A salute to Denny 'the Bear' - F1's most successful Kiwi

It was on this day in 1936 that Denis Clive Hulme was born on a tobacco farm in Motueka in the South Island of New Zealand.

Driving was just something you did when growing up in a rural setting, and by the age of six young 'Denny' was already adept at the wheel.

Cars soon became the love of his life, and he saved enough money to buy a F2 Cooper-Climax and started making a name for himself in local races. He soon left for Europe with his friend George Lawton and the two began competing in Formula Junior and Formula Two.

Moving to London, he found work as a mechanic in Jack Brabham's garage in Chessington. And it was Brabham who gave him his break in F2, which paved the way in turn to his maiden Formula 1 race at Monaco in 1965.

Nicknamed 'the Bear' because of his "gruff nature" and "rugged features", Hulme won the world championship with Brabham in 1967. He was third the following year and again in 1972 with McLaren.

In total he claimed eight wins and 33 podiums in 112 starts, although he only ever started from pole once - in South Africa, during the 1973 season.

He's hailed as the most successful of the nine New Zealanders to have competed in F1, which also include Bruce McLaren, Chris Amon and Brendon Hartley.

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.