48 replies to this topic

[Ray Bell]

A man who I believe contributed greatly to the motor racing scene in Australia through the fifties, sixties and seventies, David McKay has died aged (so the newspaper says...) 83.

I heard a few months ago that he was unwell, and unfortunately that is the way it goes with these things. I hadn't been able to get in touch with him in that time.

Others here will be more familiar than I am with David's career, but I'll outline what I can think of...

He was the son of Sir Malcolm McKay who was connected with Sydney's Daily Telegraph, so he became the motoring writer for that newspaper while also having a hand in other family interests.

He married Peter Antill's sister and he was close to Peter through the fifties and sixties. They competed together in round-Australia trials and it is probably in this area that David saw the potential for combining his newspaper connection with his competition for the purpose of attracting financial assistance.

When the newspaper's owners started Modern Motor magazine, David became the sporting contributor for major events, and from that position he put forward his views on how motor racing should be run in this country. He did this also in his sporting stories and columns in the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph.

His great attribute was an ability to write without fear or favour, and in his book Behind the Wheel in 1960 he tells of how he wanted to condemn a road test car. When there was a backlash from the manufacturer, who threatened to withdraw all advertising (it was Chrysler, IIRC), Sir Frank Packer told him (as owner of the paper) that his job was to write, others had the job of selling the advertising.

My good friend Bob Levett, who actually rang me to tell me of seeing the newspaper item relating to David's passing, devised the term 'gutful' to describe how David would write what he knew to be true as distinct from the way Mike Kable (principally) would write to pander to whomever... in other words in a 'gutless' manner. We have used this term in our conversations for forty years.

And so it was with David. If he wanted to say something, he would say it. In the paper, in magazines or in person. He put many offside with his way of doing things, but he stood his ground always.

In racing, I think he started with a TC, but I know he took on the Dick Cobden TC Special and raced it with gusto, proving it to be the fastest unsupercharged TC Special in the country.

As has been mentioned in another current thread, he went to Europe in 1955 and bought an Aston as part of the Kangaroo Stable and his racing escalated through the late fifties. Prying money from Ampol and Victa Industries (manufacturers of lawnmowers), he had a Jaguar sedan and a Cooper Climax by 1960 and won the Australian Touring Car Championship that year. The inaugural one... the one that will forever have him in the halls of fame around Australia.

But his racing of the Cooper was, I'm quite sure, more important to him. He sought to win the Gold Star for himself, as well as the Australian Grand Prix. And he spent less of his own money pursuing these goals than his fellow competitors, I am certain.

In 1961, after buying Ron Flockhart's Cooper 2.5, he went to the brand new Mallala circuit in South Australia hoping to win that coveted Grand Prix.

He had been outspoken about this event: "The truth is that the South Australians had realised Mallala wasn't ready for a major race, but under the present ridiculous rotational system it was their turn to hold the GP... So SA was forced into a premature GP... it was too late to do anything, and so the show went on - as shows have been going on all over Australia for the last decade, on circuits that are always going to be better but never are (Longford being the outstanding exception)..."

Mallala had been bought and put together in an incredibly short time simply because Port Wakefield had never been completed to its designed length and the CAMS had put their foot down and determined that a minimum length greater than that of Port Wakefield had to apply to a circuit running the AGP.

He didn't fare all that well in practice but he was on the front row. And he took advantage of the car's well known potential for launching itself off the grid to take the lead and hold it.

But his start was so good that officials decided he must have jumped the start, and so they put a one minute penalty on him and so his great drive to stay ahead of Lex Davison went unrewarded. I note that I have his autograph on the result page for this race in my copies of the AGP book... he included the letters 'SV' in that autograph. For 'Scuderia Veloce.'

Scuderia Veloce was his team, and as he raced in his final couple of years as a driver, and when he retired to become team manager, it was a team always at the forefront in the sport.

He was able to attract enough sponsorship to run first rate cars, getting a Brabham BT4 for himself in 1963 in a final effort to pin down Bib Stillwell in his pursuit of that Gold Star he desperately wanted to take away from the Victorian car dealers. David retired after the last race that series without having taken the title. He later reckoned that he'd retired too early, and I believe he was right.

Graham Hill was invited to drive for him in 1964 in the first Tasman Cup series, taking victory at Longford, but the car then went into the hands of Spencer Martin for the Gold Star series. Spencer was crewing on the car for Hill along with head mechanic Bob Atkin, and McKay saw it all as a good grounding for his young protege to be totally involved.

