Tuesday, 2 June 1970 should have been like any other day; it was warm and sunny outside, a little girl played happily while her mother made plans for the evening. Her father had left home for work early but would be returning early too, allowing time to change before all three travelled to a friends’ house for dinner: the phone call that followed changed everything.
Amanda McLaren was just four years old when her father Bruce died in a testing accident at Goodwood. She remembers very little of that day, other than leaving the family’s Burwood Park home to still visit friends (as had been planned), and being given a new doll set, which surprised her, since it was neither her birthday, nor Christmas.
Now, more than 50 years on, she’s happily settled in New Zealand with husband Stephen, and busy representing the brand (as an ambassador) that her father started, together with keeping his legacy alive with work through the Bruce McLaren Trust, of which both she and Stephen are trustees.
“I was shielded from the events
