Article: McRae GM3/GM9

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Formula 5000 had been good to Graham McRae, he’d surfed the wave of popularity the category enjoyed on a world-wide scale from the late 1960s through mid-1970s. Forty years on, McRae is still best remembered for his efforts man-handling these mechanical monsters, and beating some of the worlds very best drivers.

Having moved into Formula 5000 in 1969 with a customer McLaren M10A, he won the 1970 New Zealand Gold Star, and finished fifth in the Tasman Series. In 1970, now with one of the latest McLaren M10Bs at his disposal, he contested selected rounds in the Guards European F5000 Championship, taking second place finishes at Zandvoort, Brands Hatch, and Silverstone, before collecting his breakthrough win in the final round at Brands Hatch. He also won the 1971 Tasman Series.

Back in Europe, he scored wins at Mallory Park, Thruxton, and Snetterton, in the 1971 European F5000 Championship, and in partnership with designer Len Terry, and with funding from Malcolm Bridgeland, penned and built the first F5000 car to eventually carry his own name. Initially known as the Leda LT27, in deference to Terry, the car was renamed the GM1 in mid-1972, when McRae teamed up with London insurance broker John Heynes to buy the rights off Bridgeland. McRae then took the GM1 with him down-under to win the 1972 Tasman Series.

1972 was to be a busy year for McRae, and a highly successful one. He ran the full season in the lucrative L&M Sports Car Club of America US F5000 Championship, collecting wins at Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen, and Road America, on his way to winning the title. Meanwhile, he continued in the European F5000 Championship, winning at Brands Hatch, Nivelles-Baulers, Silverstone, Brands Hatch (again), and Oulton Park, and only narrowly missed out on the championship. He then rounded off his successful season by winning the Tasman Series for the third time in succession.

The McRae GM1 had been possibly the best F5000 car in the world in 1972, and particularly so with McRae at the helm, but it was met with a raft of opposition in 1973, including the new Lola T330, the Chevron B24, March 73A, and Trojan T101 among others. Despite contesting both the US and European championships, a single win at Mallory Park was the only highlight for the year.

The latest McRae, the new wedge-shaped GM2, was rolled out for the final European F5000 Championship round at Brands Hatch, where it failed to finish. McRae took the GM2 with him to contest the 1974 Tasman Series, gaining pole position at Levin, Pukekohe, and Wigram, but frustratingly, a race win eluded him for the first time since F5000 had been adopted in Australasia.

With money getting tight, McRae decided to concentrate on running only the US Championship in 1974, but results were hard to come by now. His best score was a fourth place finish at Watkins Glen, Round 3, which he achieved driving a Lola T332, after wrecking his McRae at Mosport. He was back in a GM2 by Round 5 in Ontario. Back down-under, and impressively, he gained pole position in all four New Zealand rounds of the 1975 Tasman Series, but only gained the single race win at Wigram.

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McRae did little racing in 1975, and 1976. He entered three rounds of the 1975 US F5000 Championship, driving a Lola T332, and sat out the 1976 New Zealand International Series, with the Tasman Series having been scrapped. He entered the opening two rounds of the 1976 US F5000 Championship in a Lola, but started neither. However, in the final round at Riverside, he appeared with a brand new car, the McRae GM3.

The new GM3 was an impressive looking race car, and in some contrast to the largely Lola dominated grids. It featured quite defined edges, very low side-pods, and hip-mounted radiators, but its most notable featured was a clear Perspex upper body cowl, which allowed spectators to see McRae at work. At Riverside, the new car qualified 22^nd, and finished Heat 2 in sixth place.

Unfortunately, however, just as the new GM3 arrived on the scene, the category in which it was created for, was about to dissolve. That Riverside event was to be the last time Formula 5000 was held in the US as a national championship. Its creators, the Sports Car Club of America, were all at sea by the mid-1970s, and desperately looking for ways to try and rekindle some of the magic they’d enjoyed during the late 1960s and early ‘70s, when they controlled not only a thriving F5000 Championship, but also the Can-Am Group 7 Sports Car Championship, and the Trans-Am Sedan Championship. But the Can-Am ended in 1974, amidst anaemic grids and dreary racing, while over in the Trans-Am, all the manufacturers departed, taking their millions with them, leaving the largely cash-strapped independents to keep the series alive. Furthermore, John Bishop, formerly of the SCCA and the main driving force in the creation of the Trans-Am and Can-Am, quit the SCCA, and started his own professional racing sanction, called the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) which quickly rose to prominence.