The Scuderia had other drivers. Most owned their own cars, some drove David's. Like the Lola sports car that looked so lovely in 1960 and didn't lose any lustre when Greg Cusack drove it. Touring cars were there too, Norm Beechey (a Victorian car dealer?) for a time with his old Holden, then Brian Muir with his S4.

In 1965, the year that David expected Martin's apprenticeship of 1964 should have paid dividends against the aging Bib Stillwell, there was a brand new Brabham BT11 and a Ferrari 250LM as well.

Here was another example of David's way of doing things. When the factory decided they needed to upgrade the homologation of the 250LM to 275LM, David made it very clear to journalists that it simply wasn't acceptable to call the car a 250LM any more. After all, it had a 3.3-litre engine now!

After Hill's running the car through the Tasman, Martin got into it for the Gold Star and chased Bib all year. But all was not well in the team, and after 1966 got underway, Spencer pulled up stakes and quit the team. It was a huge surprise in motor racing circles, and with Shell determined that they should be in pursuit of the Gold Star that had been BP's virtually since its inception, they had to make sure their driver remained in the hunt.*

They quickly arranged for Spencer to move to Melbourne and take up a post working and driving for the Bob Jane organisation. While David tried to press on with Jim Palmer (who couldn't get an Australian licence because of his monocular vision), Scuderia Veloce had to bow out of the race and Spencer finally took the title from a fresh field of newcomers like Geoghegan, Cusack and Bartlett by consistently putting his very reliable Bob Jane Brabham well up in the placings. David did put Jackie Stewart into his Brabham for a one-off race at the Surfers Paradise meeting.

When the split happened, Bob and I went into Geoff Sykes' office in Sussex Street in Sydney and sat down to talk during our lunch hour. We wanted to know what had caused the whole thing to blow up, so Geoff leaned back in his chair to commence to tell us.

"Well, Spencer is of the Roman Catholic faith," he began, carefully studying our reactions, "and Bob Atkin is a Seventh Day Adventist, and David is a Calathumpian or something..." The story unraveled that Spencer was left on his own on practice days, no Bob to help out, though others were present for minor things. And then on Sundays, the tow car, a Holden HD station wagon at that time, would be used by Spencer (when they were interstate at least) to go to Mass before the meeting. And these things contrived to bring insoluble divisions between them.

Despite Spencer's departure, SV did win the 12-hour race at Surfers, and did it two years in a row. David had actually donned the racing gloves and hat again in 1965, by the way, to co-drive the 275LM to victory at Caversham's 6-hour.

All the while he continued writing 'gutful' stories in newspapers about both new cars, road rules and racing. He took the NSW Minister for Transport on a run with him to Melbourne in a Holden Monaro, showing him the dangers of the Hume Highway, the country's busiest intercity artery, and told the story of the drive in the Sunday Telegraph. He also had to refer back to this story the following week after getting some flak from a reader.

And he did that in typical McKay style. The item that had caused the reader's hackles to rise was when he mentioned that he was cruising along munching on a Granny Smith apple. Apparently the reader felt that eating while driving was dangerous. David's response was along the lines of "...I took up munching on apples when I found that they didn't need to be lit and they didn't have ash to blow in your eyes when you opened the window and the burning end didn't fall off and land in your lap..."

A couple or three outings in the October Bathurst endurance race in Ford GT HOs saw him in the thick of it, though some people wondered a few years later when he ran a Volvo 242GT on radial tyres. But a lot of things had changed by then.

He was no longer doing his weekly Wednesday column in the Daily Telegraph, the writings that we always sought out eagerly to keep abreast of what was happening in racing those days. To his credit, Bob clipped all these out and has kept them.

But David's influence on racing was waning as he cut back his writing and headed for semi-retirement. He ran a gallery of some kind in Sydney's eastern suburbs (I think), left his wife and married a younger woman. She complained about having to go to Monaco every year at GP time, however, so she also found herself unwanted. David finished his days with a lovely Swiss schoolteacher who joined him at his family estate at Exeter on the NSW Southern Highlands.

But he wasn't out of touch in this period. He was instrumental in getting Larry Perkins into F3 racing in England, setting him up with money from the late Gary Campbell that helped put Carey Thompson in place as a manager and influence and introductions from David to people that mattered in British racing. Unfortunately, Carey died in a road accident during that time.

