Brendon Hartley will honour two of New Zealand’s greatest motorsport legends when he takes to the track for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France this weekend.
The Palmerston North driver has had a helmet specially designed to mark the 50-year anniversary of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon’s victory in the prestigious race in 1966.
The helmet features pictures of the duo on the top and is coloured to match the helmets they wore in the race.
“Chris Amon and Bruce McLaren will always be New Zealand motorsport heroes,” Hartley said on his Facebook page.
“This weekend marks 50 years since they won the big race and started the history book for Kiwis at Le Mans. I have been lucky enough to swap Le Mans war stories with Chris, but unfortunately Bruce passed away before my time.
“I was honoured that Bruce’s family and Chris were happy for me to pay tribute to their famous victory on my 2016 Le Mans helmet. The red and blue stripes represent Chris’ helmet, and the Grey background Bruce’s.”
Both Amon and McLaren also drove in the F1.
McLaren died aged 32 during a crash in a race in England in 1970.
McLaren and Amon remain the only all-Kiwi combination to win the race.
New Zealand’s only other win came last year with Wanganui’s Earl Bamber.
Bamber, driving with England’s Nick Tandy and Germany’s Nico Hulkenberg, completed 395 laps (5383.46km), the second most in the race’s history.
Hartley was second last year with regular co-drivers Mark Webber (Australia) and Timo Bernhard (Germany).
The trio won the 2015 World Endurance Championship.
Le Mans is the feature race and only 24-hour race in the 2016 series. It is worth double points in the WEC.
Hartley, Webber and Bernhard have had a tough start to their 2016 campaign, but have looked to be the fastest car when they are on the track.
Hartley crashed while leading the series opener at Silverstone, while they were forced to finish early in the second race at Spa-Francorchamps due to a series of mechanical issues.
Bamber, who also races for Porsche, will not get a chance to defend his LMP1 Le Mans title after Porsche decided to focus its attention on its top two cars.
But he will race alongside Frederic Makoweicki and Jorg Bergmeister in the LM GTE Pro class.
There are some familiar faces in that category with Kiwi IndyCar driver Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing) and Richie Stanaway (Aston Martin) also racing.