For 1977, the SCCA decided, despite F5000 being in good health, they would try and inject some of the old Can-Am Sports Car magic back into their ranks, and enforced radical new changes, requiring all cars be fitted with a Sports Car body. Essentially, the new-look Can-Am was a sort of middle ground between the old original series that took place from 1966 – 1974, and F5000, as the cars were still limited to 5 litre stock block motors, and a single, central seat.

To suit the new 1977 rules, McRae grafted a quite unattractive looking body over his GM3 chassis, that did just enough to cover the wheels. It incorporated a front wing mounted above the bodywork, a narrow rear wing, and retained the interesting clear Perspex cockpit cover. With little funding, McRae missed the first four rounds, appearing for the first time at Mid Ohio, where he qualified 13^th but failed to finish. His next outing was at the final event of the season, at Riverside, where he qualified 11^th and finished an encouraging sixth.

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Elsewhere, Formula 5000 was steadily falling out of favour. The European series was struggling for numbers, and for 1976, had morphed into the G8 Championship, in which any stray Formula 1, Formula 2, Formula Atlantic, or Formula 5000 car could compete. New Zealand held its last International race for F5000 in early 1976, and soon introduced Formula Atlantic as its premier single seater category. But F5000 was still in good health in Australia, with full fields and strong competition.

So, following the Riverside Can-Am event, McRae retro-fitted the GM3’s F5000 bodywork, and sent the car to Australia, to contest the four-round 1978 Rothmans International Series. At Sandown, he qualified third, but failed to finish. At Adelaide he qualified seventh, and finished fifth. At Surfers Paradise he qualified 14^th, nearly 3 seconds off pole, and finished seventh. Things improved for the final at Oran Park, where McRae qualified second, and finished third.

In the three-round Australian Gold Star, McRae fared much better, winning both the Sandown and Calder rounds, and placing fifth at Oran Park to emerge as the 1978 Australian Gold Star Champion.

Following its Australian races, McRae sent the GM3 to New Zealand, where it was completely rebuilt for the SCCA Can-Am series. It was lengthened, widened, and the brilliant Steve Roberts crafted the most magnificent swooping alloy body. Underneath, the McRae featured ground-effects, and was devoid of front and rear spoilers. Such was the transformation, it was given a new designation, re-emerging as the GM9.

Beautiful and impressive as it was, funding was in short supply, and as a result, the rebuild had been slow. Painted silver, the vast GM9 finally made its SCCA Can-Am debut at the final round of the 1980 series, at Riverside, where McRae failed to record a practice time, and retired from the race with suspension failure after nine laps.

The 1981 Championship provided little joy for the under-funded GM9, which had now sprouted a full-width rear wing. At the opening round at Mosport, McRae was out of the race after four laps with more suspension problems. At Round 2, Mid-Ohio, he qualified 13^th and finished 11^th. He was entered for Watkins Glen, but failed to start the race. He also failed to start at Road America. He skipped Round 5 at Edmonton, Round 6 at Trois-Rivieres, and Round 7 at Mosport, returning for Riverside, where he qualified tenth, and finished seventh, albeit, four laps down. Having qualified 15^th at Laguna Seca, McRae was involved in a shunt, and failed to finish. In the season finale at Caesars Palace, he qualified 11^th but failed to finish. No doubting, it had been a miserable season.

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The only outing in 1982 for the GM9 was at Riverside, where McRae entered and practiced, but didn’t start the race. Frustration, a lack of results, and lack of funding forced retirement for McRae, who was now in his early 40s. He sold the GM9 to Andrew Ratcliff, who entered just a single Can-Am event in 1983, at Sears Point, where he qualified 14^th, but failed to start the race. He also contested the SCCA Nationals at Riverside, and US Championships at Road Atlanta, where he finished fifth. Ratcliffe entered the 1984 Riverside Can-Am race, but didn’t appear. And with that, the final curtain appears to have been lowered on the spectacular McRae GM9.

There is no doubting McRae still had it as a driver. But his performances in the magnificent GM9 were hindered by a lack of funding. It would have been interesting to consider what could have been achieved with strong financial backing, as the car in its Can-Am form certainly appeared to have potential. The first couple of seasons of the new central-seat Can-Am series featured largely Lola T332 F5000 based cars with hastily prepared sports car bodywork draped over the top. Had McRae possessed the funding to speed up the rebuild process from GM3 to GM9, and take advantage of the transition, with its ground-effects, and McRae at the wheel, could it have been a winner?