In 1978 I saw him very excited when the first race meeting featuring the new Australian F2 saw a nice full grid of very enthusiastic young chargers out to strut their stuff. David threw his weight behind open wheelers whenever he could, and this lot showed him it was all worthwhile.

Then he had input into the construction of the Galloway, helping Harry Galloway set up his workshop to build this car, with John Smith benefitting from this help. Larry Perkins' New Zealand attack in this era had McKay assistance, and that car went to Smith to elevate his career.

He joined forces with Graham Watson when it was time for Formula Atlantic to take over from the ailing F5000 as our national formula and kept on pushing these classes in the face of the dominant tintop culture.

But the time came for him to back off. He wrote the occasional story for Motor Racing Australia and lived in comfort at Exeter until this year.

There will be those who hated him in the sixties who will now say, "You know, David did know what he was on about. Maybe we should have listened to him." But most of those who should have said this are already gone. But they probably said it silently years ago.

But David never said things silently...












* It might be a tad out of place, but it's of note that Shell's investment in SV during 1965 was 50,000 pounds. This bought the Ferrari and the new Brabham, while David's negotiations for starting money and the prizemoneys etc meant that the team came out at the end of the year owning the two cars and having covered all running expenses. For Shell, this huge investment was primarily aimed at getting them the Gold Star... they therefore had invested heavily in Spencer and weren't about to lose their chance.

[MattFoster]

Farewell to a true legend of Australian Motorsport and journalism

RIP

[eldougo]

Strangly i had just seen this pic of him today... Very sad lovely man.



The caption says Jack Hinxman leaning over David McKay at the ARDC club 1968. he was at that time the Holden Dealer Team Manager.

[David Shaw]

Farewell David, and thanks for your fantastic contributions.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by eldougo
.....The caption says Jack Hinxman leaning over David McKay at the ARDC club 1968. he was at that time the Holden Dealer Team Manager.

Entering the Monaros for Bathurst in 1968... yes, I forgot that...

That was the year he brought Paul Hawkins and Brian Muir from England to drive for him... and had to sent Bill Brown out with Hawkeye's armband on to get a time for him!

And let's not forget that time when Spencer put the Brabham into the haybales at the Longford Viaduct... and David brought out the 275LM (no helmet or driving suit... just drove it out among the Tasman qualifiers running in a session mixed in with faster sports cars) for Spencer to keep on practising.

[David McKinney]

Very sorry to hear this
He was a true gent

[SV8]

RIP David another great of the Australian Motoring and Motor Racing scene who has left us

[eldougo]

I have found a few more pics of this great Australian.......
This pic was taken just after he had come 2nd in the Horden Trpohy race at Warwick Farm in 1963,and it was sadly the last race of his career.


This one is David in a Elfin Mallala lining up on the front row for the cars 1st race of course at Mallala Raceway in SouthAustralia. He like his cars to be No7.

[Graham Gauld]

David's death was no surprise. On my return from Australia three weeks ago there was a letter waiting for me from David. I think the following two quotes from the letter illustrate what a brave and yet amusing guy he was.

"Sorry to tell you it is unlikely I shall be around much longer - Christmas seems the end-off point - my mid-year operation for Stage III melanoma ( reminds me of the MG Tuing booklet!) was not successful..............................Still it has been a good 83 years.......I shouldn't be greedy.......Death can be inconvenient at times, other times a blessing........enjoy your 70th and all the best for the future : David"

He will be missed as, to me, he was a great Australian icon and a thoroughly nice person.

GG

[275 GTB-4]

David was the closest thing to being a member of Australian Motor Racing royalty we have - certainly a Hall of Fame inductee (if we had such an institution).

I thoroughly enjoyed his writings in the Telly and Modern Motor etc

My avatar is a shot of a magnificent Ferrari 275 GTB/4 owned by David.

another one bites the dust....and thankfully, lucid till the end at 83......RIP David

[Ray Bell]

Graham... that is just so David!

Thank you very much for sharing that with us.

Remembering how David used to get around the pits at times with his shirt off... I wonder if that's how he got the exposure that contributed to the Melanoma...

Doug, I have just been given a few slides from the first race meeting I attended, the one where he visited the toilet mid-race. There are a couple of him... I'll be scanning them and posting them when I get back to Brisbane.

