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Denis (Denny) Hulme is New Zealand’s only Formula One World Champion.
If he had come from anywhere in the world, apart from
New Zealand, his name would have been known in every
household. New Zealand sporting heroes tend to be those
who play a form of rugby. Denny was the archetypal
New Zealander, a virtual Sir Edmund Hillary on wheels,
enigmatic, often taciturn and tough, he eschewed the glamour,
the fame and the glory that goes with the Formula One World
Championship crown. It seemed to make the man from Te Puke
even more reluctant to stand in the spotlight of glory.
The son of Clive Hulme VC (Victoria Cross), Denis Hulme
got into international motor racing the hard way. His racing
career began in the late 1950s. Driving trucks for his father’s
carrying company, he was careful enough with money to
be able to buy a new MG TF sports car at a time when any
new car in New Zealand was a luxury and a sports car was a
rarity. He was a big, raw-boned man, going bald at an early
age and he made a mark in the sport not just because he
drove fast and well, but because he drove in bare feet. He
reckoned that it gave him a better feel of the throttle. Today,
that would not be countenanced, but in the late 1950s rules
were a lot more relaxed.
His next move was a major one. He bought a Formula 2
Cooper Climax. By international standards it was an old
car, but in the Antipodes, the home of cast-off international
racing cars, it was still competitive. His arch-rival that
season was a headstrong young carpenter from Whangarei,
George Lawton, driving a similar car.
At the end of the season, the pair had made such an
impression on motor racing administrators in New Zealand,
that they decided to send them both overseas on the
“New Zealand Driver to Europe” scheme which had sent
Bruce McLaren to Britain two years earlier. Of the two, Lawton
was probably the naturally faster driver. Hulme was more
methodical and calculating in his approach. Lawton’s courage
resulted in a fatal crash at a race in Denmark. It was not the
last tragedy that would touch Denis Hulme in his career. |
Hulme leased a bigger and more powerful Cooper Climax for his
return home at the end of that year and won the Dunedin Festival
Road Race. He had now decided that he was going to become
a professional racing driver and returned to the UK where he
bought a Brabham, a cheap tow car and spent the next two
years being a motor racing gypsy. Living off the proverbial
smell of an oily rag, sleeping in the car and living off prize and
appearance money he did a tough, hard apprenticeship.
Brabham was a brand new name to motor racing. It was a
company founded by 1959 and 1960 World F1 Champion
Jack Brabham and it was Denis Hulme who gave the new
marque its first win with victory in a Formula Junior race
at Brands Hatch in 1961. He was so close to the Brabham
team that he could not possibly have been ignored by
the company boss. There were similarities in attitude and
approach between the two men and Brabham offered the
New Zealander a position driving the works Honda-powered
Formula 2 cars in 1964 and 1965. Between them, they won
every major Formula Two race with team orders always
prescribing that the boss would win. But Formula Two was
still a long step away from Formula One.
Hulme’s chance came in 1966 after Formula One changed
from 1.5 litres to 3.0 litres. Brabham was ready for the
change with a simple car and the Australian produced Repco
V8 engine. It was a winning formula that saw Brabham win
his third crown. By 1967, the opposition were catching up with
the new technology but through consistency and reliability
the two Brabhams were still highly competitive. Hulme won
the title that year, defeating his boss which created some
tensions and at the end of his championship year Hulme
moved outfits, joining fellow New Zealander, Bruce McLaren’s
fledgling team.
Being a competitive racing driver and wanting to win the
most glittering prize in motor racing is one thing, but living
up to the public expectations is another. In some ways,
winning the crown saw Denis Hulme revert back to being
the barefoot racing truck driver of a decade earlier.
He wasn’t comfortable with the fame and he was awkward
in the spotlight.
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