Graham McRae

Although Graham McRae’s single World Championship race saw him retire on the first lap in 1973’s British GP, he achieved considerable success in F5000, winning the Tasman Series each year from 1971 to 1973, driving a McLaren M10B, and for the last two a McRae GM1 Chevrolet. He was the 1969 NZ National Formula Champion and 1970 NZ Gold Star Champion (F5000), took 1972’s L&M Continental 5000 Championship in America and then 1978’s Australia Gold Star Championship (F5000). He competed in 1973’s Indianapolis 500 and was awarded Rookie of the Year. He received the nickname ‘Cassius’, which was apparently because of his absolute belief in what he was going to achieve and his readiness to say so.

Graham Peter McRae was born in Wellington, New Zealand on the 5th March 1940 and though he played football and rugby as a youngster, it was after his father sent him to a driving school when he was 15, and took him to races at Levin, that he set his sights on racing. He soon had a car of his own and at night would drive “a little bit quicker than I should and sliding the thing around corners”. He graduated in 1963 with an engineering degree and while doing his studies he began building his own car, the McRae 220S.

He began competing in local sports car racing and hillclimbs and in the 1967-68 season contested the New Zealand National Formula (1.5 litre) Championship but was outclassed in his elderly Brabham. He entered a few rounds of 1968’s Tasman Series though did not finish and for the 1969 National 1.5 litre Championship season he drove his own slimline McRae Twin Cam and all but dominated to take his first title. He also contested the local rounds of the Tasman Series though retired from them but proved surprisingly competitive at the tight Levin circuit against the international teams and drivers. This performance secured him the New Zealand GP Association Driver to Europe Scheme for a number of F2 rounds with a Brabham BT23C. He put in some notable performances, on a tight budget among very tough competition, and was fourth at Zolder plus ninth and tenth at Hockenheim and Reims. On returning to New Zealand he finished runner-up in the National Formula Championship with his McRae S2 and a Brabham BT18.

With New Zealand and Australia then adopting the international F5000 category for their national championships and the 1970 Tasman Series, he acquired a McLaren M10A with sponsorship from Crown Lynn Potteries, owned by Kiwi racing legend Sir Tom Clark. As the new car did not arrive until late 1969, he used a locally built Begg FM2 for the opening rounds of the Gold Star Championship and, after the arrival of the McLaren, secured the championship. The Tasman Series saw two race wins at Teretonga (from pole plus fastest lap) and Surfers Paradise plus two podiums to finish fifth in the series. From there it was back to Great Britain to launch an assault on the European F5000 Championship with a Crown Lynn Potteries McLaren M10B where he was second at Zandvoort and Brands Hatch (plus fastest lap), second, third and fourth at Silverstone, fourth at Castle Combe and fifth and sixth at Hockenheim and Oulton Park. There was a victory at Brands Hatch (ahead of Howden Ganley and Mike Hailwood) to finish sixth in the final standings. He took a win with the McLaren M10B (from pole) at the New Zealand Gold Star Bay Park International at the end of December and was awarded Motorsport New Zealand’s highest motor racing honour, The Jim Clark Trophy.

Following this he contested the 1971 Tasman series in January and February where he scored the first of his three championship victories with three wins, the Sandown international and Levin International (from pole plus fastest lap) plus the Lady Wigram Trophy (from pole and fastest lap) and podium finishes at the New Zealand GP and Surfers Paradise. A McLaren M18 had been built for the 1971 season and entered by Team Trojan for him in the British series but the car had a very brief F5000 career. He recalls “the handling was abysmal and the car spun and rolled twice, once with no oil in the transmission.” His first appearance was at Snetterton in April but in unofficial practice on the Thursday before the race, he went off sideways at Russell. The McLaren hit the bank, flew up into the air and landed almost upside down, before rolling back onto its wheels and though he was lucky to be uninjured but the car was destroyed. He took three F5000 victories, at Thruxton, Snetterton and Mallory Park, though luckily escaped injury when he wrote the McLaren off at Hockenheim, to finish sixth again in the championship. He contested Oulton Park’s non championship International Gold Cup and was ninth with the M10B.