[Arturo Pereira]

RIP

[Doug Nye]

I never met him - never knew him - but only ever heard people speak of him in the best terms. RIP - some great tributes here, a credit to you Ray and Grem...

DCN

[Catalina Park]

David was a guest of honour at the recent historic meeting at Wakefield Park and during a talk he gave he mentioned that his "Red Book" was going to be reprinted and the money raised was going to a worthy cause, his wife!

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Doug Nye
I never met him - never knew him - but only ever heard people speak of him in the best terms.....

Ah... but it wasn't always so...

Doug, you would have liked him, maybe finding him somewhat distant at times, but you just knew that he was an enthusiast with his heart in the right place. He could get so excited about proper motor racing where drivers gave their all in cars built for the job.

But there were some who didn't see his visions or dream his dreams. There were some who were never in synch with him at all... so when Bob and I wrote our famous letter to RCN in 1967 there were comments made to us that implied we had been wrong in defending what David wrote.

In fact, there was always somebody ready to condemn David's point of view. Whether it was a John Keeffe or a Max Stahl or a Jack Hinxman or a John Sheppard or a Bruce Burr, they all took a turn at knocking David or his views.

And he always bounced back, ready for more, but always with the future of motor racing, proper motor racing, close to his heart and mind.

It's no surprise to me that he was at Wakefield Park... what, six weeks ago?... nor that he provided for his lovely wife in that way. She was, it seemed to me in my brief time with them one day at Exeter, a perfect companion for him in his latter years.

I reject the thought of those being his 'declining years' because I know David was not declining in his mind. He hadn't grasped the principle of fax machines when I was on the verge of going onto the internet, but he was still in touch with the things that always mattered to him.

Among them was living a good life and making sure that his views were expressed if not understood.

His career, just to add a couple more oddments to the long list, included retiring his Monaro from the London-Sydney event of 1968 and then driving across the country flat out to be in Sydney for the finish. And then he got that Cologne Capri for one of those rally-and-race Dulux events, just to give the Holden Dealer Team competition.

I think of those key figures I've mentioned in this thread. Bob Atkin is gone, Geoff Sykes is gone, Peter Antill is gone, Brian Muir is gone, the list is getting smaller all the time.

As thoughts flow I keep thinking of this same time, or rather the last few weeks, of Mike Kable's life. He had telegrams and letters from all sorts, Stirling Moss included. And he had visits from so many people in motor sport and motor sport journalism.

I doubt that David had those... for while Mike wanted to know that people knew who he was, David always was. Ironically, I only ever once saw a chink in this, and it related to me.

Having travelled through the night to a Surfers Paradise race meeting with Mike Kable, I gave David the same kind of nod and 'hello' that I did wherever I saw him... Longford or the Farm or Sandown. But this time he realised that I was more or less with Mike, so he took the trouble to take Mike aside some time later.

"Who is that young man," he asked, "I seem to see him everywhere!" Mike answered as well as he could, I suppose... "Well, his name is Ray Bell, and the reason you seem to see him everywhere is that he is everywhere!"

David was not one to be flamboyantly out with the lads after practice day, but he would be at a nice restaurant and then maybe take a stroll and then head for bed. Something like he expected of his serious drivers, no doubt. And as I recounted earlier, there were some drivers.

But of the survivors, I think you can count on Spencer Martin being there for David's final goodbye. Likely Chris Amon as well, and maybe Greg Cusack. Unless they've provided for a very private service, I'd expect it will be a handsome crowd.

[brickyard]

I never thought, when I've started the "cangaroo stable thread" some days ago, that one of the persons mentioned would end his life so near.

I didn't knew him, but I join you all in your sadness.

Luis Mateus
www.geocities.com/portugalracers/

[ReWind]

This is his biography on the BRDC website. Also pay attention to the two image archive links showing him at the Bathurst 100 in 1962 and at his last open wheeler race in 1963 (same picture as an Doug’s post # 8 but bigger and better ;) ).

At the bottom of this page there is an article by David McKay.

BTW: Can somebody tell us on which day exactly he passed away?

[Ray Bell]

I will check the date for you, ReWind, but I think it was Sunday December 26.

That picture of David on the BRDC site is the same as the portrait pic eldougo posted, though a more complete version.

I suspect that David always regretted the decision he made to retire...

[Falcadore]

In almost every way David McKay's achievements and efforts were before my time, yet from the time I learnt to read, (I mean read of matters of importancerather than of cats on mats) I was aware of the name.

