Full Throttle

American Teddy Mayer, the former McLaren Formula One boss who won titles with Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt in the 1970s, has died at the age of 73.

Mayer became one of the most successful team managers and owners in Formula One, IndyCars (CART) and the former Can-Am Series.

“Teddy was one of motor racing’s few truly great men,” McLaren team principal Ron Dennis, who succeeded Mayer after buying his shares in 1982, said in a statement on Sunday.

“He was part of the very small team of talented enthusiasts who, alongside Bruce McLaren, founded Bruce McLaren motor racing.

“The origins of our many and ongoing successes are with Bruce and Teddy,” added Dennis, who is himself handing over as team principal to Martin Whitmarsh next month.

“As far as I and all at McLaren are concerned, he has particular importance, on account of the fact that in 1963 he was part of the very small team of talented enthusiasts who, alongside Bruce McLaren, founded Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd.

“Those fantastic cars - the magnificent McLaren Can-Am cars driven by Denny Hulme and Bruce himself and the superb McLaren CART cars driven by guys like Johnny Rutherford, as well as James’s and Emerson’s iconic McLaren M23 Formula 1 cars - grace the boulevard reception area of the McLaren Technology Centre today.”

Mayer passed away at his home in England on Friday 30 January. He is survived by his son Tim, currently the chief operating officer of IMSA and the American Le Mans Series, and his daughter Anne.

NOTE: The image is of Teddy Mayer’s McLaren Ford M23B that James Hunt drove to the 1976 championship. James won the final event of the year in Japan but only after an epic struggle with Niki Lauda who had returned after a fiery accident at the Nurburgring that nearly cost him his life.

Hunt won that race and five others in ‘76 to force a championship showdown with the miraculously recovered Lauda in the last race of the season. It was so wet in Japan that Lauda decided it was too dangerous to race and parked his Ferrari after a couple of laps. Hunt stayed out in his McLaren and drove furiously to finish third and become World Champion.