1970 Can-Am season explained

The 1970 Canadian-American Challenge Cup was the fifth season of the Can-Am auto racing series. It consisted of FIA Group 7 racing cars running two-hour sprint events. It began June 14, 1970, and ended November 1, 1970, after ten rounds.

The 1970 season began only a few days after the death of defending champion Bruce McLaren. McLaren had been testing the new M8D for his Can-Am team when he was killed. Denny Hulme was joined by friend Dan Gurney in the second McLaren, but he was replaced by Peter Gethin following sponsorship conflicts. The team overcame the loss of their leader to win nine of ten races during the 1970 season.

Schedule

Rnd	Race	Circuit	Date
1	Labatt's Blue Trophy	Mosport Park	June 14
2	Mont-Tremblant 50	Circuit Mont-Tremblant	June 28
3	Watkins Glen Can-Am	Watkins Glen International	July 12
4	Klondike Trail 200	Edmonton Speedway Park	July 26
5	Buckeye Can-Am	Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course	August 23
6	Road America Can-Am	Road America	August 30
7	Road Atlanta Can-Am	Road Atlanta	September 13
8	Minneapolis Tribune Grand Prix	Donnybrooke International Raceway	September 27
9	Monterey Castrol Grand Prix	Laguna Seca Raceway	October 18
10	Los Angeles Times Grand Prix	Riverside International Raceway	November 1

Season results

Rnd	Circuit	Winning Team	Results
		Winning Driver
1	Mosport	#48 McLaren Cars	Results
		Dan Gurney
2	Mont-Tremblant	#48 Bruce McLaren Motor Racing	Results
		Dan Gurney
3	Watkins Glen	#5 Bruce McLaren Motor Racing	Results
		Denny Hulme
4	Edmonton	#5 Bruce McLaren Motor Racing	Results
		Denny Hulme
5	Mid-Ohio	#5 Bruce McLaren Motor Racing	Results
		Denny Hulme
6	Road America	#7 Bruce McLaren Motor Racing	Results
		Peter Gethin
7	Road Atlanta	#8 A.G. Dean Ltd.	Results
		Tony Dean
8	Donnybrooke	#5 Bruce McLaren Motor Racing	Results
		Denny Hulme
9	Laguna Seca	#5 Bruce McLaren Motor Racing	Results
		Denny Hulme
10	Riverside	#5 Bruce McLaren Motor Racing	Results
		Denny Hulme

Drivers Championship

Points are awarded to the top ten finishers in the order of 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-3-2-1. Only the best seven finishes out of ten rounds counted towards the championship. Points earned but not counting towards the championship are marked by parenthesis.

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Engine	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Rd 7	Rd 8	Rd 9	Rd10	Total
1	Denny Hulme	Bruce McLaren Racing	McLaren M8D	Chevrolet	12		20	20	20			20	20	20	132
2	Lothar Motschenbacher	Motschenbacher Racing	McLaren M8B McLaren M12 McLaren M8C	Chevrolet		15		12	12		12	6		8	65
3	Peter Gethin	Bruce McLaren Racing	McLaren M8B	Chevrolet				12	2	20	4	15			56
4	Dave Causey	Dave Causey	Lola T163	Chevrolet	4	2		8		12	15	3	(2)	3	47
5	Jackie Oliver	Autocoast Titanium Racing	Autocoast Ti22	Chevrolet	15								15	15	45
6	Tony Dean	A.G. Dean Ltd.	Porsche 908/02	Porsche	10					8	20	4		2	44
7	Dan Gurney	Bruce McLaren Racing	McLaren M8D	Chevrolet	20	20	2								42
8	Peter Revson	Carl Haas Racing	Lola T220	Chevrolet					15			12	12		39
9	Bobby Brown	Bob Brown Racing Eno de Pasquale	McLaren M6B Lola T163	Chevrolet		10	3	10		6				6	35
10	Roger McCaig	Roger McCaig	McLaren M8C	Chevrolet	8	8		3	6		8			1	34
11	Chris Amon	March Engineering	March 707	Chevrolet								8	10	10	28
12	Gary Wilson	Gary Wilson	Lola T163	Chevrolet				6	8	10			3		27
13	Pedro Rodríguez	J.W. Automotive North American Racing Team Castrol Team BRM	Porsche 917K Ferrari 512S BRM P154	Porsche Ferrari Chevrolet								2	8	12	26
14	Chuck Parsons	Chuck Parsons	Lola T160/3	Chevrolet		3			10				6		19
15=	Vic Elford	Porsche-Audi USA Advanced Vehicle Systems Vic Nelli Chaparral Cars Inc. Frank Kahlich Agapiou Brothers Racing	Porsche 917K AVS Shadow Lola T70 Mk.3 Chaparral 2J McLaren M6B Ford G7A	Porsche Chevrolet Chevrolet Chevrolet Ford Ford			10				6				16
15=	Oscar Koveleski	Oscar Koveleski	McLaren M8B	Chevrolet		6					10				16
17=	Jo Siffert	J.W. Automotive	Porsche 917K	Porsche			15								15
17=	Bob Bondurant	Smith-Oeser Racing	Lola T160	Chevrolet						15					15
19	Jim Adams	Earle-Cord Racing	Ferrari 512S Ferrari 512S	Ferrari				4				10			14
20=	George Eaton	Castrol Team BRM	BRM P154	Chevrolet		12									12
20=	Richard Attwood	Porsche-Audi USA	Porsche 917K	Porsche			12								12
22	Dick Durant	Dick Durant	Lola T163	Chevrolet	3				4	2	3				12
23	Mario Andretti	SpA Ferrari SEFAC	Ferrari 712P	Ferrari			8								8
24	Tony Adamowicz	Vic Nelli Motschenbacher Racing	Lola T70 Mk.3 McLaren M12	Chevrolet									4	4	8
25=	Gordon Dewar	Gordon Dewar	McLaren M6B	Chevrolet	6										6
25=	Gijs van Lennep	Martini Racing	Porsche 917K	Porsche			6								6
27	Graeme Lawrence	Canadian Can-Am Racing	McLaren M12	Chevrolet						3	2		1		6
28	Brian Redman	J.W. Automotive	Porsche 917K	Porsche			4								4
29=	Brooke Doran	Marshall Brooke Doran	Lola T163	Chevrolet	2										2
29=	Leonard Janke	Janke Auto Inc.	McLaren M1C	Chevrolet				2							2
31=	Rainer Brezinka	Rainer Brezinka	McLaren M1C	Chevrolet	1										1
31=	Cliff Apel	Cliff Apel	McLaren M6B	Chevrolet		1									1
31=	Gérard Larrousse	Martini Racing	Porsche 908/02	Porsche			1								1
31=	Chuck Frederick	C.E. Frederick	McKee Mk.6B	Oldsmobile				1							1
31=	Bob Nagel	Bob Nagel	Lola T70 Mk.3	Ford					1						1
31=	Ron Goldleaf	Ron Goldleaf	McLaren M6B	Chevrolet						1					1
31=	George Drolsom	George Drolsom	Lola T70 Mk.3	Chevrolet							1				1
31=	Peter Gregg	Peter Gregg	Lola T165	Chevrolet								1			1

References

• Web site: Canadian-American Challenge Cup 1970 . World Sports Racing Prototypes . 2 October 2005 . 2008-01-17 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130929153052/http://wsrp.ic.cz/canam1970.html . September 29, 2013 .
• Web site: Can-Am - final positions and tables . World Sports Racing Prototypes . 2 October 2005 . 2008-01-17 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080531191220/http://wsrp.ic.cz/tablecanam.html . May 31, 2008 .