John Nicholson (6 October 1941 – 19 September 2017) was a racing driver from Auckland, New Zealand.
He participated in two Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 20 July 1974. He scored no championship points.
Nicholson was the 1973 and 1974 British Formula Atlantic champion, using a Lyncar chassis and in his ‘day job’ was an engine-builder for McLaren. Nicholson also worked for Cosworth, Lotus and Embassy Hill, and he prepared a Saab engine for use in a Reynard Formula Three car.
Following his Formula Atlantic success, Nicholson commissioned Martin Slater of Lyncar to build him a Formula One car, despite, by this time, having established his own engine building business, which meant he was unable to commit to a full grand prix season. His race entries, therefore, were mainly in non-championship races. He entered the British Grand Prix in 1974 and 1975 and qualified for the latter race. He was classified 17th, five laps behind, despite crashing in the heavy storm towards the end of the race. Nicholson subsequently planned a further and stronger attempt at Formula One with a privateer McLaren M23 but the purchase of the chassis fell through.[ He did continue in both Formula Two and Formula 5000 in 1976 before racing in his native New Zealand in January 1977.
After retiring from racing, Nicholson turned his sporting attention to powerboat racing as well as continuing with his business interests.
He died in 2017 at the age of 75. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in Auckland on the 6th October 1941, although his only Grand Prix start came at Silverstone in 1975, John Nicholson made his name as an engine-tuner. He won two Formula One World Championships as an engine builder, taking Emerson Fittipaldi to the title in 1974 and James Hunt two years later. His Nicholson-McLaren company became one of the premier suppliers of Cosworth DFVs but although he never had the finance or time with which to pursue a driving career at the top level, he showed considerable ability in the lower ranks, beating many future stars.
His father was an armourer in the Air Force and raced powerboats in New Zealand and in his youth John helped him to prepare them. After leaving school he worked for an engine reconditioning business and in his final exams after a four and half year engineering apprenticeship he earned the top marks in the whole country. He eventually followed his father into powerboat racing before he began competing on four wheels, initially in karts, then later acquired a Lotus Elan with which he won several hillclimbs. He progressed to a Lotus Ford 27 and finished third in his very first race, pitted against Graham McRae, then took second in his second race. In 1962 he had a one off outing in a Farnborough Racing Enterprise Lotus Elite alongside Jon Derisley in the Tourist Trophy and they came home thirteenth while the following year he was thirteenth at Goodwood’s Sussex Trophy with Farnborough’s AC Ace.
In 1968 he contested the New Zealand GP at Pukekohe with the Lotus 27 and racing against a field that included Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme, Jim Clark, Chris Amon, Pedro Rodriguez and Piers Courage, he finished ninth. He retired the 27 from the Levin International Tasman Series race then raced a Lotus 47 in Britain for the Tourist Trophy at Oulton Park and finished thirteenth. A Brabham Ford BT18 followed and contesting Tasman Series events in 1969 he retired from the New Zealand GP at Pukekohe (transmission problems) though was eleventh and twelfth at Wigram and Teretonga. His ambition was to move to England to try to race in Formula 3 and he worked as a mechanic in the Far East to earn money. He eventually arrived in the UK, telling how “I’d contacted a few friends in Britain concerning a job here and had written to Bruce McLaren. But I’d never met him, nor knew who he was. I arrived on the Thursday and went straight to Earls Court. Meanwhile my friends had talked to Phil Kerr at McLaren and on the Saturday I took the Green Line bus down to see McLaren. I went in round the back and two guys recognised me, Alan McCall and Jimmy Stone, but there was this guy with his back to me. When I asked to see Mr McLaren he turned round and said, ‘I presume you’re Mr Nicholson.’” John got the job and working under the supervision of George Bolthoff was given the responsibility of building the team’s Can-Am Chevy V8 engines. 1969’s Can-Am title was won by Bruce McLaren, with engines that John had helped to prepare plus his driving talents saw him complete some M8B and M8D CanAm testing at Goodwood. George Bolthoff suggested setting up an engine shop in America, where Can-Am and Indy engines would be prepared, with the plan that John would start 1970 working in England before moving to the McLaren Engines Inc facility in Livonia, near Detroit. Unfortunately it proved to be a difficult period for the team, with Denny Hulme suffering serious burns at Indianapolis and then Bruce sadly was killed at Goodwood testing a Can-Am car.