During this period he joined forces with Malcolm Bridgeland, of Malaya Garage, and famed designer Len Terry to build a new F5000 car. Len Terry had a fine pedigree in car development as he collaborated with Brian Hart, Gilby, Lotus, Eagle, BRM and BMW. The car was initially designated the Leda LT27 following Terry’s designs though Graham used the name Leda GM1 for his personal car. It used Swiss Morand built Chevrolet engines and he recalled “the Morand engine builders had superb attention to details and did things like boring out the carburettors, making them bigger and increasing the flow.” He started well in the Tasman Series, winning at Levin and Wigram while in the Australian rounds had wins at Surfers Paradise and the Australian GP at Sandown Park plus a fourth at Warwick Farm. The victories saw him win the championship for the second time, ahead of Mike Hailwood and Frank Gardner. Returning to European F5000, despite victories at Brands Hatch (twice), Nivelles, Silverstone (twice) and Oulton Park, he only finished third in the series behind Gijs Van Lennep and Brian Redman. However, he won the American L&M Championship, ahead of Sam Posey, Brian Redman and Brett Lunger, with victories at Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen and Road America. Basing himself at Irvine in California, with backing from STP, the three man team (with a mechanic and a ‘gofer’) travelled round in a Chevy station wagon and he recalled one of his successful days there, “landing in San Francisco, driving down to Monterey for the first round at Laguna Seca, putting the car on pole, leading all the way, and collecting US$20K. Not a bad day at the office.” During the year, Graham and London insurance broker John Heynes bought out Bridgeland and set up McRae Cars Ltd at Poole, Dordet, and from July the Leda was renamed the McRae GM1. Fourteen of these cars were built between 1972 and 1973 and it went on to achieve considerable success by Roy Lane in the 1975 and 1976 British Hillclimb championships. In non championship races he did not start the Race of Champions (allegedly he took umbrage at being disqualified in Saturday’s F5000 race) but was twelfth in the World Championship Victory Race at Brands Hatch and eighth (the first of the F5000s) at Silverstone’s International Trophy, where, for a while he had run ahead of Graham Hill in a F1 Brabham BT34 and kept up with the F1 McLarens of Denny Hulme and Peter Revson. He was on stand by for drive in F1 at Nivelles to stand in for an unwell Jackie Stewart but it never happened.

He took his third consecutive Tasman championship in 1973, dominating the series with the Crown Lynn Potteries sponsored McRae GM1. He was fourth in New Zealand GP (plus fastest lap) then won the Levin International (from pole plus fastest lap) and the Lady Wigram Trophy (from pole), was second and third at Surfers Paradise and Warwick Farm plus took a third victory at Sandown. There was only one victory in F5000 with the Iberia Team GM1 at Mallory Park (from pole) and he was sixth and ninth at Zandvoort and Brands Hatch but retired in the International Trophy and Race of Champions non championship races. There were rumours of F1 drives, even having a seat fitting with Tyrell, but his only World Championship outing came with Frank Williams for the British GP at Silverstone. He qualified twenty eighth with the Iso Marlboro and passed five cars on the first lap before a multiple accident wiped out half the field and some resulting debris damaged the Williams’ throttle mechanism which forced an early retirement. However, his comments about F1 probably did not do him any favours with the teams, after stating “I like big powerful cars (Formula 5000) and I’ve got no interest at all in little cars. Really, Formula One is the least powerful class I’d be interested in,” plus he also felt that, being in his early 30s, he was too old to launch a career in F1. He took his STP GM1 to contest US F5000 but faced strong competition there and was only eighth at Road America and tenth at Michigan and Mid Ohio. To add to his busy racing programme, he also contested the Indianapolis 500 with Patrick Racing’s Eagle Offenhauser. After qualifying thirteenth, the race was marred by serious crashes and rain and, describing the race, stated “Granatelli was fuming and gave me the word to wind it up. The fuel cock then jammed and burned out the exhaust valves, which caused the manifold to crack, ending my race” though he was classified sixteenth. He was named Rookie of the Year (emulating Denny Hulme’s feat there of 1967) but the race was marred by his Patrick team mate Swede Savage’s fatal crash. Late in the year he introduced his McRae GM2 and won with the STP backed car in the New Zealand Gold Star round at Pukekohe and the Australian GP though McRae Cars Ltd was sold in October to Roger Penske as the base for his planned F1 team.

He then contested the Tasman Series in 1974 with the Crown Lynn Potteries GM2 and despite starting on pole and taking fastest lap at both Levin and Pukekohe in January, he retired from both. At the end of the month he was second at Teretonga and in February was sixth and second at Surfers Paradise and Sandown and only finished seventh in the final standings. Then followed SCCA F5000 races with Chuck Jones Racing though he never appeared on the podium though was fourth at Watkins Glen (with a Talon MR1), fifth at Watkins Glen and Riverside and tenth at Laguna Seca. He finished eighth in the series and would have been fifth if he had not lost third place due to tyre failure at Las Vegas, where he was running ahead of Unser.

Unfortunately, with the drastically increasing costs and necessary corporate involvement in international motor racing, it became a struggle to remain competitive as a relative privateer. Running the GM2 in 1975’s Tasman Series, he was on pole for all the New Zealand rounds but the car suffered a number of problems in most of the races. He won the Lady Wigram Trophy but there were no further podium finishes that year and in private practice at Surfers Paradise he wrote off the car in an accident. He was able to lease a Matich A51 for the race and despite starting from the back of the grid he finished fourth. He used a Lola T332 to compete in the US F5000 championship, which showed promise in some heats, finishing fourth behind J.P Jarier at Watkins Glen and second in a heat at Laguna Seca to Al Unser, but his only finishes were seventh and eighth at Road America and Laguna Seca and he was seventeenth the final standings.

