Bruce McLaren had built up his car-building business to the point where he had a stranglehold on the North American Can-Am sports car championship, was competitive in Formula One and was producing very competent cars for other championship formulae.

Bruce himself was only 30 when George joined him but was widely regarded as a good driver and an even better car maker.

George’s initial nervousness about the contribution he could make to the team was pushed aside when the first person he worked with at the factory was a former motorcycle racer of his acquaintance from 1955. The ice was broken but the pressure of the new circumstances was draining on his health. When news came of his family settling in well on the Isle of Man he found it easier to devote himself to the challenge.

George worked extensively on the M6 Can-Am cars, joining the team (which included New Zealand’s 1967 F1 World Champion Denis Hulme) in testing and development. Bruce McLaren impressed him greatly, as an engineer and as a leader.

Moving into development of the awesome M8, George spent most of his time at McLaren’s working on the sports car program. Circumstances, however, took him to 1968 German Grand Prix as a mechanic for the Formula One team, even managing a lap of the original long circuit in the team’s station wagon!

McLaren’s death in a testing crash in 1970 was a shattering blow. George was to suffer a double blow with the sudden death of his business partner Spencer Allen only five days after Bruce’s funeral. Back into the Toyshop

It was too late to build a national championship car for the 1969 season so a stopgap car was built using experience gained from his time in England. The car was built as a spaceframe with panels rivetted to the frame tubes for rigidity.

The car used a 1600cc Vegantune Twincam as a stressed member and the finished product was very light and very neat.

The Begg Twin Cam (chassis seven) was first raced at the Lady Wigram Trophy meeting in January, 1969. The car was tricky to drive and despite Barry Keens’s best efforts the car was not a winner in its original form. The car was sold and a new project hatched - another big-engined sports car.

While with McLaren’s George had acquired a spaceframe of McLaren M1, the body of an M6, an engine from an M6, and gearbox and suspension parts from the M6-M8 project. Piecing these components together was probably more difficult than starting from scratch but the car, powered by a ferocious 5.9-litre Chevrolet, was finally ready. An inauspicious practice session at the Teretonga meeting meant the car would start from the back of the grid but after few exploratory laps Barry Keen gave the car its head, easily leading until the timing chain broke with two laps to go. The car was undoubtedly the best in its class in New Zealand.

At Timaru the next weekend the car was matched against the Begg Sports (now owned by Brent Hawes and fitted with a bigger engine) and an Elfin. The McBegg, as the car was nicknamed, for its McLaren-Begg origins, was not delivering full power but still took second place.

Hawes was to die in the Begg Sports some months later, the second driver to met his death in a Begg, though neither crash was due to the car’s failure.

Another parting of the ways occurred when Barry Keen decided that he was neglecting his farm and gave racing away. George rates him one of New Zealand’s most talented drivers who could have gone a long way in the sport. George recruited Geoff Mardon to take his place.

The McBegg, chassis eight, even broke the New Zealand land speed record at a top speed of 286kph.

The winning formula

The arrival of Formula 5000 marked a new phase for Begg Engineering. This category of single seater racing was being pursued in both Europe and the USA, and most builders were using 5-litre Chevrolet engines, though the rules allowed for more sophisticated engines of 2.8-litres. All engines had to be derived from production cars and the Chev seemed the most durable, and was certainly powerful.

George has bought back the Begg-Daimler from Lindsay Tosh and fitted a Chevrolet engine. This prototype, driven by Laurence Brownlie, was initially unreliable and a crash saw Brownlie call it quits. While car was raced, it was not by the Begg team, the McBegg also not racing again, being cannibalised for parts for the first F5000 car.

Formula 5000 was going to be expensive and the hobby basis upon which George was building cars had to give way to a more commercially based arrangement for Begg Engineering Ltd. One of the first decisions was to employ a good engineer to help develop the cars planned for the new formula. The right man was Fred McLean.

McLean had done time in British motor racing and race engineering, designing and building Titan cars. He became Begg Engineering’s first full-time employee solely working on racing cars.

The first car was the FM2 (FM1 was to have been a Formula Two car but was never built). Two were built (chassis nine and ten), both angular, wedge-shaped cars fitted with Chevrolet V8s, derived from the Chevrolet Camaro Z28. Graham McRae drove the first car, his McLaren not having arrived from England. First time out the car managed fifth, McRae gaining two thirds in quick succession.

Mardon then took over the car, while chassis ten was driven by Pierre Phillips from the USA in the international series at the start of 1970. Several frustrating non-finishes were followed by a second and a third for Mardon, while McRae used the car to win at Timaru to clinch his Gold Star national championship, his McLaren being in Australia. Mardon used the other car for a win, a second and a sixth to take third in the Gold Star. McRae’s win was Begg’s first Gold Star victory.

FM2/9 was sold to Neil Doyle who raced it successfully, and FM2/10 was also sold off in 1971.

Over the winter of 1970 three Formula Ford chassis were built (chassis 11, 12 and 13) under the designation FM3, though the cars were bare chassis with suspension, destined for customers.

FM2/10 was overhauled and improved to the extent of a strong win first time out at Pukekohe. Geoff Mardon was maturing as a driver and the team was finding reliability through better engineering.

Work was begun on a new car for Geoff, something lighter and longer in the wheelbase. The FM4 that resulted was one of the best of the series.

Gold Star success

While the FM4 (chassis 14) was essentially an uprated FM2 it used McLaren wheels and uprights, a Stanton-built Chevrolet and Hewland gearbox and showed the benefits of the new design strategy.

Doyle (FM2), Leonard (FM2) and Mardon (FM4) front row, Ruapuna March 1971

After early failures while the team sorted the car out, Mardon won at Pukekohe and Ruapuna in March 1971. George even put the car though the standing quarter mile at a club sprint, the car managing a quick 11.9 sec.

For the 1971-72 season, David Oxton was contracted to drive the FM4. Three wins and two seconds saw him take his first Gold Star driver’s championship, and the Begg Engineering team’s first national championship.

The car was sold to Ken Wright and was further modified. Success in Gold Star events during 1972-73 resulted in driver Garry Pedersen taking second in the championship.