Denny Hulme went on to take the 1970 Can-Am title and John returned to the UK and when Cosworth announced that it didn’t want to service the whole F1 grid’s DFV engines in 1971 he was given the job of preparing those of McLaren. However, he admitted “I’d never seen a DFV in my life. I pulled one apart and thought, ‘I’d better go to Cosworth’s for a couple of days.’ There I was helped by Alan Peck and learnt by pulling them apart and putting them together. With no knowledge, but the help of four good guys and a small place, we set to work doing McLaren’s DFVs. I had to supervise, and it took two weeks for one man to build an engine. They didn’t give much BHP, about 400 to 420, although suddenly we got a 440 engine, ‘061,’ Denny’s favourite. These freak engines turned up in many teams during the 1971 season.” That year saw him contest Formula Atlantic and racing a March 706 he was sixth at Brands Hatch at the end of May though soon switched to a March 702. He followed this with sixth at Snetterton, Brands Hatch, Castle Combe and Oulton Park, fifth at Silverstone and Oulton Park, seventh at Brands Hatch and eighth at Oulton Park. His highest placings were third at Mallory Park plus fourth at Castle Combe and Snetterton until he won the season’s final round, the Yellow Pages Trophy race at Brands Hatch in December, and was ninth in the final standings.
During this period, Martin Slater had been building and racing his own Formula Junior cars then in 1971 decided to build a chassis for the British Formula Atlantic Championship. The Lyncar 001 was the result and this was followed by a series of machines. Driving a Lyncar, John took their first victory in May 1972 at Mallory Park and would go on to finish third in the British Formula Atlantic championship behind Bill Gubelmann and Cyd Williams. However, although the 002 was competitive, taking a victory with it, the replacement 003 proved unreliable and dropped John out of contention. He retired due to an accident at the season’s opening race but then took third in the next three rounds at Oulton Park, Silverstone and Mallory Park. There followed a fifth at Snetterton, third places at Brands Hatch, Mallory Park and Snetterton, second at Brands Hatch and then the victory at Mallory Park at the end of May. The 002’s last outing came at Silverstone in June, taking third at Silverstone before he switched to the 003. Unfortunately he went on suffer a frustrating amount of retirements at Brands Hatch (battery lead), Snetterton (aerofoil strut), Brands Hatch (overheating), Croft (gear selection), Silverstone (engine) and due to an accident at Oulton Park. His only finishes netted fifth at Mallory Park and Brands Hatch, plus sixth at Oulton Park and at the season’s final round at Brands Hatch on Boxing Day he took the flag in second place. In March that year Denny Hulme scored McLaren’s first GP win for three years and the first with an engine overseen by John, at Kyalami. Later in the year he was offered a job by March, with Max Mosley wanting him to prepare the team’s BMW F2 engines and there would also have been a chance for him to race as well though he eventually rejected the offer. From there he told how “I went back to McLaren’s determined to leave, go it alone, and continue in Atlantic. It was a Saturday afternoon and when I got back, Teddy Mayer was at McLarens. I told him what I was going to do, but he wouldn’t hear of it. We went to Phil Kerr’s house that evening, and by the time I’d left, we had a business contract to go into overhauling McLaren’s DFVs as a separate business.” He found a premises in Hounslow and established Nicholson-McLaren Racing Engines and in 1973 Denny Hulme scored the company’s first GP win in Sweden, followed later by Peter Revson winning at Silverstone and Canada.
