McLaren is known today for the Formula One championships they have won in the 1980’s and 1990’s with drivers like Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, and Mika Hakkinnen. But many people don’t know who founder Bruce McLaren was or that the team was selling sportscars and winning sportscar championships in the 1960s and 1970s. McLaren Sports Racing Cars by Dave Friedman is a wonderful photo history of the early Team McLaren.

Starting with a brief section on Bruce McLaren’s early racing career, it moves through the formation of Team McLaren, their Can-Am championships, Bruce’s death in a testing accident, and the team finally quitting sportscar racing to concentrate on F1. There is also a chapter on McLaren’s foray into racing at Le Mans in the ’90s — coming back to its heritage.

The book does not go too deep into facts on the old Can-Am outside of Team McLaren, but as in his other books, Dave Friedman’s photos (both B&W and color) are wonderful. Fabulous action shots, close-ups of the engines and chassis, and candid photos of Bruce and the other drivers of McLaren cars, such as Chris Amon, Dennis Hulme, Dan Gurney, and Peter Revson. Included are not only the race team’s cars, but also those of the Can-Am privateers, who bought and raced McLaren customer cars. A beautiful photo history of an age in racing when bigger was better and engineers were only beginning to come to grips with aerodynamics. A must for every fan of Bruce McLaren, Team McLaren, the old Can-Am series, or vintage sports racers in general.

McLaren Sports Racing Cars Feature

• ISBN13: 9780760307243
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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McLaren Sports Racing Cars Overview

Bruce McLaren’s performances as a Formula 1, endurance, and Can-Am driver were almost always impressive. But it was the New Zealander’s highly successful career as an innovative carbuilder which forever etched the McLaren name in the annals of motorsport. This photohistory examines McLaren’s legendary endurance and Can-Am racers beginning with the formation of Bruce McLaren Racing Limited in 1963, continuing through his tragic death at the Goodwood circuit in 1970, and finishing with the completion of the Can-Am series in 1974. Splendid photography from the archives of Dave Friedman give readers views of the cars under construction and in action, and candid glimpses of Bruce McLaren and other personalities associated with the organization, including long-time teammate Denis Hulme. A special epilogue brings the story full circle with coverage of the million-dollar 1998 McLaren F1 “supercar” in both road and race trim.

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Customer Reviews

McLaren Sports Racing Cars – Jose Lopez – Miami,Florida USA
Excellent Pictorial History of McLaren, Bruce McLaren Is a Legend. Beautiful Chevy Powered big Block Cars in Can-Am Action,Early Cars as Well.Includes Some McLaren F1GTR pics.
Dave Friedman never disappoints.

A Must – Ralph B. Lehotsky – Mammoth Lakes, California, USA
This book is a must for all people appreciative of The Group 7 cars of the late ’50’s. and the ’60’s and ’70’s.

Nice one – Francisco Ganzaroll – Sao Paulo, SP Brazil
Very interesting, since the Bruce’s begining to the great finish with the F1GTR.

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Brennan’s journey begins in Toledo, home to the Triple AAA Mud Hens and the University of Toledo. The stories of catching a ball game at the Lucas Country Rec Center (aka Ned Skeldon Stadium) or the occasional drive to Tiger Stadium were heart warming and a bit shocking as Brennan was probably the woman in the 1970’s that knew how to fill out a scorecard. Baseball brings families together and nothing in the world beats a trip to the ball park to catch a game with your old man. But baseball is one of several sports that the Brennan family endures throughout Christine’s childhood. Tennis, swimming, golf, football, and basketball consumed much of their daily lives and it appeared that the father, Jim, was merely along for the ride for it seemed that he was not the one doing the pushing.

On a personal note, Brennan’s account of the University of Toledo’s Chuck Ealey’s thirty-five consecutive victories and Steve Mix’s stellar basketball career were nearly tear-jerking. As a Toledo alum and fan, it was about time that both of these remarkable men receive some extra attention for their amazing feats as collegiate athletes. From a university which sees very few of their athletes go on to the professional level, the celebration of perhaps their best two athletes in a nationally acclaimed book puts the icing on the cake.

Brennan admits that the idea to be a sports journalist began at those Toledo football games where Ealey and his teammates rang up win after win. Indeed, watching Chuck Ealey on a weekly basis from 1969-1971 must have been a privilege, an honor, and certainly a launching point for a prospective sports writer. From there Brennan begins the formal training as a journalist at the campus of Northwestern University, and with the summer internships at the Toledo Blade. Northwestern’s journalism program was one of the best in the country, and alums Peter McCleery, Brennan, and Michael Wilbon backed up that recognition.

But Brennan’s story of becoming a sports journalist is just a fraction of the larger picture. Title IX, the law that essentially gave women an opportunity to play competitive sports, is mentioned throughout the book. However, Brennan’s argument on Title IX is not necessarily a cry for women to take over these heavily male-influenced games. Rather, it is advocating for equal opportunity. As evident in her debates with the controversial Hootie Johnson of Augusta National, Brennan refuses to back down to the opposite sex, and chooses to stand up for women’s rights. After all, to get to her position in her field, Brennan has always had to fight an uphill battle. Hopefully this serves as a message to young women seeking a career in sports that even though the trail may be bumpy along the way, the end result is certainly attainable.

Best Seat in the House: A Father, a Daughter, a Journey Through Sports Overview

From the best-known and most widely read woman sports columnist in the United States comes a remarkable memoir of a father and a daughter, the story of a girl who would turn her love for sports into a trailblazing career.

Christine Brennan grew up in Toledo, Ohio, spending her summers playing with the boys on her block, memorizing baseball statistics, accompanying her dad to countless baseball and football games, and falling in love with everything about sports. While other girls were playing with Barbie dolls, Chris was collecting baseball cards and listening to the radio for the play-by-play accounts of her favorite teams.

The eldest of four children, Chris was her father’s daughter from the beginning. For a girl growing up in the 1960s and ’70s, in the days before Title IX changed the playing fields of America, there were few opportunities to play organized sports. But Jim Brennan encouraged his daughter to believe she could play anything she wanted to, and when she couldn’t be on the field, he was by her side in the stands — she always thought the seat next to her father was the best seat in the house — usually cheering for the underdog, and making sure Chris knew there was a place for her in the world of sports.

In her warm and inspiring memoir, the first of its kind by a female sports journalist, Brennan takes readers from her neighborhood ball fields to the press boxes and locker rooms of stadiums around the world. Guided by her father’s unfailing sense of loyalty, honor, and fairness, at the age of twenty-two she became the first female sportswriter for The Miami Herald, and in 1985 was the first woman to cover the Washington Redskins as a staff writer for The Washington Post.

Over the past quarter century, Brennan has reported on many of the biggest stories in sports, and led the coverage of both the 1994 Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan saga and the pairs figure-skating scandal at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics. Her USA Today column on Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters, triggered a nationwide debate about the club’s lack of female members.

Told in the spirited, friendly voice that readers of her column have come to love, Best Seat in the House is the heartwarming chronicle of a girl who came of age as women’s sports were coming of age, encouraged every step of the way by her beloved father.

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