TMP, the company that owns and operates the international motorsport park at Taupo, say it is to be renamed the Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park.
The motorsport park’s future was re-assured following a financial and management re-structure in mid-2015 that kept the ownership of the park in local hands with a new board and management.
TMP have concluded arrangements with Patricia and Amanda McLaren, widow and daughter of the late Bruce McLaren for this to happen.
McLaren, a New Zealand race-car designer, driver and engineer was a winner of four World Championship Formula 1 Grands Prix.
He also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966 alongside fellow Kiwi, now Taupo resident, Chris Amon, and the Can-Am Challenge Cup.
McLaren was the first driver to win the Tasman Cup in 1964 against the likes of the late Sir Jack Brabham, the late Graham Hill, and his long-time NZ teammate, the late Denny Hulme.
He died tragically at Goodwood Circuit in England in June 1970 while testing one of his cars.
However, having founded Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Limited in 1963 his name lives on in the McLaren Technology Group, which includes McLaren Racing and the sports car business, McLaren Automotive.
Amanda McLaren, who with her mother Patricia is the heiress and owner of Bruce McLaren’s name and image, is delighted her late father’s name is linking to a New Zealand motorsport facility.
“This is just such a wonderful tribute to a late husband and father, and we are so looking forward to seeing the plans the park has for the future,” she says.
“A motorsport recognition such as this in my father’s home country has been a long time coming,” she adds.
“The TMP Board is delighted that Patricia and Amanda have given their recognition to the Taupo circuit, the only FIA Grade Two track in New Zealand and an important part of the local racing scene,” says TMP Chairman Richard Izard, CNZM, OBE.
Izard himself was a sponsored driver for the Standard-Triumph factory the early 1960s. This included him competing in rounds of the FIA GT Cup, a championship contested from 1961 onwards by Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme at tracks including the Nürburgring and Le Mans.
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