A Fast Roadtrip with Denny Hulme
These days even the backmarkers get to and from races by various aircraft. Forty years ago the race winner decided on a road trip with a couple of mates…
The Swedes were well primed for their inaugural Formula 1 race – round seven of the 1973 championship. Local hero Ronnie Peterson had been on the front row for four of the previous six races but was still to take his maiden victory. 55,000 spectators were there at the tight 2.49 mile Anderstorp circuit to see him once again start from pole. His JPS Lotus team mate and reigning World Champ topped the tables after six rounds with 41 points, 4 more than Jackie Stewart who in turn was 16 points clear of his Tyrrell team mate Francois Cervert back in third. Our own Denny Hulme was back in fifth with 10 points (1 behind team-mate Peter Revson) but the new McLaren M23 was starting to show the sort of speed that made it one of the standout F1 cars of the 70’s. Denny had decided to travel to Sweden with his team manager Phil Kerr in the 2 door Rolls Royce Park Ward of mutual friend and long time McLaren team supporter John “Mac” MacDonald. Phil takes up the story:
A relaxing drive to Sweden...
“It seemed like a good idea to get the ferry, drive across Denmark and then reverse the procedure after the race. We left on the Tuesday and sailed from Harwich that evening, arriving at Esbjerg in Denmark on Wednesday morning. It was wonderfully relaxing – like a mini cruise ship… we made our way to Copenhagen and then on the Thursday morning we made the short trip to Helsingor where the ferry crossed to Sweden. Everything went perfectly and we checked into our motel – that was really a two bedroom chalet – at Anderstorp. Denny was in one of those frames of mind where he was very comfortable – particularly after we altered the sleeping arrangements when he discovered after the first night that Mac could have snored for Britain. He was in one of his optimistic moods when he just felt everything was going to be alright.”
Cervert joined Ronnie on the front Row while their team mates shared row 2. Reutemann was next with Denny 6th fastest, eight-tenths slower than the pole time. It was to be one of those GPs that are dull for the majority but then comes alive in the dying stages. Not that the locals minded – their man dominated right from the start. Denny lost 15 seconds when his throttle stuck open after swallowing a cloud of sand thrown up by Jackie Oliver. The engine, Denny’s favourite Cosworth (061), coughed and choked as he headed to the pits until… “I touched the pedal and she fired up again. So I decided to gather them in!” It wasn’t that easy as Stewart was really pressing now, trying to spoil the Lotus 1 – 2. On lap 61 of 80 the McLaren was past Cervert as Denny really turned it on. Soon Stewart’s mirrors were full of white Yardley McLaren as the Kiwi had made a full 20 seconds and now had his sights set on 3rd place. At least…
The dull procession had become very exciting as Denny bothered Stewart who in turn was harrying the Lotii. With 10 laps to go Fittipaldi’s Lotus slowed with failing brakes and the Tyrrell-McLaren train was past. No one knew at the time, but one of Peterson’s rear tyres was deflating – in a flash Stewart was alongside but the Swede kept him back. The Tyrrell too was now suffering brake troubles. With four laps to go it was down to the local hero and the Kiwi bear. Surely Ronnie must win soon and after leading from the start, what better place to do it than in front of his own people? Phil Kerr: “Denny switched off the rev limiter and gave it 11,300 rpm down the back straight. 10,500 was really the DFV’s limit at that time so it was all or nothing.” Ronnie was 4 miles away from a flag to flag first up win but the tyre was now quite soft. Denny swept by to lead the last lap and a half despite his 3 year old engine. It was the first of many victories for the M23 and one of Denny’s finest – Phil: “Rarely have I ever seen Denny so happy after a race. What neither of us knew at the time was that Peterson was in trouble for the last couple of laps. He said there was only one passing spot and he ‘zinged’ the engine to get by. He was thrilled because of the fact that he’d snatched victory in the last couple of laps. There was a great prizegiving and as a result we all had quite a late night…”
And a not-so-relaxing drive back...
