The Bruce McLaren Trust was well represented at the Phillip Island Classic Meeting this year. Both Amanda McLaren and Jan McLaren attended this great historic meeting and three Trustees competed at the Phillip Island meeting near Melbourne the weekend before the Australian Grand Prix. Tony Roberts, Jim Barclay and Craig Abbott took their cars to the classic meeting which drew over 500 entries with big fields in Formula 5000 and Formula Junior. Unlike the Australian Grand Prix no McLaren cars were winners. Among the spectators was Australian motor sports doyen Bob Jane who owns a McLaren M6 Can-Am car which was built for him over 40 years ago.
The Stuttgart Steamroller
Not literally of course. In the early 1970s Porsche produced the fearsome 917/30 model. Mark Donohue drove one in Can-Am events contributing to the decline of the McLaren domination and eventual disappearance of the whole series. The Porsches were just too powerful. At Phillip Island and at the Australian Grand Prix, Porsche displayed a 917/30 from the museum in Stuttgart. At both meetings former New Zealander Jim Richards drove the car in a few demonstration laps.
The “Worlds most powerful sports car’ reputably produces up to 1580HP in qualifying form and a reliable 1100HP in race trim. The 1973 Can-Am winner and the 917/30s most famous driver, Mark Donohue, established a closed circuit record in one of the Porsche team cars that still stands today, lapping the Talladega Oval in Alabama in August 1975 at a speed of 355.85km/ph.
