- Mc Laren M19
This is the car that won the 1st F! race I every saw. It was at Oulton Park at the Gold Cup meeting driven by Denny Hulme. Who would have thought at that stage I would have such an involvement with the circuit in years to come!
After the sad year of 1970, when company founder Leslie Bruce McLaren had been killed testing a Group 7 CanAm doubler-seater racing car at Goodwood in the South of the U.K., Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd., based in Colnbrook near the London airport Heathrow, presented the M19 Grand Prix car for the 1971 season.
The flat chassis with it`s characteristic round shapes was designed by Briton Ralph Bellamy, later at Brabham and Lotus. In 1971 the works cars were wearing the typical yellow-orange livery with the Kiwi New Zealand national bird and the letters McLAREN CARS on both sides of the cockpit. They were driven by 1967 world champion Denny Hulme from New Zealand and Peter Gethin, son of British champion jockey Ken Gethin. In the middle of the season Gethin had been sacked because of being accused having shown bad performances throughout the Grand Prix season so far by the team management.
Gethin joined the team of B.R.M. and won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza surprisingly, while no victory came their way for McLaren in 1971, now with Briton Jackie Oliver driving the second car. For the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport Roger Penske and Kirk F. White had introduced another M19 in the typical blue livery of their classic sponsor SUNOCO, an oil group. At the first attempt Penske star driver Mark Donohue scored an excellent third place, the best result of the McLaren Ford M19 so far. The design had been modified during the season. The most visible change was the introduction of an airbox, but also a Team Tyrrell invented sportscar nose was used, but very quickly taken away again.
For 1972 McLaren signed up with Yardley cosmetics as their title sponsor, Peter Revson, son of the US-American Revlon cosmetics dynasty joined McLaren Racing as their second driver beside Denny Hulme. The New Zealander scored a fine victory at South African Kyalami, he finished third in the worldchampionship as well as Yardley McLaren did in the constructors`table while Revson came home fifth place overall. At the United States Grand Prix held at Watkins Glen the same year Jody Scheckter from South Africa gave a sensational debut in a third M19. From Kyalami 1973 on this design was replaced step by step by the even more successful M23.
