for Masters races

A very famous McLaren M23 Grand Prix car is returning to Europe this summer to race in Grand Prix Masters events, starting on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit on 25/26 May.

Now owned and raced by New Zealander Phil Mauger, the M23 was raced in 18 Grands Prix by Denis Hulme and Mike Hailwood during 1973 and 1974 and Hulme took it to victory in the 1973 Swedish Grand Prix.

Hulme, the 1967 World Champion, ended his Formula 1 career at the close of the 1974 season and was given the M23 as a gift from the McLaren team to mark the close of a decade of Grand Prix racing. In that time, he started 112 F1 races and won eight of them.

The McLaren then remained in the ownership of the Hulme family after his death in 1992. More recently, it was acquired and totally rebuilt by New Zealander Mauger, and he has raced it a number of times in Australia and New Zealand over the last two seasons.

The McLaren is not thought to have raced in Europe since the summer of 1974, but is now returning for Mauger to race it at Brands Hatch in the Masters Racing Festival. It is hoped that the M23 will contest other Grand Prix Masters races during the summer months and is expected at the new Anderstorp event in June.