Windsor has a proven track record in F1 team management, as well as being a familiar face to F1 viewers across the United States (LAT)
These days the United States doesn’t have particularly strong direct links with Grand Prix racing, but this week we had not one but two stories that made the connection.
Last weekend came the news that former McLaren and Beatrice/Haas team boss Teddy Mayer had passed away, and then just a couple of days later plans for a team to be known as USF1 began to emerge.
It was quite a co-incidence that the latter came so soon after the death of Mayer, the man who helmed the last major US effort in F1 with Carl Haas and Tyler Alexander. I didn’t know Teddy well, but I first met him at the Long Beach Champcar race back in 1988, and called him from time to time for help with stories that involved his personal history in the sport.
In one of them I delved into the story of his younger brother Timmy, my interest having been sparked by a visit to the Longford, Tasmania road circuit where Timmy was killed in 1964. I stayed in the famous pub that was just down the road from the accident scene, and where to this day Mayer’s helmet is housed in a glass case.
During my research I found out some fascinating stuff about the Mayer family, much of which had never been published before. Teddy was always described as the son of a stockbroker, but his family had a far more colourful history. Edward B Mayer Sr, who added the middle initial himself for effect, was in fact a decorated WW1 fighter pilot, serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1916, and later the American Expeditionary Forces.
On his return to the USA he married heiress Benita Guggenheim, daughter of famed Titanic victim Benjamin, and thus one of the richest women in the USA. After she died in 1932 Mayer married Marion Scranton, whose family was so well known in Pennsylvania that they had a town named after them. One of Teddy’s uncles became governor of the state, and at one time was a contender for the 1964 Republican presidential nomination, which eventually went to Barry Goldwater.
More topically, it emerged that Timmy’s college room mate and brother-in-law was one Porter Goss, who at the time I wrote the article – around three years ago – was director of the CIA. I even tried to contact him via the agency’s website, asking him for memories of Tim. I never heard back and to this day I am worried that instead I was put on some list of potential threats, whose email activities had to be monitored...
Anyway, the point is that despite his dour exterior, Teddy was a good guy, someone who achieved a great deal in his long career – not least his 18-year spell at McLaren, a stint that overlapped with Ron Dennis by a couple of seasons. Alongside Mario Andretti, Phil Hill and Dan Gurney I would suggest no other American has made such a major contribution to Grand Prix racing.
