Denny
Hulme

Denis Clive "Denny" Hulme was born in 1936 in Motueka, on New Zealand's South Island. After leaving school he worked in a garage, bought an MG TF and entered hillclimbs with it. A New Zealand scheme to send drivers abroad took him to Europe, where he raced in Formula Junior and Formula Two. In 1961 he won the New Zealand Gold Star championship. In London he worked as a mechanic in Jack Brabham's garage, won seven international Formula Junior races in 1963 and from 1964 drove in Brabham's Formula Two team.

Hulme made his Formula One debut for Brabham at the 1965 Monaco Grand Prix. He scored his first points that year with fourth place at Clermont-Ferrand. In 1966, his first full season, he finished fourth in the championship, with a third place at Reims and a second at Brands Hatch, while team principal Brabham took the title. In 1967 Hulme won at Monaco and the Nürburgring, added six more podiums and became World Champion by five points from Brabham. He was the first World Champion from New Zealand.

In 1968 he moved to the team of fellow New Zealander Bruce McLaren. He won at Monza and in Canada in his first year there and finished third in the championship. In 1969 he won the season finale in Mexico. Bruce McLaren was killed in 1970 while testing; Hulme carried on, finishing fourth in the championship and third in Mexico. In 1972 he won in South Africa and ended the year third overall. In 1973 he took his only pole position at Kyalami, and he won in Sweden after passing Ronnie Peterson on the penultimate lap. In March 1974 his friend and former team-mate Peter Revson died in a testing accident at Kyalami, and Hulme announced he would stop at the end of the season. He still won in Argentina, finished second in Austria and ended his Formula One career seventh in the standings. From 112 starts he took eight wins and 33 podiums.

Away from Formula One, Hulme raced in the Can-Am series. Together with Bruce McLaren he formed a pairing in the McLaren team that dominated the series. Hulme was Can-Am champion in 1968 and 1970 and won 22 races there, more than any other driver in the series. In 1966 he finished second at Le Mans with Ken Miles in a Ford GT40. He started the Indianapolis 500 in 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1971, finished fourth in both 1967 and 1968, and was named Rookie of the Year in 1967.

After his Formula One career ended he briefly led the Grand Prix Drivers' Association and then went back to New Zealand. He later raced touring cars again, including in Australia, and in 1986 won the RAC Tourist Trophy in the European Touring Car Championship. He died in 1992 during the Bathurst 1000 in Australia, at the wheel of his BMW M3. That year he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, and he was later inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, among other honours.

Source: Wikipedia, “Denny Hulme”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.