Bruce McLaren kits up during his final day while testing Denny Hulme's McLaren M8D at Goodwood. Hulme was supposed to be doing the driving, but had badly burned hands from an incident during a testing run for the Indy 500, so with the Can-Am season about to start Bruce took over testing on the Goodwood circuit. The circuit had closed as a competition venue on safety concerns but was still used as a testing ground. Safety upgrades were being made, one of them being the old concrete marshalling bunkers being removed. After a number of test laps, and making changes to the car - giving the big rear wing more angle one of them - Bruce set off for another few laps before the team would stop for lunch.

He never came back. On his first flying lap the tail section of the car had lifted off at 170mph rendering the car uncontrollable. It lost traction and skidded off track into the sole remaining concrete marshalling post killing him instantly. In one violent, shocking moment the man who had become the youngest ever Grand Prix winner, won the Le Mans 24 hours and Sebring 12 hours, and twice won the Can-Am series with a car bearing his own name, was gone. A genius was lost to the world, but his legacy in Team McLaren would live on...