JUNE 3, 2020
Monday, June 1, 2020 at 10:23AM
Editor
Editor-in-Chief's Note: Watch this fascinating interview of Jim Hall for the American Inventor Interview Series. It is worth every moment. -PMD

(INDYCAR)
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES will be broadcast in primetime on NBC for the first time when the season-opening Genesys 300 at Texas Motor Speedway is televised, starting at 8 p.m. (ET) Saturday, June 6. The race is moving to NBC from its originally scheduled window on NBCSN. It's the first primetime INDYCAR race on broadcast television since 2013. NBC Sports' lead INDYCAR broadcast team of Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy will call the Genesys 300 on NBC. The Genesys 300 will be the first race of the 2020 NTT INDYCAR SERIES campaign. The second race will take place on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - the GMR Grand Prix - on Saturday, July 4, also on NBC. The postponed Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, will take place on Sunday, Aug. 23, on NBC.

(Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Team Penske Ford) took advantage of hard racing in the closing laps and earned the victory in Sunday’s Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. With two laps remaining, race leaders Joey Logano (No. 22 Team Penske Ford) and Chase Elliott (No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chaevrolet) collided in front of the field, and Keselowski slipped by to take the lead and earn his second win of the season. Clint Bowyer (No. 14 Stewart-Haas Ford) finished second by 0.471-second. “We kind of got a Christmas present here in Bristol,” Keselowski said. “We’ll take it." Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet) finished third. (Thanks to NASCAR Media.)

(McLaren images)
McLaren marked the 50th anniversary of the death of Bruce McLaren with a private ceremony at the company’s headquarters in Woking, Surrey, UK. The pioneering racing driver and engineer was killed at age 32 on June 2, 1970, while testing a McLaren M8D Can-Am race car at the Goodwood Circuit in West Sussex, UK. Renowned as a winner of Grands Prix, Can-Am championships and the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a driver and the founder in 1963 of Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd – the foundation for today’s McLaren - the motor racing legend was remembered as June 2, 2020, marks half a century since the death. In commemoration of her father, Amanda McLaren – a McLaren Automotive brand ambassador – unveiled a life-sized statue of Bruce McLaren during a short private ceremony at the McLaren Technology Centre (MTC). 
Amanda McLaren, daughter of Bruce; McLaren Automotive Ambassador had this to say: “It is an honor to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Bruce McLaren by unveiling this wonderfully crafted statue to commemorate his life and achievements. When my father died in June 1970 – just 12 years after coming to the UK from New Zealand – he had already done so much to realize his ambitions, but the best was still to come. McLaren’s accomplishments over more than 50 years in Formula 1, the landmark victory at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans race and the supercars and hypercars designed, developed and built under the McLaren banner, all stand as his legacy. “June 2 is always an emotional date for us and that’s particularly true this year. Having ‘Dad’ looking out over McLaren is incredibly moving and I know that he would have been so very proud of the achievements made in his name.”
The bronze statue of Bruce McLaren was created by painter and sculptor, Paul Oz. Globally recognized for his motorsport-inspired art, Oz was previously commissioned by McLaren Racing to produce a sculpture of Ayrton Senna that is also at the MTC. Senna drove for McLaren for six years, winning all three of his Formula 1 World Championships at the wheel of a McLaren in 1988, 1990 and 1991.
Bruce McLaren himself debuted the newly formed McLaren team in Grand Prix racing in 1966, competing in Monaco. He also delivered the maiden McLaren Grand Prix victory, winning in 1968 at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium. This was Bruce’s fourth Formula 1 victory, adding to the three he recorded driving for Cooper. The team that still bears his name has since achieved a total 182 race wins, bringing 12 Drivers’ Championships and 8 Constructors’ Championships to become the second most successful team in Formula 1. McLaren also has three Indianapolis 500 victories to its name, and earlier this year the team returned to full-time Indy car competition for the first time in 40 years.
Fifty lighted candles were placed around a 1970 McLaren M8D displayed at McLaren’s headquarters. The team car to the M8D in which Bruce McLaren was killed was driven to championship victory in the 1970 Can-Am race series by Bruce’s teammate and fellow Kiwi racer, Denny Hulme. This was the second time Hulme had secured the championship, McLaren himself taking the honors in 1967 and 1969. The McLaren team dominated Can-Am racing from 1967 for five consecutive years. While Bruce McLaren himself never produced road cars in any number, the McLaren name was further cemented in automotive history with the introduction in 1992 of the McLaren F1, the car famously going on in race guise to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race in 1995 at the team’s first attempt. McLaren Automotive, today the largest part of the McLaren Group, was formed in 2010 and now produces a portfolio of GT, supercar and hypercar models for the road, with competition cars in the GT4 and GT3 classes and equivalent supported by McLaren Customer Racing. Further tributes  will be shared on the McLaren website today at 12:19 BST – the time that Bruce left the Goodwood circuit pitlane for the final time on Tuesday June 2,  1970 – and can be found at https://cars.mclaren.com/en/latest/bruce-mclaren-50th-anniversary.

