Denny Hulme
June 16th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
On the June 2, 1970 the motor racing world was rocked – and New Zealand went into shock. Bruce McLaren, the greatest ambassador this country could have projected onto the world stage as a trailblazer for the hundreds of Kiwi motor sport people who have headed overseas in search of a dream, was dead.
At the start of his final year, Bruce McLaren oversaw the design and construction of four new models – the M10B F5000 
and M8D CanAm cars were updates of the championship-winning 1969 versions, while the M14 and M15 were new. The Formula One M14 replaced the M7s – the first of the Cosworth-powered McLarens – while the M15 would be entering new territory, the Indy 500.
A McLaren didn’t win the inaugural Tasman Cup for F5000s in 1970, but in the hands of Frank Matich, Graham McRae and Neil Allen M10s won five of the seven rounds – Bruce could have reasonably expected strong sales for the ‘10B’ and he’d have been right, with 21 built. The F1 season started in South Africa – Denny finished second, Bruce retired. A fortnight later Denny was third in the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch but Bruce, unusually, crashed out. On April 19 Denny proved the worth of the new M14 and qualified second, although he dropped out early, but the boss carried the day with what sadly turned out to be his final F1 podium, when he finished second in the Spanish Grand Prix. Read the rest of this entry »
January 18th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
The 1969 CanAm series saw the most complete clean-up job in big time motor racing — after 10 of 11 rounds an orange car had won every round, and scored a one-two on every starting grid.
The final round of the 1969 CanAm Challenge Cup was due be run in Las Vegas, but the track was damaged in a desert rainstorm and the Texas International Speedway, a tri-oval with an auxiliary road course, substituted. Bruce McLaren 
had won round one on June 1 at Canada’s Mosport track from pole position. Denny Hulme was alongside him on the front of the grid and finished second with a staged finish, less than a second behind Bruce. Bruce also set fastest lap with a new record. They’d cleaned up — the M8A of 1968 was dominant enough but the new M8B was faster, stronger and more reliable.
Round two at St Jovite on June 15 — Bruce again on pole, but this time it was Denny who lead the one-two while they shared the fastest lap with another record. Chris Amon and Ferrari rejoined the CanAm for round three at Watkins Glen — it was a New Zealand one-two-three on the grid. Only three cars completed every lap, and all were driven by Kiwis — Denny just from Bruce, and then Chris half a minute behind. Not a bad effort for three Kiwis in upstate New York — with Denny getting fastest lap.
Read the rest of this entry »
January 29th, 2010 by NZ Classic Car
The New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing shifts from Hampton Downs to Pukekohe Park Raceway this weekend. More than 120 of the world’s most iconic and valuable historic race cars have travelled to NZ to take part in the festival and racing will start from 9am tomorrow.
There are almost 400 entries — with cars valuing tens of millions of dollars — confirmed. A total of 123 are international entries and organisers believe this is easily the largest amount of cars to travel to the country for a motor sports event.
Cars from Ferrari, Chevrolet, Lotus, Aston Martin, MG, Lola, March, Cooper and Brabham are all confirmed, as are cars from home constructors McRae, Begg and of course, McLaren. Many have been rebuilt or restored specifically for the meetings.
The cars date from the fifties through to the mid seventies and the racing will include ten classes for single seaters, sports cars and saloons and the highlights will be one of the biggest ever fields assembled of Formula 5000 cars and a field of spectacular CanAm cars, including McLaren’s that raced in the hands of Kiwi legends Denny Hulme and Bruce Mclaren himself.
In keeping with the period cars, all spectators to the event are being encouraged to wear period clothing from the fifties and sixties. “We really do want everyone to get into the spirit of the event,” commented event organiser Jim Barclay. ”This will be like a trip back in time and it would be great to see some of the many superbly restored and well-cared for classic cars in New Zealand come out for those weekends.”
“If the event is a success it has a great chance of becoming one of just a handful of globally recognised international historic motoring events, alongside the likes of the Goodwood Revival, Pebble Beach in the USA and the Philip Island meeting in Australia.”
Entries have come from Australia, the United Kingdom, the USA, Denmark, Belgium and even Dubai with around 1,000 international motorsport visitors expected to descend on New Zealand.
There is a show and shine evening tonight (Jan 29th) with the racing starting tomorrow (Jan 30) at 9am.
Tickets are available at the gate and vary in price from $30 – $110
To find out more head to www.nzfmr.co.nz
December 18th, 2009 by NZ Classic Car
Racing from Road America
December 18th, 2009 by NZ Classic Car
Racing from Road America
May 12th, 2009 by NZ Classic Car
The Kiwi motor racing documentary Trio at the Top is now available to view online at the NZ On Screen website.
The documentary uses archive footage and interviews to tell the story of motor-racing legends Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme, and Chris Amon. The trio topped podiums in the sport’s ‘golden age’ – one of those eras when unlikely Kiwi talent managed to dominate a truly global sport. The Team McLaren racing team that four times Grand Prix winner Bruce McLaren founded in 1966, has been the most successful in Formula One. That same year McLaren and Amon teamed up to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and in 1967 Hulme was Formula One world champion.
October 2nd, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
Tomorrow marks the 16th Anniversary of the death of racing legend Denny Hulme. Hulme’s greatest success was winning the 1967 Formula One World Championship with the Brabham team. Hulme later went on to race for McLaren. He was CanAm champion in 1968 and 1970. Hulme suffered a massive heart attack at the wheel of a BMW M3 in the Bathurst 1000, making him the first Formula One World Champion to die of natural causes.
