July 1969; Watkins Glen; CanAm; "The 90"

Comment

Comment by Rand Miller on April 22, 2009 at 11:35am

A beautiful photo! Bruce was worried about the Ferrari 612 since he had seen its acceleration at the 68 Stardust Las Vegas CanAm and knew it had some potential. So, instead of playing around as they had at St. Jovite, Bruce and Denny put the "pedal to the metal" and took off. Chris Amon was and is a phenomenal driver, and he thought the 612 might have handled a bit better than the M8B (he drove M8B/3 at Laguna Seca), but I would have to differ. I saw Bruce clinch the 69 championship in Texas, and that car was a demon in sharp turn and in the Texas infield, Bruce had no trouble holding off the Ferrari.

Comment by Andrew S. Hartwell on April 21, 2009 at 9:01pm

I remember being along the fence that day. Everytime Surtees went by I gave a huge enthusiastic wave. One lap, it may have been during a caution, he waved back!

Too bad Jim Hall had to buy the M12 because John didn't want to drive the 2H. He felt he was sitting too low in the car limiting his visibility. Jim never really got the car sorted out. After all, it's hard to do test laps with a driver who would rather not be in the car!