McLaren - how the team triumphed

By ALASTAIR SLOANE

Soon after Bruce McLaren's death in England in 1970, the international motoring press said the McLaren racing team was finished, that it couldn't remain competitive without its charismatic leader.

But the team itself had already pledged to continue. It had gone even further in the solemn hours after McLaren had died in practice on the Goodwood circuit: it vowed to win the world championship to honour everything Bruce McLaren had achieved.

Aucklander Phil Kerr was joint team manager. "After Bruce was declared dead, we all gathered at the McLaren factory in Colnbrook, near Heathrow airport," Kerr said.

"I told the team that we should go home, take time to work things out in our heads and come back in a day or two to discuss how best to continue."

Team members shuffled out, still trying to come to terms with McLaren's death on a benign June day at 260 km/h in a M8-D sports car.

It was just bad luck, they reasoned. McLaren had hit the only remaining obstacle of significance near the track, a bank of flag marshalls. It was the only one left at Goodwood; the others had been removed.

"Bruce was still strapped in part of the car," said Kerr. "But the impact of the crash was such that he couldn't have survived."

Kerr went home to reflect on the enormity of 32-year-old McLaren's death and at 7.30 the next morning went back to the factory expecting to have it to himself.

"Everyone had turned up for work," he said. "That was an example of the incredible spirit in the team. We vowed there and then to win the world championship for Bruce. There was an extraordinary atmosphere.

"Everyone held Bruce in absolute, total respect. The team was driven by Bruce - he was the leader. But he would never demand or order things to be done. He would just have to suggest something and everyone would do it. He had an extraordinary ability to communicate."

But Kerr didn't have a driver. The McLaren team was Bruce and Denny Hulme and Hulme was recovering from burns to his hands suffered in a CanAm race in the United States.

The team missed the next grand prix on the calendar, the Belgian, and Kerr hired American Dan Gurney to replace McLaren.

Still the stories that the team was finished continued. "Those stories redoubled our efforts to succeed," said Kerr.

"Half the team were New Zealanders, and telling a New Zealander something can't be done only makes him more determined to do it." The dogged determination to battle on was further fuelled by Hulme, who had assumed the role of deputy leader of the team.

"After the Belgian GP there was a CanAm race in Canada," said Kerr. "Denny had been told by doctors not to drive for some time. But he said 'stuff that' and left for Canada to keep the McLaren team on the road.

"The legacy Bruce had left and the way in which Denny responded made us more determined to succeed."

Four years later, in 1974, the world championship dream came true with victory in the American GP at Watkins Glenn. "There had been difficulties but we had won the championship for Bruce," said Kerr.

"Not only that but we won the Indy 500 to become the first team to win both events in the same year. We did the double again in 1976."

The wins in the Indy 500 were hugely significant, said Kerr. "When Bruce and Denny were winning the CanAm races the Americans kept saying that they were good but would never win the Indy.

"But to win the CanAm races and the Formula One championship and Indy 500 in 1974 and 1976 is, to my way of thinking, equivalent to New Zealand winning the America's Cup.

"I have great respect for what Sir Peter Blake and Team New Zealand have done. But ask most Americans what the America's Cup is and they won't have a clue. Ask them what the Indy 500 is and they'll know everything about it.

"Simply, the McLaren team is motor racing's most successful ever. That's Bruce's legacy."