McLaren Motor Racing

The McLaren story is an incredible one, all the more so given that it involves a bunch of New Zealanders from humble backgrounds. These Kiwis led the way during the late 1960s and early 1970s, racing on various continents simultaneously, leaving a legacy that lives on. The key figures are the great New Zealand drivers Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme, but others who have driven for McLaren over the years include Emerson Fittipaldi, Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, James Hunt, Niki Lauda and Mika Hakkinen.

Bruce McLaren was born in Auckland in 1937, son of a garage owner, obsessed with engines and racing from a young age. He started racing after his father bought him an Austin 7 when he was 16. At the same time he studied engineering, and the two activities consumed his life until he tragically died in 1970. McLaren experienced such success racing at home
that he was able to go to England in 1958 by virtue of the 'Driver to Europe' initiative offered to New Zealand drivers. An established relationship with Aussie legend Jack Brabham meant an opportunity to work and race for Brabham's Cooper team. Formula One wins in the United States and Argentina in 1959 and 1960 respectively cemented McLaren's place amongst the greatest drivers in the world.

Fellow New Zealanders Denny Hulme and Phil Kerr followed McLaren to the Northern Hemisphere, Hulme as a fellow driver, and Kerr as manager of Brabham's racing activities. Brabham set out on his own in 1962, to create his own racing empire, a move mirrored by the three Kiwis a few years later. Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd saw plenty of victories in Formula One and Indy racing, while also slaughtering the opposition in the high-profile CanAm series. Such success in fact, that McLaren and Hulme became known as 'The Bruce and Denny Show.' By this stage the McLaren juggernaut included operations in both England and the United States, building and testing cars for racing throughout America and Europe.

"Denny Hulme had won the World Championship in 1967," remembers Phil Kerr. "We had a long chat with Bruce and at the end of that year joined the fledgling McLaren team. I was one of the owners along with Bruce after that. Denny stayed with the McLaren team until he retired."

The McLaren team was dominated by talented Kiwis, who had brought a good dose of pragmatism with them. "At one stage more than half the staff were New Zealanders. By the 1970s the biggest percentage of race engineers, mechanics and personnel in all Formula One were Kiwis. They had a reputation for being dedicated and working hard, and they'd been
trained in the school where practicality was important. The philosophy in NZ was if something went wrong you had to fix it - almost the old number eight fencing wire syndrome but a step above that."



McLaren experienced such incredible success that their Northern Hemisphere competition couldn't understand the secret behind these Antipodean upstarts.

"It was brilliant," reminisces Kerr. "The CanAm racing in North America had a huge effect, Denny and Bruce were heroes over there, much better known in Europe and North America than they were in New Zealand. We decided to do Indy, because there were Americans who couldn't understand why Mclaren's kept winning the CanAm races. They'd make comments that if
we tried to do anything like the real form of motor racing at Indy we would come unglued. That's like issuing a challenge. In 1968 we made a conscious decision to have a serious look at Indy. We decided that we'd have a go and build a car for Indy, as well as Can Am and as well as Formula One, and then we embarked on Formula Two. It wasn't long before Mclaren's were the biggest race team of its type, and undertaking more racing than any other race team in the world."

Kerr speaks of Bruce McLaren with reverence, comparing his leadership style to that of Sir Peter Blake. "He was an incredible leader without actually having to issue orders. Everyone would work their butts off because they had total confidence in the guy at the top, and he had this unbelievable charisma that everybody wanted us to win for Bruce. He had an enormous capability for leading people. That really is one of the fundamental points in the way the team was formed, the way it grew and the way it developed."

McLaren died during an accident in a routine test of a CanAm car at Goodwood in England on June 2nd, 1970. It was a tragic and untimely loss, yet the team fortified themselves and continued on in memory of their late leader. Hulme led by example with a superhuman effort against all odds to compete in the CanAm race at Mossport. His hands badly burnt from an accident a few weeks before, Hulme defied doctors orders to qualify in pole position, before leading the race until a minor mechanical fault ended his chances ten laps from the end.

"It was an incredible display of courage," says Kerr. "He could use his right hand to change gear, but his left hand, which was the most badly burnt stayed on the steering wheel. Absolutely unreal. When Bruce had his accident that almost closed us down, but Denny stepped forward. And he was a huge help in enabling the team to continue just by sheer courage and determination."

With Hulme at the helm, McLaren achieved some of the greatest feats ever in motor racing, permanently engraving the McLaren name on history, with drivers such as Hunt and Fittipaldi.

"Our goal was to win Indy," says Kerr. "We did eventually do it, but it took a few years. We won it in 1974 and again in 1976. The same years that we won the World Championship. No other team in history has ever won Indy and the World Championship in two years - and in the same year."

McLaren was sold to a Ron Dennis headed organisation in 1980, whose partnership with TAG has forged further success for the team. Denny Hulme died from a heart attack during racing at Bathurst in 1992, while Phil Kerr resides in Auckland where he upholds the McLaren legacy through McLaren Cars Ltd, restoring classic cars and building high performance engines.

Gavin Bertram.