'At what age did you decide you wanted a career in motorsports and why?'

 

'My interest in cars, was from quite a young age and it was probably when I was about seventeen or eighteen, that I could see there was possibly a opportunity to not necessarily make a career in motorsports because that came a little later but Bruce McLaren was my great friend at the time, both growing up together and motorsport was our real passion and although we were both training to be other things I was doing business management and he was doing engineering for the use of the future. I think once you have a passion for motor racing in your blood it’s very difficult to change and we just hoped that an opportunity would arise and lead us to expanding our interests in motor racing overseas.' 

 

 

 

'Was being in motor sports your first choice of career?'

 

'No it wasn’t, like most young people going through your tertiary education you have ideas about what you would be doing in your future. I always thought I would be in business in one form or another, doing finance or business management, When I was about 17 or 18 I thought there might be a possibility to make a career not necessarily in motorsport as that came a bit later. Bruce McClaren was a great  friend at the time, we were both growing up together, motor sport was our real passion, although we were very young and training to do other things, I was training in business management and he was training in engineering with a view to the future. I think once you have a passion for motor racing in your blood it is very difficult to change. We just hoped that an opportunity would arise that would lead to us expanding our interest in motor racing overseas.'

 

 

 

'Who has been your greatest influence professionally on your motor sports career and why?'

 

'There are two people, one was the New Zealander Bruce McClaren who was my best friend and we were in the UK together when the racing team was formed. The other was Sir Jack Brabham ( The Australian) who was a mentor for Bruce and myself.  He was largely responsible for getting us to go to the UK, he followed our careers and offered me a chance to work with him in a management capacity and Bruce was starting his racing career.   Jack Brabham  was an amazing influence on both of our careers and continues to be a great friend today and I just recently spoke to him the other day, he lives in Queensland.'

 

 

 

'How important have your friends and family been in terms of realising your dreams?'

 

'Very, very important really, I think no matter what profession, trade or type of work you want to do, as part of your career you really need family support number one. If you have your friends who share similar ideas, that is also very important. My mother and father were very supportive and never indicated that I shouldn’t do motor racing. I also had the support of Bruce McClaren’s family, between our two families we had a great deal of support. When we were overseas we depended on friends and were lucky enough to have a number of those. You need that fall back position, you need that support in order to eventually succeed. You cannot do anything totally on your own in this life time.'

 

 

 

'What three attributes do you think you require in order to succeed in today’s competitive world of motor sports?'

 

'One is having a passion for whatever you want to you do, you have to both enjoy and love doing it. Once you have determined what you want to do that gives you a positive view and a path to achieve it. The second thing is determination to succeed and follow the path and open different doors, you are always going to pursue that dream and try and achieve the success you have in your mind. The third is, never giving up, you are always going to have setbacks along the way, but you must never give up on wanting to achieve. You need to retain those three characteristics and you have a little luck along the way.  I think then we can all achieve pretty much what we want to, if we set our minds to it.'   

 

 

 

'What one piece of advice would you give to a young person who is embarking upon a new career path?'

 

'The first thing as already mentioned is determination. Then take advantage of your educational opportunities to give you strength and depth in pursuing your career. The other is deciding that once determining the path you are going to follow that you are determined to succeed. In one simple sentence, if you have a dream, live your dream and you will see success at the end of the rainbow.'

 

 

 

'Can you describe the most defining moment of your career?'

 

'During one’s career one is always going to have several. But reflecting on Jack Brabham giving us the opportunity to go to the UK to start our careers there. A  defining moment is that when I had been there a couple of years and had been working with Jack Brabham. He won the world championship for drivers in two successive years, that was very much a defining moment as he had then achieved his ultimate goal and I knew then that if you set your mind on achieving something, the trick was to follow that same path.'

 

 

 

'What was your motivation in writing your book?'

 

'There was probably more than one. Some journalist friends of mine and other people had been asking me, why don’t you write a book about all the time you spent in motor racing? I thought about it and thought, no it was probably going to be too difficult. In the end one in particular Tom Nyle convinced me I should do it, and he was a huge help in taping material with me and helping me prepare the book. I was then able to write a book very authoratively from the inside, because I was in the teams that I was associated with. So I could give a very accurate idea of what went on from the inside of motor racing. As opposed to other journalists who had written from the outside relying on what they have been told or read about, they were therefore not writing from their hearts. There is a very distinct difference between the two. The more I progressed with the book I thought, this is a good opportunity to have my life time recorded.  Once you have got it written down and recorded it is part of your own history. Once I had finished the book even though it took an immense amount of work I was very happy that I had done it.'

 

 

 

'What does an average week of work consist of and how many hours a week do you do?'

 

'Motor racing is a sport that never sleeps, A because you would be racing all over the world for most of the year, so you have a lot of travelling involved. By its very nature, in that you are always trying to improve the race cars, there is an immense amount of work involved in building the cars, testing them and going to the race meetings.  Although it was not literally a 24/7 it was a seven day operation and you worked however many hours was required for the completion of a project, completion of getting a car built, or whatever you needed to do in terms of completing the days of practice required for the Grand Prix or any other race we were required to do, the hours were very long. It was very hard work for everyone in the teams, not just our teams, every teams. It was hard work and you had to be very dedicated.'

 

 

 

'What did you have to sacrifice in order for your career to survive?'

 

'The main sacrifice made was not spending time with family and friends, this was difficult for both Bruce and Jack as well as all of our family and friends were on this side of the world. Working long hours, reduces your social life and affects other things you would like to do, simple things like going to the cinema or going out for a meal. You just would not have the opportunity to do these things very often.  You are sacrificing some of the other enjoyments in life in order to follow your profession.' 

 

 

 

'How important was your team in ensuring the success of your career?'

 

'In two words very important. The whole essence of a team in motor racing is building a team who all share the same passion, interest and desire to succeed with everyone pulling in the same direction and avoiding a tug of war within the team. We were very lucky we had a wonderful team and all enjoyed our successes together.'

 

 

 

'What is the greatest challenge you have faced and how did you overcome this?'

 

'We were faced with many challenges, some were relatively small some were large. The biggest one was when Bruce McLaren was tragically killed in an accident at Goodwood testing our car. I thought this was a challenge I might not overcome, we were devastated as a team from McClaren. We were lucky to have a great driver working for us who then became our lead driver

 

We put up a big poster of Bruce on the wall and we looked at this poster every day and pretended he was still with us.  This helped us to succeed and ultimately win the World championship. This was the greatest tribute we could pay to Bruce.'

 

 

 

'In your own words, what is the key to success?'

 

'One, focusing on what you want to achieve and being very determined.  Making sure you identify opportunities and grasp them when you have them. Being prepared to work hard and work long hours. The only time success comes before work is in the dictionary.'