MEMORIES OF THE BEAR. A Biography of Denny Hulme.

Denny Hulme, New Zealand's first World Motor racing Champion and affectionately known as 'The Bear' was born to drive. His father, war hero Clive Hulme VC, ran a trucking business, and Deny drove 6-ton trucks after school. 

His first car was an MF TF 1500 sports and in 1960 he won at Ardmore in a 2-litre Cooper-Climax, the same year he was awarded a Drivers to Europe scholarship. Working as a mechanic for Jack Brabham, in 1963 he was given a race in the Formula Junior Brabham when the regular driver was injured and it marked the beginning of an illustrious career that would see him win eight Grands Prix, the first at Monaco in 1965, with the Brabham Formula I team.

In 1967 Denny won two of the toughest circuits on the calendar, the Monaco and German Grands Prix, and finished third in the Mexican Grand Prix on 22 October 1967, to win the World Championship. In 1968 he signed with McLaren to race Formula I and CanAm, and the next seven years saw him win another five Grands Prix before his retirement from Formula I in 1974. In 1976 Denny brought his family home to New Zealand but the itch to compete saw him racing regularly at Bathurst during the eighties and early nineties, a well-known and respected personality on the international touring car circuit.

Denny died of a heart attack at the age of 56, on the 33rd lap of the 1992 Bathurst 1000 km classic. He was driving a BMW touring car - a fitting end for a man born to race, who loved it with a passion and could live his life no other way. Eoin Young knew 'The Bear' well and tells his story with insight and affection, completing his trilogy of our greatest racing drivers with a fitting tribute to Denny Hulme.

Published by HarperCollins(NZ) Ltd. and officially released on May 7 2007.

McLAREN MEMORIES.

In 1948 11-year-old Bruce McLaren defied doctors in Auckland, New Zealand who told him he might never walk again, becoming a leading international motor racing champion, winning Grand Prix races and establishing a team that still carries his name in Formula One.With an enviable reputation as a safe driver with an engineering background who respected limits, his tragic death while testing a new CanAm sports car at Goodwood in June 1970 shocked the racing world.

Jack Brabham stayed with the McLaren family during his first race overseas — the 1954 New Zealand Grand Prix — and the young schoolboy was intrigued with the preparation of Brabham’s Cooper-Bristol. The friendship led to Brabham selling his father Cooper cars and Bruce raced successfully enough to be awarded a new Driver to Europe scholarship in 1958.
The following season he was Brabham’s teammate in the Grand Prix team and made racing history when he won the final race of the 1959 season, the US Grand Prix at Sebring. At 22, Bruce was the then youngest-ever Grand Prix winner.
In 1960 he won the Grand Prix in Argentina, establishing a link that would see McLaren the man win the first race of the decade and a McLaren car win the final race when Denny Hulme won the Mexican Grand Prix in 1969.

When Brabham left the Cooper team in 1962, Bruce took over as team leader, a position he held until he built his own Grand Prix car for the 1966 season. He had formed his own racing team in 1964, winning the New Zealand Grand Prix that season.
In 1966 he won the Le Mans 24-hour race for Ford and in 1967 and 1969 won the CanAm championship in North America driving a car with his name on the nose.

In a retelling of those formative years, the book calls on memories of Bruce from fellow team members, McLaren family and friends and Bruce’s own words to provide an insight into what drove him to become one of the racing greats of his time.

THE AMAZING SUMMER OF '55

The 1955 motor racing season was like no other, before or since. It was the year of motor racing's biggest dramas, worst tragedies and greatest victories. This one year saw Moss and 'Jenks' legendary drive in the Mille Miglia, the saga of Ruth Ellis and David Blakeley, Ascari's plunge into the harbour at Monaco, The first win for a Briton in the British Grand Prix, the tragedy of Levegh's Mercedes crash at Le Mans and the demise of James Dean in his supposedly cursed Porsche Speedster.
Twenty four chapters tell these stories as well as others such as Tony Brooks' win for Connaught, Ferraris's mystery twin cylinder engine, the rise of Cooper,Peter Ustinov's virtuoso recording of the "Grand Prix du Roc" etc. etc.

