Denny 'the Bear' roars for the final time

Harking back once again to the days when Formula 1 used to hold races in January, it was on this day in 1974 that Denny Hulme clinched the last of his eight Formula 1 race victories.

It took place at the Argentine Grand Prix held at the Autodromo Municipal Ciudad de Buenos Aires.

The southern hemisphere summer meant that conditions were hot and sunny for the 53-lap race, the first of the season.

Ronnie Peterson had taken pole position for Lotus with Clay Regazzoni's Ferrari joining him on the front row, while Hulme lined up tenth in the McLaren M23.

Early leader and local hero Carlos Reutemann looked to have the race sown up but on the penultimate lap, to the growing consternation of the Argentine fans, Reutemann's Brabham ran out of fuel entirely, which delivered the win to Hulme on a silver platter.

Hulme would pick up another podium finish later in the year in Austria. But the 1967 world champion threw in the towel at the end of the season after 112 races over ten seasons.

"The Bear" returned to competition in the 80s, primarily competing in the Australian Endurance Championship. Sadly he suffered a fatal heart attack while taking part in the Bathurst 1000 in 1992, aged just 56.

©McLaren

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.