You may remember the debate that raged (well sort of) last year about Bruce McLaren’s nationality, well anyway for a concise answer from the people who should know I consulted McLaren’s own website for clarification. Somewhat surprisingly this opened another slightly rusty can of historic worms. So after consulting the collective wisdom of my fellow Sofa loungers, Al and Nick, I have now (finally) sent the following email to McLaren highlighting a less than clear section of their company history.

Dear McLaren,
Following an article last year on SofaF1.com. I referred to your website just to check my own understanding of some historical facts.

http://www.mclaren.com/historyofmclaren/timeline_intro.php

I greatly enjoyed reading the history of Bruce McLaren’s racing career, but was slightly confused by this paragraph:

“Bruce became engaged to Patty Broad that winter, and would marry her the following year. On his return to Europe, he was Brabham’s teammate again, and once again, the New Zealander won the World Championship. Bruce actually led the championship for a race and won in Argentina. He was second to Brabham in the championship.”

Reading this, and knowing that Jack Brabham won the world championship in a Cooper in 1959 and 1960, I was confused that he seemed to be referred to as a New Zealander. As far as I knew he was as Australian as they come.

If you were to read the sentence “On his return to Europe, he was Brabham’s teammate again, and once again, the New Zealander won the World Championship.” in isolation then it seems suggested that Bruce McLaren won the world championship (again) in 1960, which doesn’t tie up with the next couple of sentences which are themselves historically correct!

Regards
Stew
SofaF1.com

It would be great to have a response to this, if only to raise the profile of SofaF1. I’ll keep you posted if we hear back!

Pernickety Stew