The McRae GM3/GM9 is now owned by the Rush family in New Zealand. It remains as last raced, in GM9 Can-Am guise. They also own the clear Perspex cowl from the GM3, and both are displayed in their impressive private motoring museum. The GM9 is brought out on occasion at historic racing events, with Tim Rush at the wheel. He openly admits to finding the ground-effects a little daunting, and has yet to explore anywhere near the big cars adhesion limits. To fully take advantage of ground-effects does require a certain amount of blind faith that the car is going to suck itself onto the road through cornering, and not be spat off into the scenery. It’s an internal psychological battle in which the brain needs to be disengaged at the point where it thinks the brakes should be applied, and continue on at full speed. For Tim, as an amateur enthusiast in a valuable race car with virtually irreplaceable bodywork, there is nothing to be gained, and he is happy to stay well within the GM9s limits.

But it’s a great car to see, and its sheer size is something to behold. Tim and his father Terry are genuine enthusiasts, and enjoy bringing this special car out for others to enjoy as often as they can.

Thanks to David Blanch at Autopics www.autopics.com.au for the black and white GM3 photo that leads this story, Geoff Russell for the colour photo of the GM3 in Post 2, Daniel Mensinger for the use of his father John Mensinger’s photo in Post 3 of the GM9 on debut at Riverside.

Steve, thanks for a great article on the McRae F5000 history. So many great memories of the man and his beautiful cars, he deserved all his success and more. Possessed of a controversial personality, there is no telling what he may have achieved as a driver or an engineer if he had not tended to rub people up the wrong way. I still reckon his name belongs up there and just below the Hulme, McLaren, Amon names. It's a pleasure to see so many of the beautiful "coke bottle" GMs still being punted hard against the dominant Lola T300s 332s and 400s. They were possibly the nicest looking F5000s IMHO.

Again, thanks for the well penned articles.

Fully agree with Murray on all his points - a great car a really great engineer/driver and still great looking car to my eye. Pity that the man keeps disappearing on us.

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Originally Posted by Murray Maunder

Steve, thanks for a great article on the McRae F5000 history. So many great memories of the man and his beautiful cars, he deserved all his success and more. Possessed of a controversial personality, there is no telling what he may have achieved as a driver or an engineer if he had not tended to rub people up the wrong way. I still reckon his name belongs up there and just below the Hulme, McLaren, Amon names. It's a pleasure to see so many of the beautiful "coke bottle" GMs still being punted hard against the dominant Lola T300s 332s and 400s. They were possibly the nicest looking F5000s IMHO.

Again, thanks for the well penned articles.

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Thanks Murray, I appreciate that. Glad you enjoyed it.

We all know where Graham is at this time in his life, and we cant help which is sad, all we can do is wish him all the best at this time and look back at what he did for our sport here and around the world.We may not see Graham out there these days,but some of him is out there in his cars that we see today.

Only found out last week (after 2 years) who the chap was that walks past my place most week days. It is Graham McRae. I will see him in the weekend.

Huge thanks to Terry Rush, for putting together the following info, which he emailed to Graham McRae to confirm as correct. Interestingly, Graham owns the road car licence plates GM1, GM2, GM3!

"This car was built from the original GM3

"Built in 1976 as a GM3 Formula 5000, one-off car built with distinctive transparent cockpit cover. He finishd a very respectable
6th in itsfirst race at Riverside, but failed in the final. Unfortunately this was the last ever International race for Formula 5000
open wheeled racers in the USA. Was then turned into a single seater Can-Am in 1977, and was really no quicker.

"1978 re-built into a F5000 for the Australian Rothmans Series, and won the Australian GP, at Sandown, and another victory
at Calder a month later and brought, the Gold star Championship that year. In 1979 continued racing in the Rothmans series.

"1979 the car was returned to New Zealand where Steve Roberts (Wanganui ) created this incredible GM9, and sadly turned
into be a disastrous one-off Can-Am car, was tested at Mosport In Canada, with its first race appearance at Riverside (R10-26 Oct 1980) a further Seven appearances in 1981 (two DNS, three retirements, best finish of seventh).

"What Graham experienced there was what would become a familiar term in ground effects Formula One- it was called porpoising.
As he went faster the nose was sucked to the ground to such an extent that no air went under it at all,. The complete lack of air
would cause a loss of down force and the car would lift and repeat the cycle again. It went from huge grip to no grip on a fast curve. Graham went over some bumps and the car jumped forty five degrees, and pointed him straight onto the grass.

"The car was not a great success in Can-AM however McRae struggled for meagre results for most of the season. The GM9 was to win its first race in Mexico only a few days after McRae sold it. It languised in storage in USA and Mexico before being brought by
Roger Williams and imported back to New Zealand.

"In January 2009, the car was purchased by Terry Rush for the Rush Collection, and to be driven by son Tim, in historic meetings in
New Zealand".