Briefly in New Zealand on show at the Lady Wigram Trophy weekend in Christchurch and to be demonstrated at the NZ Festival of Motor Racing held at the end of January 2010 is the 1972 McLaren M16B which was driven by Peter Revson at the 1972 Indianapolis 500. The car was a development of the M16A which Peter Revson put on pole in 1971. Owned by Australian F5000 driver Aaron Lewis, the car is a unique part of both the McLaren and Indianapolis history.
Lewis explains why, “This is the first year of free standing rear wings at Indy, and the qualifying speeds went up 17 mph (average speed per lap; Lap = 2.5 miles). Previously the concept was that 178mph (average speed per lap) was as high as it would go. However this particularly year the speeds leaped up well into the 190s mph.”
“The jump was so sudden that they went to regulate the rear wing in order to control the top speeds.”
Mark Donahue won in another McLaren M16B while Revson finished 31st after qualifying on the front row of the grid.
Interestingly Revson’s McLaren was used at Indy up until 1981 with John Martin attempting to qualify. Belween 1972 and 1981 there were a number of developments, particularly with turbos, different wing designs and later the use of ground effects.
Free boost on the turbo was allowed for a number of years and they were pulling 800-900 horse power. Lewis believes that a key reason for Donahue winning in 1972 was the size of his turbo, “He used a smaller turbo that lasted the 500 miles, while others may have been faster their larger turbo’s weren’t reliable and didn’t last the distance.”
Lewis has owned the car for several years, along with the 1973 STP Eagle that Graham McRae raced the following year at the 500, winning rookie of the year. "I’ve had the car for a couple of years but haven’t driven it. Hopefully we’ll fire it up at Hampton Downs although it is only set up for ovals. I purchased it because of the its history. This was a period when McLaren were successful at both Indy and Can Am racing and from there they translated it into F1 and proved successful there. "
