(born
August 30 1937 – died
June 2 1970 ), born in
Auckland ,
New Zealand , was a race-car designer, driver, engineer and inventor.
His name lives on in
Team McLaren which has been one of the most successful in
Formula One championship history, with McLaren cars and drivers winning a total of 19 world championships. McLaren cars totally dominated
CanAm sports car racing with 56 wins, a considerable number of them with him behind the wheel, between
1967 and
1972 (and five constructors’ championships), and have won three
Indianapolis 500 races, as well as
24 Hours Of Le Mans and
12 Hours Of Sebring .
As an eleven year old, McLaren contracted a disease in his hip which left his left leg shorter than the right. He spent two years in traction, but later often had a slight limp.
Les and Ruth McLaren, his parents, owned a service station and workshop in
Remuera ,
Auckland . Bruce spent all of his free hours hanging around the workshop.
Les McLaren restored an aging
Austin 7 Ulster which 14-year-old Bruce used in
1952 when he entered his first competition, a
Hillclimb . Two years later he took part in his first real race and showed promise. He moved up from the Austin to a
Ford 10 special and a
Austin-Healey , then a F2
Cooper -Climax sports. He immediately began to modify and improve it—and master it—so much so that he was runner-up in the 1957–8 New Zealand championship series.
His performance in the New Zealand Grand Prix in
1958 was noted by great
Australia n driver
Jack Brabham (who would later invite McLaren to drive for him). Because of his obvious potential the New Zealand International Grand Prix organisation selected him for its ‘Driver in Europe’ scheme designed to give a promising Kiwi driver year-round experience with the best in the world. McLaren was the first recipient and
Dennis Hulme was another later.
McLaren went to Cooper and stayed seven years. He raced in F2 and was entered in the
German Grand Prix at the
Nürburgring in which F2 and F1 cars competed together. He astounded the motor racing fraternity by being first F2, and fifth overall, in a field of the best drivers in the world.
McLaren joined the Cooper factory F1 team alongside Jack Brabham in
1959 and won the
1959 United States Grand Prix at age 22 years 80 days, becoming the youngest ever GP winner up to that time. He followed that with a win in the Argentina Grand Prix, the first race of the 1960 Fomula One season. (Forty three years later, another Kiwi racer,
Scott Dixon , would become the youngest ever winner in any major open-wheel racing formula anywhere in the world when he won the
CART Lehigh Valley GP in the US when 20 years, 9 months and 14 days old.)
McLaren won the
Monaco Grand Prix in
1962 . The next year he founded Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd, which remains in the Formula One championship simply as
Team McLaren . McLaren continued to race and win in Coopers (including the New Zealand GP in
1964 ).
McLaren left Cooper at the end of 1965, and announced his own GP racing team, with co-driver and fellow Kiwi
Chris Amon . Amon left in 1967 to drive for Ferrari. In 1968, McLaren was joined by another fellow Kiwi Dennis Hulme, who had become world champion in 1967. McLaren won his first GP in his own McLaren car at
Spa in
1968 and Hulme won twice in the McLaren-Ford. In tribute to his homeland, McLaren's cars featured the "speedy Kiwi" logo.
It was in powerful sports car racing where McLaren's design flair and ingenuity were graphically demonstrated. Just as the CanAm Series began to become very popular with fans in
Canada and the
U.S. , the new McLaren cars finished second twice, and third twice, in six races.
In 1967 they won five of six races and in 1968, four of six. The following year McLaren’s proved unbeatable, winning 11 of 11 races. In one race, they finished 1-2-3. (McLaren, Hulme and
Dan Gurney ).
In 1966 he and co-driver
Chris Amon won the prestigious 24 Hour race at
Le Mans in a
Ford GT40 .
Bruce McLaren died when his CanAm car crashed at the
Goodwood Circuit on
June 2 1970 in
England . He had been testing his new M8D when the rear body work came adrift at speed. The loss of aerodynamic downforce destabilized the car, which spun, left the track and hit a bunker used as a flag station.
Motorsport author Eoin Young has noted that Bruce McLaren had "virtually penned his own epitaph" in his 1964 book ''From the cockpit''. Referring to the death of team mate
Timmy Mayer , McLaren had written:
"The news that he had died instantly was a terrible shock to all of us, but who is to say that he had not seen more, done more and learned more in his few years than many people do in a lifetime? To do something well is so worthwhile that to die trying to do it better cannot be foolhardy. It would be a waste of life to do nothing with one’s ability, for I feel that life is measured in achievement, not in years alone."
() (Races in indicate pole position)
