McRae was born in
Wellington, New Zealand. As a qualified engineer, McRae competed in local sport car racing and hillclimbs in the early 1960s, notably at Levin and began to compete seriously in the 1.5 twin cam formula, which used an old F3 chassis. After running a dated
Brabham chassis, McRae built a slim, McRae, National Formula car which dominated the 1968–69 series, beating talented opponents in
David Oxton,
Ken Smith and
Bert Hawthorne. McRae also ran in the four NZ rounds of the
Tasman Series, Before entering Formula One, McRae placed third in both the
1970 Guards European Formula 5000 Championship and first in the
1971 Rothmans European Formula 5000 Championship. He won a number of rounds, but was hindered by some accidents, one serious, and impatience which earned him the nickname, 'Cassius' (after the boxing champion) reflecting his strut and belief in the greatness of his own talent. Fields were strong in European F5000 at this time and McRae was competing against former F1 drivers
Brian Redman,
Trevor Taylor,
Mike Hailwood and
Frank Gardner, all world class drivers and
Peter Gethin and
Howden Ganley in works backed McLarens. McRae was Tasman Series Champion three years in a row, from 1971 to 1973, also taking the US F5000 Championship crown in 1972, with three race wins. The US 5000 championship win in 1972 was a noted achievement against competent F5000 and World Championship sports car drivers
David Hobbs and
Sam Posey and McRae won a lot of money and laurels, and drove with control despite also competing in the
1972 Rothmans European Formula 5000 Championship, in which he placed third. In the combined F1/F5000 International Trophy, McRae finished seventh, the first F5000 car and for a while had run ahead of Graham Hill in a F1 Brabham BT34 and kept up with the F1
McLarens of
Denny Hulme and
Peter Revson, this reflected the very good race car set up skills of McRae on his Leda F5000. McRae would probably have got a regular F1 drive if he had not been a difficult customer and probably too old at 32 in most teams' eyes to be developed as a serious F1 driver. He was offered a drive in F1 at Nivelles when
Jackie Stewart suffered an ulcer, but could not fit it into his demanding programme. He did race for
Frank Williams in the British GP the following year but it was an uncompetitive chassis, and a good start was ruined by the multi-car crash which stopped the race after a lap. In 1973, McRae faced much stronger competition in US F5000 with F1 drivers
James Hunt and
Jody Scheckter having far better financed efforts and more support. McRae also contested the
1973 Rothmans 5000 European Championship, but recorded only one round win, at
Mallory Park. 1974 was McRae's last good year and despite lack of finance and contractual disputes over his new McRae GM2 and its Talon derivative, McRae finished eighth in the US F5000 series and would have been fifth if he had not lost third place with tyre failure at Las Vegas, where he was running ahead of Unser. After writing off the GM2 in practice for the Oran Park, the Tasman round at the start of 1975, McRae contested the US F5000 National Travellers Cheque series, in a Lola T332 which showed promise in the heats, finishing fourth behind J.P Jarier at Watkins Glen and second in a heat at Laguna Seca to Al Unser, ahead of Warwick Brown and qualifying eighth at Long Beach, but never finished better than eighth in the main race during the series. McRae debuted his new GM3 at the last US F5000 race in Riverside in 1976, and retired from midfield. The car featured
Perspex windows in the cockpit (like the
Tyrrell P34), so the spectators could watch McRae at the wheel. But with the US F5000 regulations being changed to require the cars to carry Can Am sports car bodies, McRae took a year to revise the GM3 and unsponsored he could not pay for competitive engines, and privateer competition against the Haas or Paul Newman teams was hopeless. In 1978, he won his fifth F5000 title, the
Australian Drivers' Championship. == Death ==