His name and his team Scuderia Veloce propagated through my discovery of the sport.

I will not miss him, I never knew him, but the sport will and his name is writ all over the post war racing (and motoring in general) in Australia.

[SV8]

Originally posted by Ray Bell


. Bob Atkin is gone, Geoff Sykes is gone, Peter Antill is gone, Brian Muir is gone, the list is getting smaller all the time.

Ray, when did Bob Atkin pass away???

[SV8]

I was just thinking. Only a couple of weeks ago the current owner of SVM, Sir Fred Sutton passed away.

[Ray Bell]

Bob Atkin died some time within the last year...

I hadn't seen him for years, but when I last did I had to recognise that motor racing was really changing in Australia... it was at Winton in the eighties, when the 2-car Volvo team were running in the ATCC.

Bob came strolling through the paddock in his suit and tie, carrying a briefcase. We had a few words and he went on, but I had to reflect that the suit and tie and briefcase method of going motor racing was all new to me. And to him as well.

He'd always shown a very high level of competence in his race car preparation, whether that was because of his own innate abilities or his nous in knowing just who to employ as his helper. Probably both.

Then he built the SV empire to what it became (remembering that it was the McKay/Antill connection that gave them the Volvo franchise), eventually spreading beyond Sydney and into Canberra... where I was so amused by the mispronunciation of 'Veloce' in the radio ads that I dropped in one day to see if they might get them corrected.

Questioning the Sales Manager about the correct method of saying the word, he said "I guess it depends on what part of Sweden you come from."!

I guess Sir Fred Sutton was of the Suttons Holden family, David had connections with them too.

By the way, SV8, what's that pic in your avatar? I know it's The Loop at Amaroo... but what car? Maybe you should post about yourself in the Introductions thread at the top of the page...

[SV8]

The picture is of an XU1 at the loop at Amaroo, possilbly Colin Bond I think..

[Lotus23]

Slightly OT, but not much: melanoma is nothing to mess with. Most skin cancers are quite slow-growing, but not this one. Those of us of a certain age need to keep an eye peeled for it.

Mine was found between my shoulder blades: who ever checks there? Fair skin and sun exposure increase the risk, and I had both. I was very lucky that it was found early on. After cutting a 3" piece out of my back, the docs said they'd gotten it all and I had an excellent long-term prognosis for survival.

Next time your doc wants to check you head-to-foot, let him.

[Ray Bell]

Yes indeed... it was to this vicious cancer that we lost my friend Michael Lance back in '83. He'd found it too late, had a huge chunk carved out of his thigh, but six months later was told it was all bad news.

My wife, however, got lucky. Even though she found the lump on her lower leg (probably irritated a mole by shaving, another way they can get started), and told me when it first started to change in shape and colour, she didn't go to the doctor for another six weeks. He took a biopsy, immediately booked her into hospital and she had a chunk taken out all around it (a 'wide excision' they called it). But even so, a year on she had lumps in her groin. These were removed (the lymph nodes are there to filter out such things and had caught cancer cells on their way to other parts of the body) and we're now about twelve years down the track. The doctors say she's okay.

No, it's not a thing to ignore, and it's rampant in Australia where the sun and surf are promoted heavily to 'bronzed Aussies'...

[Dick Willis]

I too was at Wakefield just on a month ago, we had heard David was coming and guessed that he would be using his opportunity to bid everyone a final farewell. He read from a prepared speech, with difficulty, reminiscing of his past and one could not escape the feeling that he felt he had had a fortunate life, which indeed he had.

A large crowd had gathered and we had a feeling of sadness that we would not be seeing this legend of Australian Motor Sport again.

On arriving home I just had to re-read his last book, David McKays Scuderia Veloce, which I thoroughly recommend as a testament to his career and as a history of Australian Motor Sport, especially the decade from the late fifties, through his eyes.

[Thunder Road]

Message of Condolance: Quote; Please express my sympathy and respect to David's family and friend's, Bob Jane

[brucemoxon]

*sigh*

There goes another one. I'd heard he was unwell. I only met the man once - on the day he'd just had the restoration finished on the LM 250 (which I only now find was a 275 - but no matter) and brought it to Amaroo Park - to a AARC meeting - to do a few laps.

That howl from the engine - such music and not to be bettered until the Adelaide race with the 312. I have to agree with the comment regarding the Volvo at Bathurst - one has to wonder why.

