The Orange Times Bruce McLaren Trust June / July 2014, Issue #2

Celebrating 50 Years of

McLaren Racing Following on from their Tasman Series success, the fledgling BMMR Team set about their very first sports car race with the Zerex Special – on April 11th 1964 at Oulton Park and this was a DNF/oil pressure. The following weekend however at Aintree resulted in the first sports car win for the team, and then a second win at Silverstone on the 2nd of May.

The day after the Silverstone race the Zerex was stripped down on a dirt floor in the earth moving machinery shed at New Malden (Team HQ). A new McLaren designed tube frame was welded in and a 3.5 V8 Oldsmobile engine repowered the Zerex. Eoin Young was sent on a Sunday to find some paint for the car and all that was available from the local hardware shop was “garden fence green”. The time lines were very tight with Wally Willmott and Tyler Alexander putting in several long days to get the car ready to be shipped to the USA for a Mosport race in early June!

And whilst all this was going on, Bruce was still driving for the Cooper team and also co-drove with Phil Hill in a Ford GT40 at the Nurburgring 1000km endurance race - Bruce’s first race in a GT40. They were second fastest in practice and running second in the race to the works Ferrari, but were eliminated when the suspension broke.

Farewell Sir Jack 1926 - 2014 Along with the motorsport fraternity worldwide I was extremely saddened to

hear of Sir Jack’s recent passing on the 19th May. The McLaren family and

Jack have shared a wonderful life-long friendship, starting with watching his

early racing days in New Zealand, then Pop McLaren purchasing the Bobtail

Cooper from Jack after the NZ summer racing season of 1957.

For the following season of 1958, Jack made the McLaren Service Station in

Remuera his base and brought the second Cooper with him from the UK for

Bruce to drive in the NZIGP which culminated in Bruce being awarded the

“Driver to Europe”. Jack became his mentor and close friend and by 1959

Bruce joined him as teammate for the Cooper Racing Team.

The rest, as we say, is history but the friendship lived on and the BM Trust

was delighted to host Jack in New Zealand for a week of motorsport memories

in 2003 with Jack requesting that the priority of the trip was to be a visit to

see his “NZ Mum” Ruth McLaren, who, by then, was a sprightly 97 years old.

I shared a very special hour with the two of them together and the love and

atmosphere between them was amazing and will never be forgotten.

Jack, you were a dear and very special family friend. Jan McLaren

In this Issue… Celebrating 50 Years – 1964 – 2014 P1 Sir Jack Brabham Tributes P1 – P3 Workshop Austin 7 Launch P4 Trust Register Update P5

Years Gone By P5 General News P6

Current Calendar P6 Contact Us P6

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Bruce McLaren Trust

Kevin & Jackie

Mick & Jody

Sir John Arthur (Jack) Brabham AO, OBE So many wonderful tributes have been written about Sir

Jack so instead of rewriting all the motoring type stories, I

decided on a more personal approach from the McLaren Family perspective, the family involvement and a collection

of great old photos.

Motorsport is always supposed to be fun but when Jack

Brabham arrived in town, fun took on a whole new meaning – especially to a young 8 year girl! Never to be forgotten

are the memories of Jack and his ‘Double Happy’ crackers and life sized black plastic spiders. The crackers exploded

under cars, by people’s feet, up exhausts, inside hotels and numerous other places. To this day I have never ever

forgotten the look on the face of the waitress at the

Occidental Hotel in Christchurch when, with arms full of plates, Jack threw the large spider at her. The shambles

and mess that followed was mind-boggling to a youngster but in those days they seemed to get away with it. The

landlady at the Occidental Hotel must have had great

patience with the merry band of drivers that stayed each year and it seemed traditional on arrival that, immediately,

the chamber pot (or guzzunder) was removed from under the bed and hoisted on the flagpole – the motorsport

entourage was in town!!

Every summer this motorsport circus travelled the roads

and circuits of New Zealand – a wonderful group of friends: Jack, Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Ross Jensen, Innes Ireland,

Jo Bonnier, Tom Clark, Graham Hill, Phil Hill, Roy Salvadori, John Surtees, Ron Flockhart, Arnold Glass, Denny Hulme,

Chris Amon, Frank Matich, Bob Jane and many many

others.

Trips to Europe and Australia when Pop and Ruth McLaren joined up with the Brabham family followed on numerous

occasions. A special highlight was when they flew to

Sydney to partake in the “Jack Brabham - This is your Life” TV show in the Seventies.

He was truly a motorsport genius, a brilliant engineer and

driver and his incredible legacy will long survive him.

Halcyon years indeed, and friendships that have lasted a

lifetime.