He spent much of 1976 working on his new F5000 GM3, which featured very low side-pods and hip-mounted radiators. Its most notable feature was perspex windows in the cockpit so the spectators could watch him at the wheel but after debuting it at the last round at Riverside he retired from midfield. There was the possibility of an F1 drive, when Brabham boss Bernie Ecclestone asked him to be on standby as Carlos Reutemann was stranded in Argentina because of a coup there though the drive never materialised. But with the US F5000 regulations being changed to require the cars to carry Can Am sports car bodies, he took time to revise the GM3 and converted it into one of the new hybrids, incorporating a front wing mounted above the bodywork and a narrow rear wing, though retaining the clear Perspex cockpit cover. His campaign was a low key affair as, unsponsored, he could not pay for competitive engines and competing as a privateer against the Haas or Paul Newman teams was a struggle. He missed the first four rounds, appearing for the first time at Mid Ohio, where he qualified thirteenth but failed to finish. His next outing was at the final round at Riverside, where he qualified eleventh and took a surprise sixth place result.

Following this he retro-fitted the GM3’s F5000 bodywork and sent the car to Australia. Basing himself in Melbourne and with Ampol sponsorship, he proved competitive and took his fifth F5000 title, finishing fifth at Adelaide, seventh at Surfers Paradise, third and fifth at Oran Park and second at the Max Stewart Trophy at Calder Park. His victory in the Australian GP was his fourth Australian GP win, alongside the wins in 1972, 1973 and 1976.

He then sent the GM3 to New Zealand, where it was completely rebuilt as a full ground effects centre seat Can-Am car and then sent back to America as the GM9 where it competed for the next three years. It featured a swooping alloy body and did without front or rear spoilers but the rebuild had been slow due to a lack of funds and it only made its debut at the final round of the 1980 series, at Riverside. Graham failed to record a practice time and retired from the race with suspension failure after nine laps. 1981’s Championship provided little joy for the GM9, which had now sprouted a full-width rear wing. In four races with a Skoal Bandit car he retired from the first round at Mosport after four laps with suspension problems then at Mid-Ohio qualified thirteenth and finished eleventh. He failed to start at Watkins Glen and Road America and retired a Dan Furey entered car at Mid Ohio, then missed three rounds. In his final three races with a Circus Circus Hotel car he was seventh at Riverside (with a GM5), but after qualifying fifteenth at Laguna Seca, an accident ended his race and in the season finale at Caesars Palace, he qualified eleventh but failed to finish. The only outing in 1982 for the GM9 was at Riverside, but though he entered and practiced, he didn’t start the race. After the lack of results and a lack of funding, he sold the GM9 to Andrew Ratcliff, who entered just one Can-Am event in 1983 at Sears Point, where he qualified fourteenth but failed to start the race. He also contested the SCCA Nationals at Riverside, and US Championships at Road Atlanta, where he finished fifth. He was entered in a CanAm race at Riverside in 1984 but didn’t appear, which seemed to be the final event for the McRae GM9.

There were CART races in 1984 at Cleveland, with a Pace Electronics March 83C, and in 1987 with N.F.W. Racing’s March 86C at Road America though he retired from both due to accidents. In between these years he had a drive at Bathurst in 1986 and finished eleventh in a Volvo 240T with Neville Crichton and John Bowe.

After retiring from racing he returned to New Zealand where he began a business building accurate Porsche Speedster replicas in 1993, setting high standards in producing technically perfect replicas of the original car. In 2000, he registered the company as ‘McRae Cars Ltd’ and continued building the handcrafted versions of the 356 Speedsters and 550 Spyders. Sadly, Graham began suffering with health issues and no more of the cars were made since 2003 and the company was struck off the register in June that year. A former McRae GM1 owner and driver, Alister Hey, registered McRae Cars Limited again in 2010. His niece, Julie McRae, was brought up by his parents from when she was nine months old and she regarded Graham as her father and best friend. She said his passions were motor racing, her and his mother, and cats and he befriended cats everywhere, even naming a family cat Shelby. She also spoke of Graham racing his cars on the streets in Miramar, much to the despair of the residents, being a regular at church on a Sunday no matter where he was, and generous to the less fortunate. She said he had been sick for 20 years when he died on the 4th August 2021 at the age of 81 while in care in Auckland. There was no will or estate and few possessions and the plans for his funeral were delayed by Covid though a Memorial Service for Graham was eventually held on Saturday 5th March at Upper Hutt Baptist Church in Upper Hutt.

Graham was inducted into the Motorsport New Zealand Wall of Fame in 1994 and later honoured by S5000’s Heritage Series. He said “Formula 5000 were the perfect car for me at that time of my career..I was at the peak of my driving. By 1975 we were building our own engines..it was a very invigorating time from an engineering standpoint. Formula 5000 at its height was a more exciting car to drive than Formula One cars of the day. They were a ‘man’s car’ and are still drawing the crowds today.”