Bruce McLaren

We called it the “Bruce and Denny Show,” and it was total dominance of the Can-Am Championship by McLaren Cars from 1967 to 1971, during which they won 43 of the series’ 71 races, 23 of them consecutively. It was an astounding performance in which New Zealander Bruce McLaren won the championships of 1967 and 1969, his countryman and teammate Denny Hulme in 1968 and 1970 and American Peter Revson in 1971, all in McLaren cars.

It was a crusade that turned out to be the even-tempered Bruce’s downfall, because he was killed in mid-1970 when he was only 32 years old, testing his new Can-Am car at Britain’s Goodwood circuit. Not before, however, he had won four Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, a tally that never really reflected his single-seater ability, two Can-Am titles and nine races, as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and he was poised to make a full frontal attack on the Indianapolis 500.