John now had Pinch Plant Hire sponsorship and he contested two championships during 1973, the six-race Yellow Pages series and the 18-race BP British Series. His race career flourished as he would go on to take the BP title and was second to Colin Vandervell in the Yellow Pages Series. He and Colin Vandervell battled through the two series, with John winning more races than anyone else (seven) in his Lyncars (003 and an 005 was introduced in July) while the March 73Bs of Vanderwell, Friswell and Choularton between them won eight races; the March 722 of David Purley won another five. Tom Pryce won three consecutive rounds early in the season in the Royale RP12A but moved to the Rondel F2 team and was in F1 by the following season. Purley remained in contention until near the end of the BP series but retired from the last two races allowing John and C.Vanderwell to pull away. Racing his Lyncar 003, in the Yellow Page’s first two rounds he was fifth at Mallory Park in May then third at Brands Hatch. The next race was the first round of the BP series and he was fifth at Oulton Park while the following rounds saw a third at Mallory Park, sixth at Snetterton, eighth at Brands Hatch then seventh at Mallory Park. Alternating between the two series, in Yellow Pages races he won at Silverstone in May, then was fifth at Brands Hatch, won at Silverstone in July (now in the 005) and in the final round at Oulton Park in early September he was fourth. The BP Championship races produced a second at Mallory Park in late June followed by victory at Oulton Park in early July then further victories at Mallory Park and Silverstone. In August he was second at Brands Hatch and on consecutive days at the end of that month he was third at Mallory Park and fourth at Snetterton. After Oulton Park’s Yellow Pages final round in September, the following five races were all BP events and he was third at Oulton Park, fifth at Brands Hatch, won at Oulton Park, took second at Brands Hatch then wound down his season with victory in the final event at Snetterton. His 88 points saw him finish second to Colin Vandervell’s 92 points in the Yellow Pages Championship though 5 victories and 92 points saw him take the BP championship, beating C.Vandervell’s 3 wins and 79 points. At 1973’s British GP meeting he had built his own engine for the brand-new Lyncar plus had also built the Ford DVD engines which propelled the McLaren M23s of Revson and Hulme to first and third places in the GP.
There were again two Atlantic series in 1974 with this year’s being backed by John Player and the other by Southern Organs. The John Player series went to John and the Lyncar for the second season, with 2 victories and 132 points ahead of Jim Crawford’s March 73B 2 wins and 127 points though Crawford won the South Organs championship. Third and fourth places in the John Player series went to Tony Brise and Alan Jones and the season was a close fought contest with five other drivers winning two or more rounds. The first John Player round came in March and it started well with victory at Mallory Park while the following rounds saw saw fifth at Brands Hatch, third at Silverstone and second at Snetterton. His second win came at Oulton Park in May while other results that year saw second place at Mallory Park, third at Brands Hatch. fifth at Mondello Park, sixth at Oulton Park (twice) and the Players No.6 GP at Phoenix Park, then seventh at Mallory Park. Thruxton in July saw his first entry in the MCD/Southern Organs Championship and he was sixth plus took a victory at Mallory Park in early August. He was ninth in October in a non championship Brands Hatch race then had a victory at the circuit the following day. In early November he was fifth back at Brands Hatch and finished his season with third in a non-championship final race at Thruxton. In the year he also made a foray into F1 with a Lyncar chassis and entered two British non-championship races but failed to qualify at the British Grand Prix. In March’s Race of Champions at Brands Hatch he finished, though was not classified, while in the following month’s Daily Express BRDC International Trophy he took the flag in sixth place.
Away from the track he had a busy workload servicing engines with McLaren plus was also involved in work from Graham Hill’s Embassy team and that year Fittipaldi scored McLaren’s World Championship title, powered by John’s engines. Alongside his single seater racing he also contested several sports car events during this period and made his Le Mans debut. In November 1973 he raced a Lola T292 with Eddie Keizan in a South African Springbok Trophy Series race at Killarney and they were second to John Watson/Ian Scheckter’s Chevron B26. In 1974 he drove for Alain de Cadenet’s team alongside Chris Craft at Le Mans and hopes were high during the race for a good finish as they were running well. Unfortunately during the night Chris Craft brought the De Cadenet LM72 in with suspect handling but as he was leaving a suspension bolt broke and, not being allowed to reverse up the pitlane, he had to spend half an hour changing the steering arm himself. When he eventually resumed he was in eleventh place and carried on through the night but, as dawn came at 5.30am, when John was in the car and travelling at speed down the pit straight the suspension broke again. The car slammed into the pit-barriers and slid 200 metres down the road though he was able to get out unhurt.
He repeated his F1 venture in 1975 though this time qualified the Pinch Plant Lyncar on his GP debut at Silverstone. The decision to enter the GP had been a “joint decision with my sponsor, Bruno Drury at Pinch Plant. He wanted to see the company name on an F1 car and I simply wanted to enjoy myself.” Using the Lyncar instead of buying an established F1 car was partly dictated by finances, as “it was cheaper and we didn’t have a pot to piss in back then. Martin Slater at Lyncar had done a good job with the Atlantic cars, so it seemed a natural choice…The 006 wasn’t a bad car and probably would have been better if we’d tested more. It used to wobble around at the back but it handled well when we got good tyres. At Brands for the ’74 grand prix I got a set of Goodyears that transformed the car. I’m sure I would have qualified that time too, but I crashed around the back.” Surprisingly, he described it as “the most boring race I’ve ever done. I just ran around at the back and then it started raining. We didn’t have any means of changing tyres quickly, so we had to trundle around in the wet on slicks.”