Jan McLaren

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Bruce McLaren Trust

Dan Gurney on the passing of Sir Jack Brabham It is with great sadness that I received the news that my former Formula boss and team mate, the 3 time

F1 World Champion Sir Jack Brabham, passed away

in Australia over the weekend. A motor racing giant has left our planet whose combined achievements of

F1 World Championship driver and car constructor in all likelihood will never be equaled. Dark haired

"Black Jack" was a fierce competitor, an outstanding engineer, a tiger of a driver, an excellent politician

and a hands-on creator and visionary. He opened

the rear-engine door at Indianapolis and raced there. He was a doer, a true Aussie pioneer!

Jack and I go far back in history together. We raced

"against each other on the F1 circuit since 1959 driving Coopers, Ferraris, BRMs and Porsches. In

1963 he hired me as his team mate for his newly

established Brabham F1 team and during the next three years we really got to know each other. We

discovered we shared similar traits. We were not only interested in driving racing cars but in building

them, improving them, searching for every tiny bit of technical advantage we could find. I see both of us

sitting in garages all over the world bent over

engines, talking to each other and to our team: Ron Tauraunac, Phil Kerr, Roy Billington, Tim Wall, Nick

Gooze and Denis Hulme.

We shared the camaraderie of a closely knit team pursuing a common purpose. The racing tragedies

and the glory days of the 1960s bonded us for life.

Since we retired from driving, both in the fall of 1970, we have stayed in touch. I last spoke to Jack

a few months ago on the phone. We were looking

forward to the golden anniversary of the first World Championship F1 victory for the Brabham marque:

The French Grand Prix at Rouen, June 28th, 1964, which I won for the team 50 years ago this summer.

In 1966 we both went our separate ways. I followed

the trail he had blazed by trying to build, race and win with my own F1 cars. I have been told that only

three men in the history of auto racing have

managed to do that. Bruce McLaren and I won races, but Sir Jack Brabham won World

Championships. He will be forever in a class all by himself.

I will miss you Jack! You showed the way!

With gratitude and admiration.

Dan

Dan Gurney, Chairman, All American Racers, Inc.

www.allamericanracers.com

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Bruce McLaren Trust

The Workshop Austin 7 – Nelson Launch The McLaren Service Station Workshop Austin 7 has now been completely restored and it was handed over to the Trust by

the Nelson Restoration Team at a function on May 16th. Three years of amazing work and dedication have culminated in a fantastic looking Austin 7, complete with McLaren Service Station signwriting and period Gulf logos.

The project was supervised by our Trustee Max Colman and the Restoration Team was led by Nelson member Mike

Stephens. The Nelson Austin 7 guru, Dick Anderson, was responsible for all the actual restoration work, ably assisted by

Des Plummer and Allan Braid along with the help of many local and out of town supporters and businesses. This entire team worked tirelessly on the project and it is a wonderful credit to them all.

We look forward to showcasing and launching the Austin 7 here in Auckland later this year. Currently it has been on display

for Gulf in their Farmlands depot in Richmond, Nelson and then it will be on display at WOW Museum for approximately three months prior to returning north. It is fully roadworthy, registered and warranted, sounds great and Dick tells us he

has had it up to around 45 mph!!

This wonderful little old Austin 7 is the absolute jewel of all the cars driven by Bruce. It was in this treasure that he first

learnt to drive - prior to taking all the good parts out of it to put on the Austin Ulster!

Dick Anderson tries out the driver’s seat

Correct period signwriting

'click here' to watch this video

Mike Stephens & Jan unveil the ‘baby’

‘Start your engines’ – Dick Anderson & Jan

The project team

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Bruce McLaren Trust

‘Years Gone By’… May – June

May 31st 1963 - Chris Amon First Overseas Win Midland Trophy at Mallory Park in a Lola. Also qualified on pole May 24th 1964 - First F1 points for Chris Amon Dutch Grand Prix finished 5th driving a Lotus 25 BRM May 30th 1965 - First F1 race for Denny Hulme at Monaco – finished 8th in a Brabham Works BT7 May 22nd 1966 - Debut of McLaren Formula 1 car at Monaco, the M2B May 5th 1968 - first overseas win for Howden Ganley – F3 Roskilde Ring in a Brabham-Ford BT21 May 26th 1974 - first McLaren works car to win Indy 500 – Johnny Rutherford in a M16C/D June 28th 1964 - First F1 win for the Brabham Team - Dan Gurney in the French Grand Prix at Rouen June 18th 1966 - Bruce & Chris win the Le Mans 24 Hours driving a Ford GT40 – the only Kiwis to ever win at Le Mans.

As most members will be aware, over many years the Trust

has developed its own Register for all McLaren cars up to

1980, from the M1 through to the M30. This is currently

managed by myself, Jens Fogelberg who, like many of you,

grew up with a love of NZ motorsport through those late

1950, and 1960’s times, fuelled by having a, now elderly,

relative who was competing in events when the likes of

Bruce and Denny entered the scene. It is a serious (but

fun) task, in that one must be painstaking in verifying the

accuracy of information once it comes to hand or is

“unearthed”.

