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Denis Clive "Denny" Hulme, (18 June 1936 – 4 October 1992) was a New Zealand racing driver who won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship for the Brabham team. Between his debut at Monaco in 1965 and his final race in the 1974 US Grand Prix, he started 112 Grand Prix, resulting eight victories and 33 trips to the podium. He also finished third in the overall standing in 1968 and 1972. Hulme showed versatility by dominating the Canadian-American Challenge Cup (Can-Am) for Group 7 sports cars. As a member of the McLaren team that won five straight titles between 1967 and 1971, he won the individual drivers’ championship twice and runner-up on four other occasions.〔 Following his Formula One tenure with Brabham, Hulme raced for McLaren in multiple formats—Formula One, Can-Am, and at the Indianapolis 500. Hulme retired from Formula One at the end of the 1974 season but continued to race Australian Touring Cars. Hulme was nicknamed 'The Bear', because of his "gruff nature" and "rugged features"; however, he was also "sensitive (...) unable to express his feelings, except in a racing car." During his career, Hulme drove the most powerful cars of his era. He raced in F1, F2, Indycars, Saloon/Touring Cars, CanAm and endurance races, all during the same season. After retiring from F1, he even drove in truck races. Hulme's death by heart attack, whilst driving a BMW M3 during the Bathurst 1000 in Australia, made him the seventh former Formula One champion to die, and the first to die of natural causes (versus three racing incidents, two incidents on the public road and one incident involving an aircraft.) == Early racing career == He was born and raised on a tobacco farm belonging to his parents in Motueka in the South Island of New Zealand. His father Clive Hulme was awarded a Victoria Cross, as a sniper, while fighting in the Battle of Crete in 1941.〔 Whilst growing up on his family’s farm, Hulme learned to drive a truck while sitting on his father’s lap, and by the age of six, he was driving solo. He left school and went to work in a garage. He saved up enough money to buy an MG TF, promptly entering this in hillclimbing events. After that his father brought a MGA for him. After making impressive progress he purchased a F2 Cooper-Climax, subsequently being chosen for the New Zealand Driver to Europe program, along with fellow Kiwi, George Lawton. The pair of young New Zealander began competing in Formula Junior and Formula Two across Europe, in a Cooper-BMC and Cooper–Ford respectively. Hulme won the 1960 Gran Premio di Pescara for Formula Juniors, but the newspapers back in New Zealand made no mention of this, as they wrote only about Bruce McLaren. However, the year, 1960 ended in disaster, when Lawton crashed during a race at Roskilde (Denmark) dying in Hulme’s arms.〔 As the New Zealand press were ignoring Hulme, he hired a 2½ litre Cooper from Reg Parnell and entered it in the 1961 New Zealand Gold Star Championship. He won the title straight away. He appeared at Le Mans for the Abarth team, taking a class win in S850 the class (partnered by fellow Kiwi Angus Hyslop), before Ken Tyrrell invited the likable (but sometimes gruff) New Zealander to race in his Formula Junior and Formula Two team, in 1962, when Tony Maggs was unavailable due to his Formula One commitments.〔〔〔Maurice Hamilton, “Ken Tyrrell - The Authorised Biography" (CollinsWillow, ISBN 0 00 714376 1, 2002)〕 Once there, basing himself in London, he worked as a mechanic in Jack Brabham's garage in Chessington and began to pave his way on his motor-racing path. It was Brabham who gave him drives in his Brabham sportscars and single seaters. During the 1963 season, he won seven International Formula Junior and after some impressive performances there, it was his old boss Jack Brabham who gave Hulme the call and he joined the Australian legend's F2 team. In 1964, the pair set about dominating the Championship that year, resulting in a one–two finish in the FFSA Trophées de France series. The pair also finished one–two in the 1966 series . During this spell in F2 between 1964-1966, Hulme won a total of three races in the series, plus two non-championship events (the 1964 Grote Prijs van Limborg and the 1965 Spring Trophy). Hulme was rewarded with some non-championship Formula One races.〔〔 Away from single seaters, Hulme also raced the occasional saloon car. In appalling conditions, on 6 July 1963, Hulme won his first major saloon car race. The second Motor-sponsored Six-Hour, a round of the European Touring Car Championship, saw the pre-race favourite, a 7-litre Ford Galaxie driven by Dan Gurney and Jack Brabham flounder in the wet and the Jaguars dominated the race. Hulme would win, partnered by Roy Salvadori, after the winners on the road were disqualified for engine irregularities.〔Peter Swinger, “Motor Racing Circuits in England : Then & Now" (Ian Allan Publishing, ISBN 0 7110 3104 5, 2008)〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Denny Hulme」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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