He was caught up in the multiple accidents that were caused by the severe rain during it but his race didn’t end due to a crash; “I was stopped by a marshal just after the corner when the red flags came out. He wouldn’t let me go any further, which is where the confusion comes in. I’d already driven past the accident a couple of times as it was unfolding. The results show me finishing 17th, but we worked out that I was really something like 11th. I remember being really annoyed as I had to walk back to the pits.” In two non championship events, in March he retired on lap 15 in the British Airways/Daily Mail Race of Champions at Brands Hatch while in the following month he qualified eleventh at Silverstone’s Daily Express BRDC International Trophy though retired from the race on lap 39. He only contested a few Formula Atlantic races this season and in his one John Player series round he retired at Mallory Park with a Tui BH2. In the MCD/Southern Organs events he took sixth in a Lola T360 at Brands Hatch while racing a Modus M3 he retired at Oulton Park, was fourth at Thruxton and third in the final round at Brands Hatch. The F1 Lyncar was later campaigned by Emilio de Villota in 1976 and 1977 and in the second year he won the opening Shellsport series race at Mallory Park.
There was a mixed race programme for 1976, contesting Formula 2 and Formula 5000. In the European F2 championship he did not attend the first event at Hockenheim though at the second race finished eleventh in his Pinch Plant March 752 at Thruxton’s BARC 200/Jochen Rindt Memorial. He was eleventh again at the following race at Hockenheim (though was not classified) but did not qualify for a number of rounds and his only finish came with eleventh in a non championship race at the Nurburgring. His first entry in the Shellsport G8 F5000 series was at Thruxton at the end of May and he came home second to David Purley while there was a seventh place in his next outing at Snetterton at the start of August. At the end of that month he was twelfth at Brands Hatch but engine problems and a puncture saw him twenty second and twenty first at Thruxton and Brands Hatch while a Brands Hatch’s final round he was eighteenth, after suffering an accident.
Eventually, he had to wind down his racing as the time pressures meant he needed to focus on his thriving engine business. The race wins for McLaren had continued, with Fittipaldi finishing second in the World Championship in 1975, followed by James Hunt’s title success in 1976 and Hunt continued with three race wins in 1977. At the start of 1977 he raced the Modus M3 in the five round Formula Atlantic series in New Zealand, with all the races taking part through January. There was one retirement at Teretonga Park, where he spun off and could not restart, though took fourth at Baypark Raceway, Pukekohe and Wigram and sixth at Manfield.
John decided to hang up his helmet but would return to powerboat racing after his interest was rekindled after attending an event at Bristol Docks. He realised that as they were two day British events it would be possible to find the time to compete in the series. He ordered a boat though while it was being completed he was lent a couple of boats for early races and began his power boat learning curve. He proved to be safe and competitive though in an early race in Holland, as he entered the first corner in the middle of the pack the boat was light and didn’t want to turn. Fortunately he missed everyone and even went on to win the race. He also won at Bristol Docks but during a race at Chasewater he blew the boat over and spent a short period in hospital with two cracked vertebrae. He won the British title in 1979 though during the 1980 Embassy Grand Prix, his boat submarined but a following competitor unfortunately did not see him and ran over the top of the boat. John was seriously hurt with eighteen breaks in his left rib cage and one through the lung though he was racing again within 8 weeks; although he was well strapped up but in pain. After purchasing a new boat (a Seebold) he went on to take the 1981, 1982 and 1983 British Championships, and two British Grands Prix before eventually decided to retire from power boating. However despite not racing he continued on the water and at the age of 70 was still enjoying getting out onto Lagoona Park, near Reading, with a supercharged jet ski.