The Trust Register encompasses some 330 cars, of which

about 220 were customer cars, built by Trojan instead of

BMMR – we say “about”, because there are no available

precise records of exactly how many customer versions were

built for some models, let alone who was the original

purchaser for each one. For example, taking the first

McLaren built F2 car – the often admired M4: For the M4B

customer cars, the chassis #’s appear to terminate at 200-

27 (yet to be verified to our satisfaction), whereas it is

stated by an authoritative source that just 16 were built by

Trojan.

Currently, the Trust Register contains ownership and/or

other details for 200 cars, each of which we are completely

confident about. A further 40+ require some more

investigation/verification before we can be 100% confident

(or otherwise). An example for the latter group is M4: 200-

19F, originally one of 2 examples campaigned in 1968

(driver for this one: Guy Ligier) by Ecurie Intersports

(France). We believe that a Josef Mayur (Mayer?) of

Germany took ownership of this car in 2007 but we need to

flush out further details. Are there any ideas out there on

this one?! The remainder of the cars are rather more

difficult, such as information conflicts or history details which

we are unable to attach to a specific chassis.

I have just completed a thorough review and update of our

M4 Register, so, here is a teaser for you:

How many of you know about the only M4C?

How it came to be built, who raced it and who owns

it now?

Hint: It is currently in Australia. Look for answers in the

next Newsletter.

If you are visiting the Trust premises, do make some time to

look at selected Register folders.

Jens Fogelberg

Jens with Trust Registers

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Bruce McLaren Trust

Current Calendar as at June 2014

*Designates probable Trust involvement

June 26th – 29th Goodwood Festival of Speed & Classic Auction, UK

July 12 / 13th *Kartsport Secondary School Champs – Manuwatu

July 19 / 20th CRC Speedshow - ASB Showgrounds, Auckland

August 15 / 17th Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, Laguna Seca, California

August 31st *Annual BMT Coast to Coast run, Auckland. Contact us for your entry forms. The featured marque this year is Morgan

Sept 12th – 14th Goodwood Revival, UK

Sept 24th or 27th(tbc) *McLaren 50th Gathering – and celebration of the first win for a McLaren car - M1A

Oct 9th – 12th V8 Supercars Bathurst 1000, NSW

Nov 7th – 9th Big Boys Toys, ASB Showgrounds, Auckland

Contact Us 590 Remuera Road, Remuera, Auckland 1050

PO Box 109 050, Newmarket 1149

Phone: 09 522 8224

Mobile: 027 289 7850

Email: brucemclarentrust@clear.net.nz

News Ed: allan.horner@vodafone.co.nz

www.bruce-mclaren.com

General News

Our School wins Soap Box Derby

The Mighty McLaren from the School won the 2014

Waitakere Rotary Soap-Box Derby. The driver was Tommy

McKinnon, our head boy. Tommy left last week to go with

his parents to the Monaco F1 Grand Prix. He will wear all

of his Bruce McLaren Intermediate School gear and he is

hoping to get some autographs and memorabilia. His

father is the award-winning film maker Grant McKinnon,

who will also be going to the Cannes Film Festival to

promote a new film. He is going to record Tommy’s visit.

‘McLaren – the legend lives on’ – is the working title of an

exciting new project we have started in conjunction with

the Engineers Institute. They have allocated us Andre

Cowan, (a young engineer and racing driver) to advise the

kids involved. The project will be to build our own

motorised racing cart and then race it at an event later in

the year. The kids had to start with concept designs and

will work their way up to the finished article, which will

include telemetry, design, innovation, mechanics,

engineering, physics, technology, testing and then racing –

just like Bruce. Roy Lilley Principal

Bruce McLaren Intermediate School

Honoured: UK’s motoring gods, including

one Bruce McLaren!

A couple of years back Jan assisted, via email, a researcher

from the ‘Oxford Dictionary of National Biography’ (Oxford

DNB) with some information on Bruce for a new update

they were working on. We just discovered that a new

edition of this tome, published mid 2013, doffs its cap to

those who helped shape the British motor industry, and

Bruce is featured among such greats as Malcolm Sayer,

Woolf Barnarto, Lionel Martin, Raymond Mays, Anthony

Reid Railton and Francis Curzon.

We believe your public library may have an updated copy

of the Oxford DNB, or it can be accessed online via

subscription: 'click here'

Historic Sports Car Racing, USA

Here's some interesting footage from the 1957 SCCA

Championships held at the Bridgehampton road course.

Autoweek magazine posted this on their site. The quality

of the footage is very good; especially for the 1950s. And

notice all of the sand blowing on the track. The track is a

golf course today but in its day the Trans-Am, Can-Am, and

F5000 cars all ran there and put on some memorable

races.

'click here'