1969-1971 — Edmonton International Speedway — 2016 will be the 50th anniversary of the legendary Can-Am sports car racing series and I was lucky enough to photograph four of these races while working for the Edmonton Journal. Most of the negatives from those races remain lost in the Edmonton Journal’s files but a few I had the foresight to take with me when I left for Vancouver and they are in the gallery below.
For a while the Can-Am series was called the Bruce and Denny show with McLarens making up most of the field and either Bruce McLaren or Denny Hulme winning the races driving the factory cars. Then Bruce was killed in 1970 while testing in England. Denny continued winning the Edmonton races, and the championships, until 1972 when Porsche and the Chaparral sucker car came along. A complete history of the McLaren team in Can-Am is HERE.
There were a number of Canadians in the series. George Eaton and John Cannon were the most successful with Cannon amazingly winning a rain soaked race at Laguna Seca. John Cordts, Roger McCaig, and Kris Harrison, were regulars and even an old school mate of mine, Mike Barbour in his Rattenbury MK4B made a few races.
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