SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series trio Michael Collins, Steve Ross and LeRoy Stevenson drove home the incredible legacy of category original Graham McRae at the third round of the 2019/20 season’s series at the Skope Classic motor racing meeting in Christchurch over the February 01-02 weekend.
All three were driving cars designed by Wellington-born McRae, who as well as being a talented engineer was also one of the greatest drivers of the original F5000 era.
McRae won the Tasman Series (after which the current SAS Autoparts MSC Revival Series is named) three-times (1971, 72 & 73) and went on to win the Rookie of the Year title at the Indianapolis 500 in 1973.
Cars of his design have won races as well as the Revival Series title before, but this year’s Skope Classic was the first in which there were 1) so many entered – four – and 2) their drivers effectively dominated the meeting, culminating in a history-making podium lock-out in the feature Stan Redmond Memorial trophy race on Sunday afternoon.
Making the occasion even more special was the fact that all three cars, the Leda LT27 004 driven to victory in the second and third races by category young gun Michael Collins, the very first ‘McRae’ F5000, Leda LT27 001 driven by LeRoy Stevenson, and the McRae GM1 of first race winner Steve Ross all have strong ties now to the Mainland.
Queenstown man Alistair Hey and his partner Vicki own both Leda LT27s – the blue-and-yellow-striped white 004 car (#940) driven by Michael Collins from Christchurch, and the distinctive fluro-pink STP-liveried Leda LT27 001 (#22) which Graham McRae started the line with, and used to win the Tasman Series back in 1972, and is now driven by former Invercargill, now Queenstown-based LeRoy Stevenson.
Alistair and Vicki Hey also owned the car Steve Ross now drives, build number 009 at the McRae Cars factory in the UK, when Christchurch ace Chris Hyde won the MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival title in 2008 in it.
Steve Ross then went on to win the series three more times – in 2012, 2013 and 2015 – making McRae GM1 009 the single-most successful car in the 16-year history of the world-leading local now SAS Autoparts and MSC-backed NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival historic motor racing series.
Buoyed by the success he enjoyed with the 009 McRae GM1, Hey sought out others to breathe new life into, his next project the car Michael Collins now drives, Leda LT27 004.
Originally purchased from the factory as a spare car for top US driver Evan Noyes’s use in 1973 it then passed through a number of hands before being acquired by Auckland classic racer Roger Williams, then Hey.
Once in his possession, Hey commissioned a complete ground-up rebuild by Graham McRae (who had returned home to live in the late 1980s) himself, around a ‘tub’ (monocoque) restored by world-renowned specialist Steve Roberts from Whanganui and using suspension components crafted by Ed Vaughan and an engine built to McRae’s specifications by US specialist Marcovicci-Wenz Engineering.
Since being offered the drive in 004 Christchurch ace Michael Collins has been a regular race winner in the car which he and his father Mark now prepare and run on behalf of Hey.
The original Leda LT27 001 Graham McRae used to dominate the 1972 Tasman Series and win the 1972 US Formula A championship (and which Leroy Stevenson says he is now privileged to drive) is arguably THE most significant cars now competing in the SAS Autoparts MSC Revival Series.
That car was burnt out in a trailer fire after McRae had sold it to Wellington racer Dexter Dunlop, but Hey commissioned a rebuild around what parts remained, including a number supplied by the original owner, the Heynes family, from the UK, and McRae Cars Ltd.
Hey describes the process, as ‘a real team effort,’ with the tub constructed by Burkes Metalworks in Christchurch, fibreglass
components recreated by Don Weir, fabrication and assembly by Motorsport Solutions and – as with the rebuild of the 004 car – ‘a huge amount of input and help from (Auckland-based classic racing car specialists) Duncan Fox and Tony Roberts of Group 7 Sportscars.’