(Lotus images)
On May 29, 1960, Sir Stirling Moss drove his Lotus for almost three hours of punishing racing, battling through the rain on the streets of Monte Carlo to win the Monaco Grand Prix. It was the first victory in a Formula 1 world championship race for Lotus. Exactly 60 years after it all began, Lotus is paying tribute to the beginning of its truly remarkable Formula 1 history, which has seen legendary drivers such as Moss, Mario Andretti, Jim Clark, Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi, Graham Hill, Ronnie Peterson and Ayrton Senna all claim wins for the Norfolk-based outfit.
After setting new lap records in practice then claiming the first-ever pole position for Lotus in qualifying, Sir Stirling Moss put on a near-flawless display. In a real race of attrition, only the top three drivers completed all 100 laps of the course and just five racers were classified. It was this race where Moss cemented his reputation as a rain master. He drove his new Lotus 18 relentlessly through the wet streets with supreme confidence to take the checkered flag. Moss beat his nearest competitor, Bruce McLaren, by 52 seconds.
The Lotus Type 18, which Lotus founder Colin Chapman believed was the marque’s first proper Formula 1 car, was perfectly suited to the tight, twisting streets of Monaco. The lightweight aluminium-bodied racer was agile and dynamic in Moss's hands, taking the field – including a trio of entrants from Ferrari – by storm. 
After the first victory by Moss, Lotus race cars went on to take the checkered flag a further 80 times, delivering six Drivers’ Championships and seven Constructors’ Championships.
(Photos ® John Lamm/Maserati images)
Maserati is commemorating its two consecutive wins in the Indianapolis 500 (1939 and 1940) with its Maserati 8CTF. The 8CTF was another inspired design by Ernesto Maserati. The machine originated in 1938 with the support of the Orsi family, the Modena entrepreneurs who had taken over the business in 1937. Characterized by its 8-cylinder engine with cylinders cast in a monoblock with the head (hence the name "8CTF" or 8 cylinders "testa fissa" - fixed head), the new car was Maserati's bid to return to competitiveness against the other European constructors. The car, which won the Indianapolis 500 in 1939 and 1940 was entered as the "Boyle Special" by the Chicago-based Boyle Racing Headquarters team owned by Michael Joseph “Mike” Boyle, and it was driven by Wilbur Shaw. After the first two victories, Shaw seemed destined for a historic hat-trick in 1941, but a puncture prevented him from winning the Indianapolis 500 a third consecutive time. In 1946, after a break due to the Second World War, the same 8CTF that Shaw had driven finished third in the Indy 500, this time with Ted Horne at the wheel. It was followed home by another 8CTF, driven by Emil Andres. Horne repeated his third place in 1947, and went on to finish fourth in 1948. The Maserati 8CTF remained competitive at the highest levels of racing for a decade.

 

 


Article originally appeared on Autoextremist.com ~ the bare-knuckled, unvarnished, high-electron truth... (http://www.autoextremist.com/).
See website for complete article licensing information.