-off” drive in the US through the field with ruthless precision”. based Kay Racing Ltd red/white Trojan-built M1B, using a The Amon M1B made up 48 sec in 53 laps, to be behind the 4.7 litre Ford engine – one of two M1Bs entered by Bill Kay 2nd running Bruce who waved Chris through in the hope that for this event. Note the interesting car race # for Chris: It he could get by the front running Surtees Lola. Setting the was #47! fastest race lap time and a new lap record at 1m 37.3 sec four The current ownership of this restored car is known to the Bruce laps from the finish, bettering Surtees’ qualifying time by over McLaren Trust. 1 second, Chris had to settle for 3rd with 74 laps. Surtees was 1st with Bruce 2nd, both with 75 laps, which explains why McLaren M2A (Chassis #M2A-01):

Chris posted a 2hr 06m 50.5 sec race time compared to the Completed by November 1965 for testing and development in

Surtees 2h 06m 51.0 sec and Bruce’s 2h 06m 56.5 sec. preparation for the first McLaren venture into F1 with the new 3  18th Sept 1966 - Can-Am Round 2 at Bridgehampton: litre formula in 1966, this car was driven at Goodwood by Chris Starting from just behind Bruce who was on Grid P3, Chris Amon for Firestone tyre testing. Amon came 2nd with a 1hr 53m 22.9 sec race time, just 0.48 The McLaren plan was for Chris to drive one of the two M2Bs sec behind the winner, who had started from built for the 1966 F1 season but this lapsed with Bruce Pole. Bruce placed 3rd. struggling to source a reliable engine with enough power for one  24th Sept 1966 – Can-Am round #3 at Mosport: car let alone two. Chris qualified 2nd on the grid, with Bruce in P3 just 0.5 sec Sadly, the only McLaren M2A built was destroyed by fire in its slower and Gurney again on pole, but was forced to retire owner’s garage in late 1969. after lap #66 out of 85, with bent steering after contact with McLaren M8B (Team spare car): the rear of the Chaparral which was already one lap  12th Oct 1969 - Can-Am Round #9 at Laguna Seca: down and going slow with no oil pressure. th As far as I can determine this would have been Chris  16 Oct 1966 – Can-Am Round #4 at Laguna Seca: After being 5th on the start grid for Race 1, Chris retired after Amon’s last competitive drive - fittingly one of his many

12 laps out of 53 with a generator wiring related engine great performances - in a BMMR McLaren. rd problem. Bruce was on P3 and finished 3 . As briefly covered in the Register article in our TOT #9 (on So, it was Grid P21 for Chris for Race 2 but he again had to page 3), after his Ferrari engine had failed pre-race on race retire with the engine problem after 24 laps out of 53. day, Chris was given the spare M8B for the race as BMMR  30th Oct 1966 – Can-Am Round #5 at Riverside: had already wrapped up the 1969 Championship. Having to Starting from 7th on the grid, the Chris Amon M1B completed start from P30 at the rear of the grid Chris charged through 57 laps out of 62 before engine fuel starvation took over. the field in the 7 litre Chev-powered M8B, which wore car Another DNF! Bruce also, with a dead battery! race #3 for the occasion, passing eight cars on the first lap, th  13th Nov 1966 – Can-Am Round #6 at Las Vegas: then another five on the next lap. However the 7 - Chris started the final Round from Grid P3 but had to retire positioned didn’t make passing easy for Chris and, after 21 laps with a broken left A-arm – not before he set the after clouting a track tyre marker, he had to pit the M8B for rd a new nose section, losing a lap. Once again, Chris carved 3 time behind the two Chaparrals. Bruce was on nd his way through the field, closing again on the now 5th P6 and came 2 in the race. running Siffert. Alas, the M8B differential failed after #71 of the 80 lap race. Noteworthy is that Chris Amon’s fastest lap was 1m 02.22 sec, just 0.03 sec slower than the race fastest set by Denny Hulme who came 2nd. Interestingly, perhaps for a change, a small slice of luck was on Chris’ side that day, as post-race, some cracking in the rear wing strut was found.

Where is this M8B is today? Having been built from the M8A Team car driven by Denny Hulme in 1968 it was restored as the original M8A by the Trust. It is currently in a private collection in the US, along with a number of other iconic McLaren race cars.

Chris Amon came 6th overall for the 1966 Can-Am with this McLaren M1B. The Bruce McLaren Trust is in touch with the UK based current owner of this restored M1B.

