1967 was the second year of the Sports Car Club of Americas new Canadian-American Challenge Cup for big bore sports cars. The series found immediate success with the SCCA offering lucrative prize money that guaranteed big name stars and full factory participation.

There were 6 rounds in the 1966 season, and seven races, with the Laguna Seca round being split into two heats. Of those seven races, a Lola T70 reached the finish line first on six occasions, with Phil Hill taking Chaparrals one and only Can-Am victory in heat one at Laguna Seca. Lola works driver John Surtees won the ’66 Can-Am Championship, claiming three race victories along the way. Dan Gurney Lola/Ford, Mark Donohue Lola/Chevrolet, and Parnelli Jones Lola/Chevrolet were the other race winners.

Due to its overwhelming success during 1966, Lola was flooded with orders, and the ’67 season saw the T70 being the weapon of choice for most teams. McLaren, by comparison, had been less successful, even though the works M1Bs of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon finished inside the top three at several events, and McLaren himself finished 3rd in the championship.

For 1967, most of the championship favourites were once again armed with Lola T70s, including Surtees, Jones, Donohue, Gurney, George Follmer, who would be driving a second Penske car, and Peter Revson. Jim Hall returned, this time with just a single high-winged big block Chaparral 2G, while Ford announced they would enter the Can-Am with a twin-pronged factory effort that included a Shelby American King Cobra, and Hollman-Moody Ford Honker.

However, the McLaren team arrived at round 1 of the ’67 championship, at Road America, best prepared, with their new M6A. The new McLaren featured a wedge-shaped body, and fuel-injected small block Chevy fitted into a rigid magnesium/aluminium riveted and bonded box chassis. And best of all, the McLaren had several months extensive testing under its belt, and was both fast and reliable by the time the new season arrived.

The sheer pace of the new McLarens shocked everyone at Road America, and those chasing the orange machines knew they were in for a long season. And so it proved, Bruce McLaren took two race victories, and two runner-up positions behind team mate Hulme over the six races to be crowned champion. Hulme won three times, and finished second in the championship. Surtees, having played catch-up all season in the works Lola, won the final race, after most of his rivals dropped out.

Like Lola, McLaren made a good portion of its income through selling chassis’ to customers, and success in the 1967 Can-Am set the still young company up for the future.

Here is that opening Can-Am race at Road America.