To Finish First

Life-long friend and former co-director of Sir Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren reveals the inside story behind the successes and tragedies, the deals and disasters, of the Cooper, Brabham and McLaren teams during the 1960s to '70s, a period widely recognised today as the golden years of international motor racing.This lavishly produced book fills an important gap in the history of top-level motor racing during an historic era. The author was at the centre of it all, first as Sir Jack Brabham's right-hand man during his leadership of the Cooper team, and later when he formed his own Brabham Racing Organisation.Subsequently, when Phil Kerr joined his great friend Bruce McLaren, to become joint managing director of an ever expanding company which was to achieve unrivalled success in Can-Am racing as well as being at the forefront of Formula One, he and his colleagues had to cope with the tragedy of the founder's untimely death while testing a car at Goodwood. The author's description of how the shattered team was saved and ultimately restored by the bravery of Bruce's co-driver Denny Hulme, already sidelined by agonising burns to his hands, is a poignant highlight of his elegantly written manuscript of more than 120,000 words.Printed on high-quality art paper and beautifully illustrated, with a balanced mix of racing and off-duty pictures, many being seen for the first time, in addition to 15 reproductions of the paintings by the renowned artist Michael Turner, this is a handsome book being made available at an attractively low price.

About the Author :
Phil Kerr was Sir Jack Brabham's partner during his World Championship-winning years, first with Cooper and then with the Brabham Racing Organization before joining his friend Bruce McLaren as joint managing director of a team which combined Formula 1 with domination of Can-Am racing and the Indy 500 scene. Today he continues to honor his late partner's memory through his McLaren memorabilia business in his native New Zealand. Sir Jack Brabham is a Triple World Champion Formula 1 driver in Cooper and Brabham cars and an elder statesman of the historic motor racing scene.Sir Jack Brabham is a Triple World Champion Formula 1 driver in Cooper and Brabham cars and an elder statesman of the historic motor racing scene.

Review :
To finish first - first you have to finish' - this was the motto of Bruce McLaren, who established a Formula 1 team, which is one of the most successful one these days. Phil Kerr, McLaren's life-long friend chose the first part of this very apt sentence to be the title of his book. The author had started his carrier as a racing driver, just like McLaren, but later found his place in motor sports as a team manager. Thanks to that, he is supplying first hand information to the readers which is not at all common in other motor racing books. His memory is sharp as a razor and not only tells the readers what happened but also explains why. This excellent book was published by Motor Racing Publications Ltd and distributed by Vine House Distribution Ltd.