Jim Hall

Racing is a lot more fun when you're a direct participant, and for me it was a lot more fun when I was driving. The one race I remember best was when I was actually driving, so that's a long time ago. That race, at Mosport in 1965, could be considered the race of my life.

The year before, I had crashed there and broken my arm. Fortunately it was one of the late-season races, in the autumn, so it didn't affect me very much.

I was forced to miss a couple of races, but I was ready to go again by Sebring in '65; then we ran the USRRC (United States Road Racing Championship) in which our Chaparral 2 was pretty much dominant. We had some good racing, and when we got to the end of the year, again at Mosport, in Canada, I was really looking forward to running against the guys that came over from Europe.

I love Mosport. I think there and Laguna Seca, at that time, were two of the best race tracks we had in North America, because they had some high-speed stuff and some corners you really had to think about.

For instance, at Mosport, I think it's Turn 4, over the hill and left, downhill, you pretty well have to commit yourself to that turn before you see it - and it's very, very fast with quite a bit of elevation change, so the car loses grip at one point. You've gotta be ready for that. It really is a good test of car and driver.

Unfortunately the race didn't start too well for me. I blew an engine in qualifying, so I didn't get to set a time. The organisers put me not right at the back of the grid, but behind all the quick cars, and let me start there.

Bruce McLaren was the quickest guy. When I went to Europe in '63, to drive Formula 1, Bruce was one of the only people that I knew a little bit, and he kind of took me under his wing. He was number one for Cooper and I was number two for BRP, and he showed me the ropes and how to get around. We drove all over Europe together in a caravan - he and Tony Maggs and I.

It was a good year. I always admired Bruce and considered him to be my good friend, even though we were competitors - quite serious competitors in fact. It was a little different time in racing back then, when you had some friendships that transcended the competition.

We saw each other quite a bit off the track. Of course, that was before we really got to going head-to-head in the Can-Am. Once you do that, and things get a bit more intense, you tend to stay a bit separated, so you don't go to dinner as much or any of that kind of thing.

Anyway, Bruce and I were able to run about the same lap times, although, in the race, I had to work my way through traffic before I could challenge him.

It was a 200-mile race, and it took a long time to get past the other 20 cars. I think about half the race was over before I was able to get clear of the traffic, and by that time he had a big lead.

Then I just drove every lap like it was a qualifying lap, to try to cut down on Bruce's lead. Finally I made it up to him about, I'd say, 10 laps from the end, and I thought, boy, it's gonna be a bear to get by him!

At that point I found that I was able to turn faster laps than I'd ever qualified at Mosport. The old lap record, if I remember right, was 1m27.9s, and both of us started turning times in the low 1m25s. It was quite a race. But the problem was, every time I'd turn a new lap record, Bruce would return with another one that was faster still!

We traded times for a while, and by the time I got right up behind him I was so in tune with the whole thing it was just like he wasn't even there! You know, I could pick whichever side I wanted and I'd go by... and then he'd get me back again on the straight.

Eventually I turned in a new record at 1m24.9s - it was a long way below the old record - and finally I got enough on him that he couldn't get back any more, and I ended up beating him in the last two laps.

It was a fantastic race.