Extending sport's archives

Oh that top New Zealand sportspeople could have their careers remembered in such a way as has been seen with the publication of the Bruce McLaren Scrapbook.

McLaren is quite one of the most well-known names projected onto the world stage from New Zealand.

The Bruce McLaren Scrapbook. By Jan McLaren and Richard Becht. Published by HarperSports.

His legacy thrives under the McLaren Formula One racing banner as an example of competitiveness in keeping with the reputation Bruce McLaren forged on the car racing tracks of the world in the 1960s.

In partnership with HarperSports this publication is yet another representation of the thriving interest which the publishers have met like no other in the motorsports area.

The book itself is highly colourful and chockfull of all manner of memorabilia from McLaren's career, down to his original New Zealand driving licence. There are letters, photographs, news clippings, certificates and drawings to round out the millions of words that have already been written about the Kiwi driving ace.

The use of newspaper clippings helps provide a continuity through the action-packed years in which McLaren, Denny Hulme and Chris Amon featured regularly among the sports news broadcasts of their racing era, alongside some of the great names like Jim Clark, Jack Brabham, Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart.

In a time when book publishing faces major change as technology advances, this type of book demonstrates just how hard it will be replace the real thing, certainly in the minds of enthusiasts. It is a marvellous representation of McLaren's career and hopefully the forerunner to other notable New Zealand sporting careers.

How good would similar publications be on the careers of Peter Snell, Arthur Lydiard, Bryan Williams or John Walker? The mind boggles.