1 CAN-AM THUNDER FORECAST IN WEST SUSSEX
The Canadian-American Challenge Series – known universally as Can-Am – was a no-holds-barred big-buck sportscar championship that reigned from 1966 until 1974. John Surtees won the inaugural title in his Lola T70 Spyder. Four years of McLaren domination followed – poignantly with Bruce McLaren himself and fellow Kiwi Denny Hulme – before Porsche and Shadow prevailed.
Lola T70s pepper Sunday’s Surtees Trophy prototype encounter, but significant later cars are corralled in daily Can-Am demos. The Hepworth team’s thuggish BRM-Chevrolet P154 and P167, Ferrari 712P, Lola T160 and T222, March 717, McLaren M6Bs, M8s and M20, plus a pair of Porsche 917/30s retrace history, but the Shadows will wow onlookers.
Not previously seen together in Britain, Don Nichols’s AVS cars – from the wacky 1969 Mk1s to the ultimate DN4 of 1974 – have been shipped from the US by Jim Bartel and Kirt Bennett to be fielded by Kyle Tilley of ERA Motorsport, based in Indianapolis and Wiltshire. Fifty years after he won the final pukka Can-Am crown, Jackie Oliver drives his DN4, while Tom Kristensen samples its evolution.
