1970 St Jovite Can-Am

Hopes that the 1970 Canadian-American Challenge Cup series might at last find some serious opposition to the all-powerful McLaren team took a severe blow at the second round. Like the first, this took place in Canada, moving from Mosport to the beautiful St. Jovite circuit nestled in the Laurentian mountains north of Montreal. Here it was that the Autocoast Ti-22 came to a spectacular end. Its driver, Jack Oliver, the man who had challenged the McLarens at Mosport, qualified third fastest behind Gurney and Hulme after some suspension trouble in practice.

St. Jovite is notorious for the hump on the very fast back stretch, scene of several amazing past accidents, and it was at this point that Oliver crashed heavily. The instability created by the hump was aggravated by the tremendous turbulence generated by the low wings mounted on the cars in front of the Autocoast, which reared up and performed a complete backflip before landing and sliding on its nose. Fortunately for Oliver the titanium chassis absorbed all the damage and enabled him to escape virtually unscratched.

Hulme's 7.6-litre engine suffered from the big Chevrolet's known tendency to overheat and he retired, leaving McLaren's team-mate Dan Gurney to win from Lothar Motschenbacher, who had a remarkably trouble-free run considering that his private McLaren had been virtually rebuilt after its first-round accident.