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Frank Matich during the LA Times GP, Riverside Can-Am round on October 29, 1967.

He qualified the 4.4-litre tiddly Matich SR3 Repco-Brabham V8 20th but crashed out of the event won by Bruce McLaren’s 5.7-litre McLaren M6A Chev after completing only 30 of the 62 lap, 200 mile journey.

See here for the SR3: https://primotipo.com/2023/04/02/matich-sr3/ and here for the M6A: https://primotipo.com/2017/12/26/gary-knutson-lotus-11-and-mclaren-engines/

FM is one of my obsessions, every now and then I Google ‘Frank Matich, United States’ to see what pops up. This time, Pete Biro’s shot did, then you Google the bloke you’ve heard of but know nothing about…

Biro – June 1, 1933-December 26, 2018 – was a semi-pro stage and close-up magician and photo-journalist/author who got his start when Road & Track engaged him to do a story about the Barneson Special, then David E Davis discovered him and gave him assignments for Car and Driver.

He and Davis travelled the world, along the way Biro was commissioned by Goodyear, Sports Illustrated, Time, Life and many others. Of course many of his subjects became friends, including Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme, Jackie Stewart, AJ Foyt, Richard Petty and many others. See here: https://youtu.be/uNEHyexrC_I?si=NpbKvFdyur4LArfB

Jim Clark, Lotus 38 Ford, Indianapolis 1966.

The Great Scot started from the middle of the front row and may well have won the race…but he was second behind, perhaps, Graham Hill’s Lola T90 Ford.

See here for the Lola T90: https://primotipo.com/2015/06/12/graham-hills-american-red-ball-spl-lola-t90-ford-indy-winner-1966-2/ and here for the Lotus 38: https://primotipo.com/2021/11/20/dans-lotus/

Jim Hall enquires of Vic Elford, ‘Hows it going out there?’ With the legendary – still as innovative as tomorrow – sucker – Chaparral 2J Chev in 1970.

Interviewed by George Levy, Vic Elford remembered that ‘My first impression was, I don’t really see it as very quick, because it just sort of goes around corners. But then of course it got down to analysing it, we found it was going around corners about 12 or 15% quicker than anything else would.’

See here: https://primotipo.com/2022/09/17/chaparral-2j-chev/

‘The 2-litre Class’ during the 1966 US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen on October 6.

Peter Arundell’s Lotus 33 Climax FWMV V8, Mike Spence, Lotus 25 BRM perhaps, then maybe the fast approaching Jochen Rindt’s Cooper T81 Maserati. Who knows?

Up front, the heavyweight 3-litre Division is being won, surprisingly, by the top-weight Lotus 43 BRM H16 with Jim Clark at the wheel. See here: https://primotipo.com/2015/02/17/jim-clark-taking-a-deep-breath-lotus-43-brm/

Dan Gurney, McLaren M8D Chev, Mont Tremblant, St Jovite June 28, 1970.

Who better to help McLaren recover after the loss of Bruce at Goodwood in 1970?

It was all looking good for a while, until competing oil sponsors – Gulf and Castrol – got in the way. Understandable I guess. Dan won the season opener at Mosport and then St Jovite in June, then had dramas at Watkins Glen in mid-July that saw him finish sixth from grid 2.

And then it was all over, Peter Gethin was in the box-seat and got the drive, see here: https://primotipo.com/2014/08/01/peter-gethin-mclaren-m8d-chev-can-am-1970/comment-page-1/

Bruce McLaren gulps a fresh breath of air at Riverside during the 1960 US GP, he was third in his Cooper T53 Climax behind the Lotus 18s of Stirling Moss and Innes Ireland.

See here: https://primotipo.com/2024/08/14/1960-portuguese-grand-prix/

Biro about to have the colour of his jocks changed by five laps alongside Jackie Oliver in a Can-Am Shadow DN4 Chev around Laguna Seca in 1973-74, see here: https://primotipo.com/2017/02/11/delicate-touch/

Credits…

Pete Biro

Finito…