Anyway - he was very courteous to a gormless 17 year old fan.

I'm very sad that he's gone - I guess that whole generation will be gone soon. I hope I can go with the same dignity. Oh, not that I'm going any time soon (as far as I'm aware).



Bruce Moxon

[Dick Willis]

Bruce, if you can get hold of a copy of David's book you will understand why he drove the Volvo at Bathurst, it all becomes perfectly logical, especially in David's perspective.

[brucemoxon]

Oh, OK - thanks Dick

Dad has a copy - I read it a thousand years ago so don't remember it much.




Bruce Moxon

[brucemoxon]

http://cgi.ebay.com/...4513835484&rd=1


I'm assuming this is not the book to which we have been referring.

Funny how some names pop up in unexpected places. There's a Moxon who's the legal bloke for the Church of Scientology.




BM

[Ray Bell]

For over thirty years I have been guided by some very special words whenever I write or read an obituary...

They were penned by the scholarly Donald Kingsley Thomson, Secretary General of the Confederation of Motor Sport on the occasion of the loss of that great motor sportsman, Glynn Scott:

An obituary is not a biography, designed to paint the definitive picture of a man, with his faults evaluated equally with his virtues. The convention of such tributes often tends to invest those who have gone with a sort of aura of unalloyed goodness which is at odds with all human experience; and hence obituaries must be read for what they omit as much as for what they include.

He went on to say that 'it was not so with Glynn Scott'... and I would have to agree with him. But it's the principle that attracts me to these words, the need that there is to be forthright in writing words about the departed and the need to be discerning when reading them.

When Mike Kable died, there was a raft of high praise in the several obituaries his contemporaries put together to fill a page of The Australian newspaper. Many hundreds of words, thousands in fact. Praising Kable took up a lot of the page, but fortunately his flaws were not forgotten either. But some were.

One of those who joined in that spree of revealing writing was John Smailes, a sometime fellow worker of both McKay and Kable. Today's Daily Telegraph carries his quarter of a page about David. The same picture of the forlorn second placegetter at Warwick Farm is used.

He has mentioned many of the things that have been mentioned here, but he remembers that David won the Australian Tourist Trophy as well as the Australian Touring Car Championship, and he tells more about his exploits bucking the system when cars presented for road test weren't up to scratch.

Apart from the Valiant episode I described, he tells of 'when a new Japanese import seemed too fast...'

...he had the gearbox dismantled.
He found the wrong gear ratios had been fitted, so he put the parts in the boot and stranded the car on the Pacific Highway to await collection by its distributor.

I can just picture Bob Atkin taking the box apart and pushing the car out in front of the Shell service station at Wahroonga, leaving it to form an obstacle for the morning peak hour!

But one thing he's included is I think a very thoughtful piece, perhaps it's a final chance for David to have his say on an important issue he thought deeply about:

In the last few years McKay had actively petitioned politicians to make road safety a part of the school curriculum starting in kindergarten.

"It is too late to teach youngsters in high school when they've already developed poor attitudes to road safety!" he said.

And while it might not be a surprise that the final points Smailes raises includes the fact that David reckoned Stirling Moss was better than Michael Schumacher, both for his versatility and his sportsmanship, he also included those left behind.

David is survived by his wife Annie Chabert and his daughter Josephine, known as Holly. Each now have lost a large part of their lives, it's appropriate that we should think of them.

[SV8]

In todays Daily Telegraph there was a story on David McKay, here is the link,

http://dailytelegrap...storyid=2438541

[Ray Bell]

Not the Smailes story, or if it is it's been condensed and had an error or two introduced!

David hasn't spent a lot of time in Switzerland for several years, though he did while Annie was still working. This story makes it sound like he flew home just in time to order his coffin.

What it does remind me, and I should have included this earlier (and Smailes included it as well) is that David took a hand in promoting the interests of Chris Amon when he was young, giving him a 2.5 Cooper to drive in several races.

[SV8]

No that link I posted is by some one other than Smailes. The Smailes article isn't on there for some reason

[eldougo]

I just found out that David McKay was cremated today in a private service and a function will be held soon for invited guest to bid him farewell.

[William Dale Jr]

Very sad news; we've lost far too many people this year.

My dad always tells me about the time he and his mate were at Sandown running his mate's Lotus Seven, and David was there with the 250LM. At the time, the brakes were pretty average on the Lotus; dad remembers that at the end of the front straight, from the point where his mate got on the brakes, the Ferrari would go up another couple of gears before getting on the brakes!

