Larry Perkins can lay claim to being one of the few Australian drivers to reach the pinnacle of Formula 1, which followed a glowing career in the junior categories.
Deciding to delay his pursuit of a career overseas afforded to him by winning the 1971 National Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series, Perkins recognised he wasn’t ready and gained experience at the Holden Dealer Team helping prepare the squad’s entries for competition, while also winning the Australian Formula 2 Championship.
Perkins had a major supporter in Elfin founder Garrie Cooper and this provided the opportunity to race at the inaugural Formula Ford Festival at England’s Snetterton circuit.
Entered in Cooper’s first Elfin 620 against future Formula 1 drivers Danny Sullivan, Patrick Neve and Tiff Needell, Perkins performed strongly to finish third.
Thus, this started Perkins’ five-year career in Europe beginning in Formula 3 against the likes of fellow Australian Alan Jones, who dominated the early running. Reliability was poor early for Perkins and it wasn’t until he raced at the GP de La Chatre in France when he took a win, but the season was character building to say the least.
One thing to come out of the season for Perkins was a relationship with one Bernie Ecclestone, which led to a Brabham Formula 1 seat in 1976.
If 1973 season was tough, 1974 proved a breakthrough after making contact with Chris Amon after the New Zealander had started his own team.
The full Nurburgring Nordschleife is a scary proposition at most times, but to race a Formula 1 from early-1970s around there was another thing and in Amon’s AF101 Ford, it was made tougher.
Bad sinuses and a resultant cold forced Amon to install Perkins in to make his debut if he made it onto the grid, but he didn’t qualify.
Focus on 1975 was the European Formula 3 Cup in which fellow Australian Ron Tauranac was crucial to the success Perkins enjoyed.
“I remember a rather tatty Formula Three GRD which he was using in races all over Europe. I put in a few rivets for the lad and gave him some helpful advice and I had often thought it would be nice to provide him with something really competitive to race, so I decided to design a chassis which he and his mechanic could build up themselves,” Tauranac told Motorsport Magazine.
“(Larry) had no money and asked me to help him redesign a Formula 3 car he had bought. After looking at it, I said, ‘We can do better than this’, so I built him a car with Greg Siddle doing the management bit. Larry began to progress.”
During the closing months of 1974, Tauranac designed the Ralt RT1 and Perkins won three round on the way to the title, which led to another chance in Formula 1 courtesy of Dutch Boro squad, but it was a testing period until Ecclestone gave him a call to fill-in at Brabham.
A stint at the once great BRM was disappointing as the team wound down and another shot at Surtees proved a failure to conclude an unfulfilled Formula 1 career for Perkins.