Published by Haynes, Summer 2005

JIM CLARK AND HIS MOST SUCCESSFUL LOTUS

This book marries together a study of a great period in the life of Jim Clark with the history of a great British marque, featuring in particular the famous Lotus 25, from its golden 1963 World Championship-winning year, through subsequent owners and crashes until the remains are discovered and the gallant old charger is restored to its original specification.

Published by Haynes, July 2004

Review by Allan Walton in "New Zealand Classic Car":

"As Famed Motorsport photographer  Euan Sarginson so ably points out in his foreward to Classic Racers, "people, not power curves..." is what matters to Eoin Young. Nowhere is this more noticeable than in this new book by Eoin - and for the most part the people rather than the cars take the leading role. The facts are all there in their correct place but, in a series of profiles on NZ motorsport heroes, Eoin concentrates on the men behind the wheel - bringing his personal knowledge of the drivers to the forefront.

This unique viewpoint allows Eoin to breathe new life into the subject and what emergesis a fresh perspective on well known motorsport personalities such as Chris Amon, Bruce Mclaren, Ron Roycroft and Denny Hulme. However the real treasures to be found in Classic Racers are the profiles on New Zealand's unsung motoring heroes such as Johnny Mansel, Ernie Sprague, Bill Hamilton, Tom Clark, Howden Ganley and Ross Jensen.
Many of these profiles will be well known to NZCC readers, having been first published as part of our ongoing "Kiwi Racing Greats" series. A large proportion of the drivers featured in these stories, on their original publication in NZCC, were being treated to a major profile for the very first time and it's great to have them all collected together in one handsome volume.

With the addition of a series of articles on famous NZ racing cars - the Stanton Crop-duster, Lycoming Special, Indy Stutz and the Nuvolari Alfa Romeo P3 - this is a well-rounded book which is a positive delight to dip into. It certainly helped this reviewer to enjoyably while away a few lazy days during the recent Christmas break. Easily the Book of the Month - and the best local motoring book for many a year, highly recommended.

The biography of Chris Amon, the New Zealander who led the Ferrari team for three seasons in the late 1960s, is now available in the best bookshops. 
The book was launched at the Goodwood Circuit Revival in September and the first 500 copies sold out over the weekend.  Chris started driving for the Parnell team, moved to McLaren as a test driver, won Le Mans in 1966 sharing a works Ford with Bruce McLaren, led the Ferrari team in 1967-68-69, spent a turbulent season at March in 1970, and led the French Matra for two seasons.  As Sir Stirling Moss is reckoned to be the greatest driver never to win the World Championship, so Chris Amon is rated as the greatest driver never to win a Grand Prix!

The second volume of Eoin's autobiography crammed with all the Grand Prix after-dinner tales and Barley  Mow motor racing pub stories he forgot to putt in the first book! In-depth chapter profiles on champions like Sir Jack Brabham and Phil Hill, the Ferrari dreams of Sir Stirling Moss and Sir Jackie Stewart plus thoughtful features on personalities like Harvey Postlethwaite and rally driver Possum Bourne who have passed on.
Join Eoin as he enjoys a summer of classic events in Ireland and at Prescott, Goodwood, Beaulieu and the Alpenfahrt classic rally in Austria. Read the escapades with other racing writers on the Grand Prix trail when the good old days were great! A fast trip down memory lane visiting amazing men and motorcars.

The first volume of Eoin's Autobiography  from 1996 with chapters on every aspect of his life in motor racing. Getting very hard to find now.- We occasionally manage to source copies. please email for details.

Written with James Hunt in 1976, this is the story of Hunt's Formula 1 world championship.

 Out of print now but we occasionally manage to source copies. please email for details.

Eoin's unique insider's perspective on Bruce McLaren from the earliest days of starting his own team. See the About Eoin Page for more. 

 

THE MEN

Written with Barrie Gill, this is an account of the Grand Prix drivers' world in 1968. it was overshadowed by the death of Lorenzo Bandini, Bob Anderson and of course Jim Clark. Eoin helped considerably on the rewriting necessary after these tragedies. Many photographs. Out of print for many years but we occasionally manage to source copies. please email for details.

FROM THE COCKPIT

Bruce McLaren's story, written with Eoin in 1964. Another one which is long-since out of print but copies are occasionally available. click here for more information