McLaren, Bruce (Leslie)

▪ New Zealander automobile racer

born Aug. 30, 1937, Auckland, N.Z.

died June 2, 1970, near Chichester, Sussex, Eng.

      New Zealand-born automobile racing driver, the youngest to win an international Grand Prix contest for Formula I cars (the U.S. race in 1959, when he was 22), also noted as a designer of racing vehicles.

      From 1959 to 1965 McLaren drove for Charles Cooper, a British racing car designer and builder. In 1960 he finished second to Jack Brabham of Australia for the world driving championship. In 1967 and 1969 he won the Canadian-American Challenge Cup series of road races.

      In 1964 McLaren, who had studied engineering at the University of Auckland, began to design racing automobiles. Although he won the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix in one of his own cars, his fellow New Zealander Denis Clive Hulme was the most successful driver of McLaren Formula I racers. McLaren was killed in an accident while testing a car on the Goodwood track.

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