Roger Wills and a very dapper . Photographer unknown 6

1. 3. Bruce McLaren Trust

McLaren M15A (Chassis #M15-01): The first “Indy car” to be built by BMMR, it was tested at Goodwood before testing at Indianapolis in November 1969. BMMR had announced that Chris Amon and Denny Hulme would drive McLaren M15As in the 1970 Indy 500. This test car undoubtedly had been driven by Chris Amon before then driving one of the two BMMR race cars in the 1970 pre-race practise in which Denny Hulme received serious burns due to a methanol fuel University of Auckland Formula SAE fire. The University of Auckland FSAE Team achieved mixed results with their rookie Electric Vehicle (EV) entry in the 2016 Australasian competition at Monash University, Melbourne in mid-December. Here is their brief report from early January:

Two weeks ago we shipped the M016 to Melbourne with it having never run. Being graciously hosted at Monash University, we worked near continuously to get the car running and achieved our first testing session on Tuesday the 6th of December. We tested again on Wednesday and were impressed with the speed and reliability of our package – not bad for a first year EV! 2. Formula SAE, like most motorsport competitions, has a stringent rule book. We knew previously that our accumulator (battery pack) was not rules legal but had deemed full vehicle testing to be a higher priority in the short term. Having remained uncomfortable with driving on the Indy circuit, Chris Amon withdrew during pre-race practice in May 1970. This The accumulator came apart and a significant redesign occurred. decision served only to demonstrate Chris’ considerable On Thursday, the scrutineers told us they weren't happy with our experience-based driving awareness and wisdom. accumulator insulative coating and steered us in a direction to fix this.

After the accumulator rebuild, we found a circuit board had failed. After fixing this, we found issues with the brake system plausibility device (BSPD - a critical component to be a rules legal EV). After scrambling again to fix the BSPD, we found an assembly error with one of 3 main accumulator relays. With only an hour left of competition, we called it a day.

Although we are disappointed for not entering any dynamic events at competition, we are immensely proud of the effort put in from the entire team. We jumped from an Internal Combustion car to an Electric Vehicle in a single year. We upskilled and came to grips with an immense number of new developments. We see how much potential this drivetrain has and we walk out of 2016 with our heads held high.

We shift our focus now to 2017 and aim to have a competition

winning car produced early and tested thoroughly before we head to Melbourne again in December. Thanks for your support, we As I wrote in my brief note in Issue #7 of TOT, just three M15 wouldn't be here without you! Team cars were built and the Trust is in touch with the whereabouts of the two 1970 race cars (#’s M15-02 and M15-03). However, we believe that it may have been Chassis #M15-01 which was involved in a tragic accident some years ago and this is a story for another time.

Whilst this has become a much longer read than I intended, I hope that our readers who persevere will find it an enlightening record of Chris Amon’s drives with McLaren which, although representing just a small portion of Chris’ racing career and achievements, strongly demonstrates his considerable talent.

Jens Fogelberg

Team members with MO14 and the MO16 Electric Car at NZFMR

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General News & links

In Case you missed it… The ‘all important’ link to the McLaren Movie trailer, sent out by

email to all members last week. The film itself, directed by Roger Donaldson, is due out later this year and we are all looking

forward to that. Look out for more news in our next issue. Current Calendar

February 2017 The McLaren F1 car naming pattern changes - along with the boss! March 17th – 19th McLaren has confirmed that its 2017 Formula 1 car will be called VHRR Classic - Festival of Motorsport. Phillip the MCL32, ending its 35-year long tradition of using ‘MP4′ as part Island, , . of the chassis’ name. McLaren introduced the MP4 naming pattern th th in 1981 following the of at the team, with the March 25 & 26 MP4/1 making its debut at that year’s . HRC Legends of Speed Classic & Historic Meeting. Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, Waikato.

Dennis announced back in November that he would be resigning rd th from his position as chairman and CEO following a boardroom March 23 – 26 struggle, making way for executive director to take Formula 1 Rolex . Albert Park, Melbourne. First round of F1 world championship. over at the start of December.

June 8th – 11th

McLaren had previously considered keeping its existing naming SVRA 2017 Open Wheel World Challenge. Inianapolis pattern but the team has now confirmed that the MP4 name would Motor Speedway, Indianapolis, USA. Inaugural event. be following Dennis out of the door at . th nd June 29 – July 2 On the Trail of Bruce McLaren Goodwood Festival of Speed, Goodwood, UK. Most will be aware of the recent McLaren tour of New Zealand, th th where 31 wealthy McLaren owners and their cars enjoyed a couple July 28 – 30 of weeks on our New Zealand roads and circuits. The tour was Silverstone Classic, Silverstone, UK. The world’s largest not well publicised but became more so when one of the most Classic race meeting.

valuable cars, an F1, was damaged in a public road accident between Queenstown and Glenorchy in the . Here is the Autocar story on the McLaren Tour.

390Km/hr in a McLaren F1!

Speaking of McLaren F1’s, I suspect the car mentioned in the above story was doing nothing like the speed achieved in the 1998 record run by McLaren with LeMans 24 hour winner Andy Wallace at the wheel. Follow this link to read the story and view the video,

with full in-car commentary by Andy as he achieves 390Km/hr in a production road going sports car for the first time.

The finest Sports Car the world was ever going to see! We seem to be on a McLaren F1 theme this issue. The F1 is about to celebrate its 25th Anniversary and this link to the recent “Hemmings Daily” story makes interesting reading, including the Contact Us comments left by readers! 590 Remuera Road, Remuera, Auckland 1050 McLaren M81 Mustang PO Box 109 050, Newmarket 1149 I must admit being surprised when I found this story on the 1980 Phone: 09 522 8224 Ford Mustang by McLaren and to discover that only a handful had Mobile: 027 289 7850 been built. Check it out in “barn finds” here. Email: [email protected] News Ed: [email protected]

Roger Wills and a very dapper Scott Dixon. Photo: Mark Donaldson www.bruce-.com

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