RIP David McKay

[275 GTB-4]

Originally posted by 275 GTB-4
David was the closest thing to being a member of Australian Motor Racing royalty we have - certainly a Hall of Fame inductee (if we had such an institution).

I thoroughly enjoyed his writings in the Telly and Modern Motor etc

My avatar is a shot of a magnificent Ferrari 275 GTB/4 owned by David.

another one bites the dust....and thankfully, lucid till the end at 83......RIP David

I must apologise, I quite innocently associated David McKay with the magnificent 1965 275 GTB/4 Ferrari in my avatar.....it is ex-Bill Brown and (was?) owned by Max? Lane.

I seem to recall some sort of association with David and this car....but not sure, so apologies....

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
.....I have just been given a few slides from the first race meeting I attended, the one where he visited the toilet mid-race. There are a couple of him... I'll be scanning them and posting them when I get back to Brisbane.

And here they are, courtesy of Alan Hyde of Port Macquarie...



Clearly a spectator photo... taken by someone who's run to the fence and sneaked one where he shouldn't!

David is hustling here to try and get some sort of a move on Bib, while the latter is already moved well over ready to be on the inside for Creek Corner, 600 yards distant. Ironically, I was watching from pretty much the same spot on the circuit!

[Ray Bell]

Max Stahl has sent me these details...

Friends and admirers of the late
DAVID McKAY
who passed away on Boxing Day
are invited to gather and Celebrate his Life
from 2.00pm until 5.00pm on Saturday, 19th February
at CHATS AT THE RANCH (formerly El Rancho)
cnr Epping Rd and Herring St., Eastwood
(Entrance and Car Park off Herring St)

Everyone is welcome – please tell your friends

To assist with Catering, your RSVP by 16th Feb will be appreciated

Anyone in a position to attend has been asked to let Max know... give your name and the number in your party to him on 02 4975 5600.

[Ray Bell]

A lovely touch of David's eccentricity!

Today's Sydney Morning Herald carries a report from Peter McKay about David... in part it reads of this addendum in the reprint of his Scuderia Veloce book:

"I can promise there will be no third autobiography for I have a rendezvous with the feiry furnaces and a once-only check on the efficacy of Nomex," wrote David of his cremation wearing his old fireproof Nomex race suit.

I told you he was an enthusiast through and through!

[eldougo]

Having just returned from the Celebration of David McKay function today ,i thought i let you know that it was well attended and we had a great time hearing stories about the life of this great man.The room had a great display of photographs of his cars ,his team and himself.

It was organized by some of David friends Spencer Martin being the main one. They had a DvD running all the time with an interview that John Smailes had done not so long ago and it was great to head David talk about his life ,some great stories about his driving and Journalist lives.
Speakers where Max Stalh , Spencer Martin ( David thought that Spencer was the SON that he never had) they where very close. John Smailes & another chap i cant remember his name.they all conveyed tails of what David had done to their lives .

We had Frank Matich there (He said to say Hi Ray).also Bill Brown ,Ron Tauranac, John Martin, Ray Gulson, Allan Webber ( Marks Dad) he won a book donated by Fred Vogel and the money raised went to make perpetual trophy for Group N touring cars that David started off in and it will be awarded to the winner in historic racing in the future.

Other in attendance where PeterSimms & his BrabhamRepco V8 that was on display out front in the car park with David McKay name on both sides a lovely touch.We had TNFer’s Barry Lake, Damon Beck and your truly.Members of the H.S.R.C.A. An loads of men and there wifes that had been touched by this lovely man at some time in his long life.
RIP David McKay.

[Catalina Park]

Thanks for that Doug.

[eldougo]

I forgot to post this pic taken at David's wake last month.



Hosting by ImageShack.....

[sandy]

A shot of David, hopefully of interest. (Note the quality headrest on the DB3S)

[sandy]

Another pic

[Ray Bell]

Nothing like a racing car that's registered for the road!

Where were those taken, sandy? Not Carrathool by any chance?

[sandy]

Fisherman's Bend 1957. The photographer was Don Westaway, a portrait photographer in Melbourne, who had just discovered motor racing as he commenced losing his sight resulting from war injuries. His innovative and skilful photographic skills would have produced some marvellous images of racing cars and motor racing personalities.

[eldougo]

Nice pics there Sandy..