McLaren Page #7

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the two-and-a-half-mile course,

without McLaren.

WALLY:
And then the Americans

saw Bruce do something special.

COMMENTATOR 1:
McLaren is off, flat out.

To play catch-up

is a tough way to go racing.

COMMENTATOR 2:
McLaren almost a lap

behind as the pack gets the green flag.

COMMENTATOR 1:

Bruce McLaren is 55 seconds behind.

Denis Hulme in the number five McLaren

leads Gurney

into the deceptive

downhill left-hander at Turn Two.

McLaren's out of the esses

and blasts for

the start/finish straight and green.

COMMENTATOR 2:
Hulme and Gurney

are setting a blistering pace.

COMMENTATOR 1:
McLaren gamely pours it on,

cutting the gap between him

and the tail-enders.

McLaren has caught tail-ender Nat Adams,

and signals Fred Pipin to let him by.

McLaren pulls up five places

in just five laps.

McLaren seems to choose any line

in a daring drive

rarely seen in motor racing.

Brett Lunger is into the guard rail,

debris all over the tracks.

COMMENTATOR 2:

Gurney and the sensational Bruce McLaren

battle for second.

COMMENTATOR 1:
McLaren makes

his move down the pit straight.

But Gurney shuts the door.

COMMENTATOR 2:
McLaren now in second.

COMMENTATOR 1:
McLaren crew chief

Tyler Alexander looks happy,

wouldn't you say?

Hulme is in trouble. He's done

serious damage to the bodywork.

McLaren narrows the gap.

Hulme struggles on,

the burnt-out wheel locked in place.

COMMENTATOR 2:

Incredibly, Denny holds on to win.

Bruce storms back to make it

a sensational McLaren one-two.

Every racing driver likes

the opportunity now and then

to be able to come

right from the back of the field.

MICHAEL CLARK:
Even though Bruce was

really wanting to try and wind down,

he loved racing, he loved driving.

And he was still good at it.

Bruce needed another driver in Formula 1.

Quite clearly

Bruce and Denny got on very well.

They were Kiwis taking on the world.

(ROARS)

(ENGINES SCREAM)

PHIL:
Denny had a foot in both camps,

as it were.

He was driving with Jack Brabham

in Formula 1.

The Formula 1 season ends up with

Denny becoming World Champion.

(CROWD CHEERS)

Bruce won the Can-Am championship,

Denny was second.

DENNY:
And the longer we went,

we got stronger together,

and Bruce decided

there'd be a place for me

in his Formula 1 team,

his new Formula 1 team.

- It's beautiful.

- BRUCE:
I don't like the steepness.

- I do.

- I'm with you.

DENNY:
You've got to play up

to the fans, don't you?

Our Formula 1 car was designed. The M7.

Robin Herd designed the chassis.

The car was a success

right from the start.

PHIL:
We were starting to look very good.

And then, in 1968,

Bruce made history at Spa.

Spa is a very, very long race,

very high speed.

Fuel consumption is absolutely critical.

ALASTAIR:
Spa was a bit like Monaco.

Sometimes only three or four cars

would finish.

Denny was very competitive.

Second right from the start.

Bruce was running sixth or seventh,

making his way up the field,

and Denny got into the lead, and then

the next thing there he is, in the pits.

Pit stop. What's wrong?

Drive shaft's melted off the side

of the gearbox.

PHIL:
But Bruce's car was running

particularly well.

Towards the end of the race,

he'd worked himself up into

second place, behind Jackie Stewart.

Tyler was out there

with the pit board to Bruce,

waving furiously,

telling him to go faster and faster,

'cause there was every chance

he could catch Jackie.

On the last lap, unbeknown to Bruce,

Jackie Stewart's car stopped, out of fuel.

But he didn't see Jackie run out,

and he crossed the line.

As far as Bruce was concerned,

he'd finished second,

and we were trying to say to him,

"You've won. You've won.

You've won the race."

PATTY:
Oh, I just thought

it was fantastic.

Absolutely fantastic. And he deserved it.

PHIL:
Bruce had now won Formula 1

Grand Prix in a car of his own design

and manufacture, bearing his name,

and it was just a major step forward

for the race team.

MICHAEL CLARK:
It is so appropriate

that the first ever win

for a McLaren in Formula 1

was with Bruce McLaren at the wheel.

And it was the second time in history

that a driver won a Grand Prix

with his name on the nose of the car.

And it's never happened since.

PHIL:
I'd said to Bruce, you know,

"When we first started over here

eight or nine years ago, and we dreamed

about doing something on our own,

we didn't know how long it would take,

when we could do it, but we've done it."

Here in a cul-de-sac, right under

the flight path of London Airport,

is the home of one of the most successful

areas of British motor racing.

David Road was a very basic kind

of English industrial estate.

To us at the time, it seemed like

this was very grand, but...

ALASTAIR:
Every 80 seconds we had

a jet land over the top of us,

and if you're on the telephone,

you just had to stop talking.

You'd have to say, "Excuse me,

you've got to wait for 60 seconds

whilst the building vibrates."

WALLY:
Having the factory so close

to the airport suited Bruce fine.

He was constantly in the air.

He was able to jump off the plane

at the airport, get to David Road,

have a few meetings, and he'd be

back on the plane within minutes.

Bruce and Denny spent a lot of time

in airplanes

backwards and forwards

across the Atlantic.

CARY TAYLOR:
The drivers, Bruce and

Denny's, involvement was split between

a Can-Am weekend,

and then a Formula 1 weekend in Europe.

JIM STONE:
They'd fly in on the Thursday

because the jet lag was quite bad

between England and the US.

And we'd run Friday, and then

Saturday practice and qualifying,

and then race on Sunday.

REPORTER:
Team McLaren earned more than

$162,000 in prizes for the series.

MICHAEL CLARK:
Bruce must've been

something of a workaholic.

There was this great need

for him to be busy.

I'm not sure

when he ever found time to sleep.

LOTHAR:
Bruce also did have big plans

to manufacture street cars, road cars.

And I remember the prototype coupe

that he built.

MARILYN:
We were in England, setting up

to get delivery of our next McLaren.

When we were in the office,

he showed us this model that was there,

the GT that he wanted to build,

because that was his dream.

We would like to do a road car

in the future,

and we're talking and thinking about it.

Some way down the line.

I hope it happens.

That road car really was Bruce's baby.

PATTY:
All the neighbors came out

when he very quietly tried to drive it

out of the garage.

I only drove it briefly,

and wanted to show off

when you had a cocktail party.

BRUCE:

We're in a tremendously competitive year.

The cars are very, very equal.

They're all within tenths of a second

on lap time.

This really keeps you working.

(ENGINE REVS)

MICHAEL CLARK:
Cars were becoming

increasingly more powerful,

and designers were trying to find ways

of creating downforce

to keep the cars on the track,

on fast corners in particular.

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