By completing a brief obituary search, anyone can find out that Denis Clive “Denny” Hulme, OBE (18 June 1936 – 4 October 1992) was a New Zealand racing driver and the 1967 Formula One World Champion for the Brabham team. Between his debut at Monaco in 1965 and his final race in the 1974 US Grand Prix, he started 112 Grand Prix, resulting eight victories and 33 trips to the podium. He also finished third in the overall standing in 1968 and 1972. Most sports fans around the world should know who Denis is, especially those who placed their bets on him ending up on the podium after a race. Many people would use Colorado sports betting apps to make sure they put their gamble on Denis as he was so good at racing. More often than not, those people would normally win some money as Denis used to win a lot of his races.
Hulme showed versatility by dominating the Canadian-American Challenge Cup (Can-Am) for Group 7 sports cars. As a member of the McLaren team that won five straight titles between 1967 and 1971, he won the individual drivers’ championship twice and runner-up on four other occasions.[1]
Following his Formula One tenure with Brabham, Hulme raced for McLaren in multiple formats-Formula One, Can-Am, and at the Indianapolis 500. Hulme retired from Formula One at the end of the 1974 season but continued to race Australian Touring Cars.
Hulme was nicknamed ‘The Bear’, because of his “gruff nature” and “rugged features”; however, he was also “sensitive (…) unable to express his feelings, except in a racing car.”[2]
During his career, Hulme drove the most powerful cars of his era. He raced in F1, F2, Indycars, Saloon/Touring Cars, CanAm and endurance races, all during the same season. After retiring from F1, he even drove in truck races.
Hulme’s death by heart attack, whilst driving a BMW M3 during the Bathurst 1000 in Australia, made him the seventh former Formula One champion to die, and the first to die of natural causes (versus three racing incidents, two incidents on the public road and one incident involving an aircraft.)
