[BrianP]

Originally Posted by square_one

Can Am Series, Road Atlanta, 1973
M5, 50cron, Ektachrome.

What fine, ungodly powerful, road racing series!! Can Am’s peak years were 70-73, with the likes of Jody Scheckter – David Hobbs – Peter Gregg – Chris Amon – Dan Gurney –the novel-but-unreliable Chaparral 2J vacuum cleaner car that sucked to the ground so well and went so fast it was quickly outlawed – Jacky Oliver in the tiny ‘pancake’ Shadow that forever sniffed the tail pipes of the Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme M-cars – Jackie Stewart in the T260 Lola beating the perenial #1 McLarens twice in 71 – male-model Peter Revson driving a M8F Mclaren to victory that same year – George Fullmer’s powerful 917/10K taking down Hulme and his no-longer-powerful M20 by the end of the 72 season – and finally, the Porsche/Donohue-developed1580 bhp 917/30KL that swept the last six of eight 1973 races.

Factory Car 917/30KL#6 was thee hottest road race car of all time and Porsche had nothing more to prove. They withdrew and the 74 series had no where to go, and died.

So the 66-74 Canadian-American Challenge Cup Rests in Peace along with it’s very best drivers:
Bruce McLaren - crashed in 1970 while testing the new M8D Can Am car at the Goodwood Circuit
Peter Revson - in a practice run crash at the 1974 South African Grand Prix
Mark Donohue - from a hemorrhage after a minor crash in practice for the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix
Peter Gregg - by suicide in 1980 at the age of 40, of dejection over a nerve disease that was stealing his considerable driving skill.
Dennis Hulme - while racing in 1992 at Mount Panorama in Australia. He pulled off the course before dying of a heart attack.

Sorry for the wordiness, but the whole of it was so beautiful, and so sad.

Absolutly nothing to appologise for.A great post which brought back a lot of memories.I remember along with a small group af fans talking to Denny Hulme at the 1967 British grand prix as he spent about 20 mins showing us all around the car he had just competed in.It was a different age and things have changed for the better in lots of ways but it would never happen today.Thanks again for the post.
Brian