“We had to get back to Esbjerg on Monday evening at 5.30 for the ferry back to England and we figured if we could be away by 8.30 in the morning it’d be a cruise. It’s about 470 kms and, allowing for Ferry crossings, we reckoned we’d be there by 4 o’clock – no problem. We threw the luggage and the trophies – that Denny was so delighted with – in the boot. The first sign of how the day would develop was when we came to close the boot on the Roller – it just sprung back open. The boot lock had quit. We wasted about 20 minutes with a screwdriver but no luck – not even DH could fix it. Eventually we found some wire and secured it that way. By now it’s after 9 o’clock but, no real problem because we still had over 8 hours to get to Esbjerg. Mac drove and Denny decided he would lounge in the backseat. We traveled about 80kms when Denny said ‘I think we’ve got a problem,’ and I said ‘Yeah, I thought I could hear something too.’ Denny diagnosed that a wheel bearing was on the way out so we stopped on the side of the road and there’s smoke pouring out from the left rear wheel. What are the chances of finding a Rolls Royce agent in rural southern Sweden?”
The decision was made to drive slowly with the winner of the previous days Grand Prix now at the wheel. Soon after they happened upon a small country garage where the owners command of English was matched by the sum total of Swedish spoken by the occupants of the now crippled 1 year old Rolls. They pointed to the hoist and soon the genial proprietor had the car at a level where a proper examination could be made. Phil: “This is where Denny is at his absolute best. He knew a proper fix wasn’t going to be possible but he gets the guy to fetch a big drill and then announces that he’s going to drill right through the hub and guess where the bearing is.” So did Phil believe this was likely to work? “If you’re ever in a crisis, the first guy you want with you is Denny Hulme. Like Bruce – these guys are so good at coming up with practical solutions. He attacks this hub and says to our new Swedish friend, ‘I need a little grease nipple and lots of grease, best grease’. Denny says ‘I’m going to stuff this bloody hub full of grease and hope it hangs together’. We pay the guy some money, Denny signs an autograph and then he drives – fairly slowly down to the ferry over into Denmark. By now we’re well into the afternoon and on the ferry we realised it was touch and go because if we missed the English crossing, the next crossing wouldn't get us home until Thursday.”
The road race in Mac's Roller is on...
“Our only option is to press on. Denny drives to start with but then says ‘Mac, this is your car – if we’re going to have a major shunt or problem…’ and Mac says ‘Yeah, yeah I’ll drive, you guys just tell me where to go and what to do.’ Denny decided to again lounge in the back and listen for problems and I get out the map. It’s back to the old rallying days – I’ve got a stopwatch so now we’re on a time/distance average as I figure out where we’d have to be at given times to get to Esbjerg by 5.30. We figure we’ll just forget about the wheel bearing – it’ll either last or it won’t. Mac is driving absolutely flat out, cruising at up to 120mph. (193km/hr) Now Denmark has very strict speed limits but it was one of those days where there was hardly a car on the road (only later did the intrepid trio discover it was a public holiday). Past Odense there were some lovely straight roads and just past there is a small airport. We would have been up to 130mph (210km/hr) along one of these straights and there’s a Viscount coming into land and we went past it! Denny’s in the back saying ‘C’mon Mac, how’re we going?’ About 10 minutes later there’s this unbelievable crash on the windscreen – we hit a pigeon! How it didn’t smash the windscreen I will never know because we were doing well over 100 mph. (160km/hr) So there’s blood and feathers everywhere but we just press on.”
One place name is lodged in Phil’s memory: “At Middelfart things are a bit desperate because we’re 5 minutes over but soon we’re 2 minutes under and then 3 over again. At this point we said to Mac “if the road is clear, forget traffic lights, we are going to keep pressing on!” We were still slowing for the little towns but otherwise it’s flat out. At the outskirts of Esbjerg it was real touch and go and we had less than 2 minutes. Every light was red and we drove through them all.(Fortunately there was no other traffic!) We came screaming into the departure gate and handed the guy the tickets just as the loading ramp was being pulled up. We’re yelling ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa!’ He puts it back down and we make it without a second to spare.”
1973 was the debut year for the Hesketh team with one James Hunt as their driver. The team slogan was ‘Racing for Britain’. As the Roller is brought to a halt on the ferry the travelers see Rob Walker in front of them, complete with cream slacks, navy blazer and cravat – ‘Hello! Where have you been? We thought you were going to miss the boat’. I said ‘Rob, you won’t believe it but – we’ve been racing for Britain.’ There was smoke pouring off the hub now, it was absolutely red hot.”
“On the boat I worked out that, excluding ferry crossings, we averaged over 75mph (122km/hr) – I reckon that two and a half hours is probably still a record to cross Denmark!” The day of the blast across Denmark was Denny’s 37th birthday. When they arrived in England, Customs asked if he had anything to declare. Beaming, he produced his trophies – ‘I’ve got these…’