BRUNCH with Howden Ganley part two
“Bruce McLaren called to say he wanted to test me and [Swede] Reine Wisell; Lotus asked me to test their F3 [Formula 3] car; Chevron made contact; and Jochen Rindt called to imply that if I took the Lotus drive, I would almost certainly end up in their F2 [Formula 2] team. The McLaren test went quite well; I was pleasantly surprised at how well an F1 [Formula 1] car handled and how smooth the [Cosworth] DFV was,” Howden tells me.
“Unfortunately the oil-pressure light came on during my final run and I thought another chance had slipped away but Bruce was positive. A few days later he told me that he planned to retire at the end of 1970 and that he wanted me to be his protégé. It was also obvious he wanted me to do a season of Formula 5000 [F5000]. I wasn’t sure about this at first because F2 seemed to be the logical path but I worked on the basis that ‘If Bruce says it’s the right thing to do, then it is the right thing to do.’”
Bruce’s neighbour Barry Newman had a passion for motor racing and he became Howden’s patron. A McLaren M10B was prepared and finished in dark green with a silver stripe as a works entry but first there was an offer to test another Grand Prix (GP) car.
“March were entering F1 and I was asked to run their brand-new car,” Howden recalls. “Bruce didn’t mind and so I got further mileage with genuine