The mid-1980s saw him briefly run in the World Sportscar Championship where several of the teams used his engines. He contested several Thundersports races in 1984 with Costas Los in a Lyncar MS83 and in two rounds at Brands Hatch they were twelfth and seventh. There were two 1000 Kilometre events but they were not classified at Imola and disqualified from Brands Hatch as their last lap was too long. In the following year he raced alongside Pasquale Barberio and Jean Pierre Frey in Grifo Autoracing’s Alba AR3 at the 800 Km Selangor (a round of the World Endurance Championship at Shah Alam in Malaysia) and finished seventh. In two World Sport Prototype Championship rounds during 1986 he raced Kelmar Racing’s Tiga GC85 with P.Barberio and Maurizio Gellini and they were fifteenth and tenth in the Silverstone and Brands Hatch 1000km races. There was a single race in 1987, the Brands Hatch 1000Kms, and he, Jean Louis Ricci and Olindo Iacobelli were thirteenth in Chamberlain Engineering’s Spice SE86C.
Nicholson-McLaren eventually became independent of the new McLaren International. Ron Dennis had come on board and John Watson and Niki Lauda would go on to score some memorable successes but the tide was turning towards turbos and the team switched to the Porsche-built TAG Turbo. However, there would continue to be a link as he turned his attention to servicing DFVs for historic racing contenders, which included some McLarens. His Nicholson-McLaren company prepared engines for a range of other single seater and sports cars, hillclimb racing cars and the workload would also include the development of engines for the use of alternate fuels. There was a brief involvement in Formula 3 with the Saab engine then the company began preparing F3000 engines and won the title in 1988 with Roberto Moreno. There were further championship successes in 1993 with Olivier Panis, in 1994 with Jean-Christophe Boullion and 1995 with Vincenzo Sospiro and their engines were also used by Spice Engineering to win the World Sportscar Championship in Group C2.
John would split his time between the UK and New Zealand, near Reading during his time in the UK’s summer only and then back to New Zealand, at Clarks Beach, where he would spend his summer enjoying golf, fishing and more jet ski-ing. Sadly John passed away there on the 19th September 2017 and his life was celebrated by a service of Remembrance and Farewell at Clarks Beach, which was attended by many New Zealand friends, family and McLaren Old Boys and Girls.
My only Grand Prix 1975 British Silvertone by John Nicholson
How did you end up graduating from Formula Atlantic straight to Formula One?
I’d done Atlantic for three years and won the championship, so what was I supposed to do next? It was a joint decision with my sponsor, Bruno Drury at Pinch Plant. He wanted to see the company name on an Fl car and I simply wanted to enjoy myself.
Why stay with Lyncar rather than buy a proven Fl car like, say, a March?
It was cheaper and we didn’t have a pot to piss in back then. Martin Slater at Lyncar had done a good job with the Atlantic cars, so it seemed a natural choice.
You took the car to the British GPs in 1974 and ’75, but why did you never venture abroad?
In those days, you could do the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch and the Silverstone International Trophy and GP, which was enough for us. The sponsor didn’t want to travel out of the UK and, besides, I never had aspirations to become a professional racing driver. I was committed to my engine business [Nicholson-McLaren].
How good was the Lyncar-Cosworth 006?
It wasn’t a bad car and probably would have been better if we’d tested more. It used to wobble around at the back, but it handled well when we got good tyres. At Brands for the ’74 grand prix I got a set of Goodyears that transformed the car. I’m sure I would have qualified that time too, but I crashed around the back.
What do you remember about your one GP start?
It was the most boring race I’ve ever done. I just ran around at the back and then it started raining. We didn’t have any means of changing tyres quickly, so we had to trundle around in the wet on slicks.
The record books suggest you were involved in the famous Club Corner accident…
I didn’t crash. I was stopped by a marshal just after the corner when the red flags came out. He wouldn’t let me go any further, which is where the confusion comes in. I’d already driven past the accident a couple of times as it was unfolding. The results show me finishing 17th, but we worked out that I was really something like 1 lth. I remember being really annoyed as I had to walk back to the pits.
Why did the project end after your GP start?
We’d always planned to do those six British races. I was pretty happy with what I had achieved and it would have been nice to have raced the car more often, but at least I can say I’m a grand prix driver on my CV.
What happened to the car?
We sold it to Emilio de Villota, who actually won a race with it [in the ShellSport Group 8 Championship]. I don’t know what became of it after that. I’d be extremely interested to know where it is now.
John Nicholson – Seventies kit-car misery – from 
This article about John Nicholson in the 1974 British Grand Prix Programme
and I software-read the text for you
Gallery F1 F2 and SC F/Atlantic/Pacific
