For any Australian driver to make it in Europe is tough now, let alone back in the 1970s.
A few drivers chanced their arms and made the trek across in the 1960s and 1970s, with one going on to win the World Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship.
The likes of Larry Perkins, Alan Jones, Tim Schenken and Vern Schuppan all had varying degrees of success in Europe, but one just fell short of achieving a career breakthrough.
Brian McGuire was best friends with Alan Jones and the duo made the leap to go try their hand in Europe.
A race winner in the British Formula Ford Championship at Lydden Hill in 1969, McGuire took a break of a few months to run the Windmill Motor Caravan business in England before stepping up to Formula 3.
Running under the Australian International Racing Organisation alongside Alan Jones and Allan McCully in the 1971 British Formula 3 Championship, with McGuire finishing eight on nine-points in a title won by fellow Aussie Dave Walker.
While Walker went on to infamously join Lotus in a title-winning season for Fittipaldi, while he scored zero points.
McGuire returned to Formula 3 in 1972 and was 11th in the standings compared to Jones in seventh.
The next challenge for McGuire was Formula 5000 where he entered an uncompetitive Trojan. A switch to a title-winning Lola proved a more successful option.
A switch up in the regulations allowing Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula Atlantic open-wheelers to compete together under the Shellsport International Championship led McGuire to purchase a Williams FW04, chassis #01 in fact.
It was in the FW04, McGuire became the first to win a race for Williams at Thruxton in 1976.
Outside of this race win, successes were few and far between in the FW04 for McGuire as his entry was rebuffed by organisers for the British Grand Prix.
McGuire’s determination failed to dissipate and he got Mike Pilbeam to tweak a second FW04 chassis christened the McGuire BM1-Ford.
Again entering the British Grand Prix, McGuire was accepted, but failed to make it through pre-qualifying.
Returning to the Shellsport International Championship after his frustrating British Grand Prix campaign and arrived at Brand Hatch for Round 11.
During the warm up, McGuire driving the BM1-Ford approached Stirlings when the halfshaft broke and failed to make the bend leading to a sequence of flips landing it violently into a marshals’ post.
McGuire was killed in the impact and three marshals were recovered from the bush, one passing away in hospital and two were seriously injured, but survived.
Although falling short of competing in Formula 1, McGuire’s legacy continued through best friend Jones as he climbed to the top of Formula 1 tree three-years later.