GRAHAM MCRAE

On 5 March, Graham Mcrae will turn 80. His health has suffered in recent years, so it is timely to reflect on his extraordinary list of achievements since he burst onto the national motor racing stage in late 1968 with the self-designed and built twin-cam beauty in which he dominated the national Formula championship for 1.5-litre twin-cam-powered open-wheelers. He was awarded the Driver to Europe and spent 1969 in an F2 Brabham until the money ran out. Back in New Zealand, he drove George Begg’s first Formula 5000 (F5000) and then the Crown Lynn Mclaren M10A. He won the 1969/’70 Gold Star and returned to Europe to run a new M10B. F5000 and Graham were made for one another, and soon his Mclaren had been heavily modified on his way to the first of his three-in-a-row Tasman Championship wins.

It could be said that Graham’s two biggest wins came in the US. In 1972, he won the coveted SCCA L&M Championship (at his first attempt) in the GM1, his first F5000 design. His sponsor, STP, was so impressed that it signed him for the 1973 Indianapolis 500, and he proved his ability both as a driver and as engineer once again by mastering the speedway and taking the prestigious Rookie of the Year award. Graham’s last big win was at Sandown Park where he won his third Australian GP, again in a Mcrae, this time the GM3 with the unique Perspex cockpit surround.

On learning of Graham’s impending birthday Jimmy Palmer said, “I’ve said it for years: in a 5000, in his day, Graham was unbeatable.” Indeed, in 1972, he came so close to also winning the European F5000 series. Had he done so, he’d have won all the big championships for the category in one calendar year, and all in a car he had not only designed but built the first one of himself.