Born and raised on a tobacco farm belonging to his parents in Moteuka in the South Island of New Zealand. Hulme’s first car was an MG TF, which he promptly entered into hillclimbing events. After making impressive progress, he purchased a Cooper-Climax, subsequently being chosen for the New Zealand driver to Europe program. Once there, he worked as a mechanic in Jack Brabham’s garage in Chessington and began to pave his way on his motor-racing path.
After making an impact on the local scene, he came to Europe in 1960 with George Lawton on the ‘New Zealand Driver to Europe’ scheme, racing a Cooper in Formula 2 and Formula Junior around the Continent. Unfortunately poor Lawton was soon killed at Roskilde Ring but Hulme carried on before returning home to contest his local series early in 1961. He was soon back in Europe, appearing at Le Mans for the Abarth team, before the late great Ken Tyrrell invited the likeable (but sometimes gruff) New Zealander to race in his Formula 2 team. After some impressive performances there, it was his old boss Jack Brabham who gave Hulme the call, and he joined the Australian legend’s F2 team. The pair set about dominating the Championship that year, resulting in a one-two finish in the European Championship.
After making numerous appearances in non-championship events for Brabham, Denny finally got the call he had been waiting for, making his World Championship debut in 1965 at the famed Monza circuit in Italy. Later that year, he scored his first points, for fourth position at the daunting Clermont-Ferrand (Charade) circuit in France.
1966 was Hulme’s first full season of Formula One. Now, after the departure of Dan Gurney, he was the outright number two at Brabham behind Jack himself. Finishing a fine fourth that year, the highlights came. A third place at Reims in France, a second behind Brabham at Brands Hatch, and the fastest lap at Zandvoort, before ignition problems put paid to his race there.
The 1967 Championship was essentially an internal affair within the Brabham team for most of the year, but the new Lotus 49 gave Jim Clark and Graham Hill the opportunity to bite back. But two wins in the 11-race Championship, at Monte Carlo and the ferocious Nurburgring (the Green Hell), and a series of strong points finishes, gave Hulme the advantage. He won the Championship by five points from Brabham, and a further five from Jim Clark. Hulme was the first (and to date, only) Formula One World Champion from New Zealand.
Hulme’s first Can-Am championship came his way in 1968, taking victories at Elkhardt Lake, Edmonton and in Las Vegas and notching up 35 points. 1969 saw the McLaren team dominate the series; they won every race. In 1970, he took his second Can-Am title in difficult circumstances, as the team mourned the loss of Bruce McLaren who had died while testing a new Can-Am car (the M8D) at Goodwood. Hulme took the championship, with 132 points.
After leaving the sport, Hulme lead the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers’ Association) for a brief period, but the cut and thrust nature of the post was ill-suited to his gentlemanly nature and he did not fill the post for very long. He then retired to New Zealand, returning to touring cars in the early 1980s, driving for the concern of the well-travelled Scot Tom Walkinshaw, racing for his Austin Rover team in the European Touring Car Championship.
A favourite event of Hulme’s was the Bathurst 1000, held at the famous Mount Panorama track in Australia. In the 1992 event he was sharing a Benson & Hedges-sponsored BMW M3 with Paul Morris. After complaining of blurred vision Hulme suffered a massive heart attack at the wheel whilst travelling down the 200-mph Conrod Straight. After veering into the wall on the left side of the track, he managed to bring the car to a relatively controlled stop on the opposite side of the course. When marshals reached the scene they found Hulme still strapped in, dead, making him the first Formula One World Champion to die of natural causes.
He was always a shy man who never basked in glory, but instead was fair, subtle, and motivated by mechanics. He was a gentle giant who for many years showed just why his deft touch and excellent car control left him well deserved of his F1 crown in 1967.
Before 1960, he was know for his preference for driving barefoot and it was not until 1960 that people convinced him to start racing with shoes on. His nickname at the time was “The Barefoot Boy From Te Puke”
The Current issue of Classic Car features a 1965 Can-Am car.
October 16th, 2007 by NZ Classic Car
An historic McLaren returns to the race track.
Words Eoin Young Contemporary & Historic Photos Terry Marshall
The new wedge-shaped McLaren M23, prepared for New Zealand racing by new owner/driver Phil Mauger, was a front runner from the first practice session of its first race in the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami in March 1973.
Denny Hulme was debuting the prototype M23/1, and he celebrated by gaining the first F1 pole position of his career! They called it the Colnbrook Concorde, “Because from certain angles the droopy nose and the flare back to the radiators at the rear of the car makes it look a lot like Concorde” Denny wrote in the Autosport column that I penned with him. “Our new M23 Yardley-Mac has been built to the letter of the regulations with the full deformable structure, so that if it ever clobbers anything the wheels will fly off, but I doubt there will be so much as a wrinkle in the tub.”
Phil Mauger was a front runner from the first practice session of HIS first race
The M23 would win two world championships, in 1974 and 1976, and motor racing expert historian Doug Nye wrote that Gordon Coppuck’s M23 design was one of the classic Grand Prix cars of all time. Quite an accolade for a car that would be still winning GPs and a world title for James Hunt four seasons after Denny put that first car on pole position at Kyalami. Read the rest of this entry »
