Photos: The Jerry Bendl Collection

[Steve Holmes]

Not the prettiest rear end of all time. The stubby little Porsche 917/10 owned by Porsche dealer Vasek Polak, and driven by Milt Minter, with its awkward alloy mud-flaps. Surrounding Minter on the grid are the #55 McLaren M8E of Roger McCaig, who has Japanese driver Hirosho Kazato's Lola T222 directly in front of him, while the Chuck Parsons McLaren M8E/D is ahead of Kazato. Bob Browns McLaren M8E is parked up ahead of the Minter Porsche.

The Kazato Lola was a 1971 customer car, based on the Lola T220 run in 1970 by the Carl Haas team, who were the US Lola agents. The Haas team, who were running the latest Lola T260 in 1971, driven by Jackie Stewart, also race prepared the Kazato customer T222.

[Steve Holmes]

Jo Siffert chats and enjoys a hot drink while his Porsche, which has drawn quite a crowd, gets some attention.

[Rod Grimwood]

Think it is a air hose. Note left front wheel off, and Denny is holding off the windscreen.

[bry3500]

One of the cars that practiced but failed to make the race - The Moore Mk11.

[Steve Holmes]

Wow! Amazing! Do you have more info Bry? What was it powered by?

[Steve Holmes]

Rear end of the Shadow MkII

[bry3500]

Wow! Amazing! Do you have more info Bry? What was it powered by?

I found this description Steve
This was a CanAm special built by Rick Moore of Maple Ridge Canada. Powered by a small block chevy through Hewland transaxle, it ran CanAm races at tracks such as Edmonton International Raceway and Westwood. Also competed in several sports car races in the pacific northwest including Westwood where it ran 206mph on the straight. Chassis is tube frame. Body is hand formed aluminum.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Bry. Nice looking car. Looks like a typical mid/late '60s type car. Nice that its survived.

[Steve Holmes]

Stirling, again.

[Steve Holmes]

Siffert readies himself for battle. Looks like he is inserting his ear plugs.

[Steve Holmes]

Last one from 1971, Stewart gets set to hit the track in the Lola.

[Steve Holmes]

The beginning of the end. I always find images from the Can-Am Championship from 1973 and 1974 just don't look right, because there are no factory McLaren's on the grid. From 1967, right through until the end of 1971, there were always two orange factory McLaren's at or near the front of the grid, in every race, and to see a Can-Am field without them just doesn't look right. They were part of the Can-Am scenery.

But by the same token, many Can-Am photos from 1972 also looked wrong, in that on only one occasion, at Watkins Glen, was the front row locked out by both McLaren's. In previous years, it was rare for pole position not to have been taken by a McLaren, but in 1972, the incredible Porsche 917/10K arrived, and the Can-Am would never be the same again.

The 917/10K was a combined effort between Porsche and Penske Racing, and Penske driver/developer/engineer Mark Donohue spent months and months in Germany, developing and fine-tuning the package, and commuting back home for his racing commitments.

The Porsche was the best car in the 1972 Can-Am. Mark Donohue should have been the 1972 Can-Am Champion. He stuck the car on pole at the opening round at Mosport, but finished second to Hulme after pitting with a sticking linkage that operated a valve in the inlet manifold. However, following Mosport, the team took the car testing at Road Atlanta, and during a high speed run, the entire rear body section lifted off the Porsche, which launched it into a series of cart-wheels, destroying the car and badly smashing Donohue's leg.

Donohue was out of action for several weeks while he recovered, so the team called on the services of George Follmer, who drove the spare car from Round 2, and winning the race. He also won Rounds 4 and 5, and was well on the way to winning the title. Donohue finally returned for Round 6 at Donnybrook, the team building another car, and he and Follmer locked out the front row, as they also did here at Edmonton, Round 7 of the '72 Championship. Donohue went on to win this race, and actually finished 3rd in the championship, behind Follmer and Hulme, despite missing four races.

[Jerry Entin]

The guy in the hat and Red Poncho is Carl Haas. He was the US Distributor for Lola Cars and Hewland Gearboxes and the owner of the car Jackie Stewart was driving.

The guy with the glasses on the side of the picture of Jackie in the Lola is Ike Smith a crew member.

[GD66]

Thanks, Jerry. Now that I look again, and visualise a cigar in his mouth, it's quite obvious....

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Jerry, great info!

[Steve Holmes]

Finally, I've not been around much lately so several of these photo collections cut put on pause, halfway through. Continuing on from the image posted above of the two Penske Porsche's on the front row in the Edmonton 1972 Can-Am race, here was the slightly unfamiliar sight of the two team McLaren cars on the second row, and here purely because they didn't quite posses the speed of the Porsche's. Hulme is nearest camera, Revson alongside.

In behind Hulme is French F1 racing star Francois Cevert, driving the ex-Revson factory M8F from 1971 which won the championship. Cevert ran a limited campaign, but was a welcome addition to the series. He even managed to qualify and finish an impressive 2nd earlier in the year at Elkhart Lake. But the huge performance leaps taken each year in the Can-Am by the top teams showed here at Edmonton that even with having Cevert in last years championship winning car, 5th was the best that could be hoped for.

[Jerry Entin]

Steve: You are slightly wrong on Cevert's performance. He won the CanAm in 1972 at Donneybrooke, Minnesota and his team mate Greg Young finished 2nd that year at Road Atlanta. The team was called young American Racing and was owned by Greg Young's mother. The mechanics were Skinner and Jobe and the team manager was Lew Spencer.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Jerry, I was really referring to Cevert's performance at Edmonton, as pictured, that behind the two factory Porsche, and factory McLaren's, 5th fastest was the best he could hope for. And while his win at Donnebrook was hugely popular, he won after the two McLaren's had engine failure, Donohue popped a tyre, and Follmer ran out of fuel. He did have to overcome Minter, who'd qualified ahead of him in 5th, but he wasn't in the running for the win at any time until the others struck trouble. Which really underlined how fast paced the development was in the Can-Am, that someone with the skills of Cevert, driving the championship winning car from the previous year, ultimately had to hope the factory teams ran into trouble.

[Jerry Entin]

Steve: You are right of course. McLaren was the car to beat. They didn't sell customers the cars they were using until the next year. They also had engines way better then what the competition had avaliable to them. They also were Formula One drivers, racing what amounted to weekend warriors. The only way to beat them was if they dropped out or had mechanical troubles.

This said the Bruce and Denny show were very nice to all the competitors. They needed the field to have a race. They would help everyone and were liked and respected by all.

[Steve Holmes]

Thats a great point about the Team McLaren engines Jerry, as Cevert was a little slower at most tracks in Revson's old car than Revvie had been the year before. Horsepower must have been one of the contributing factors.