How good was the Elfin boss behind the wheel of his
F5000 racers ? Did he improve with the years ?
In the MR 5 he often was seconds slower than teammate
McCormack, the record books say. But in 1977/1978 with the MR 8 he qualified closer to Schuppan, I think.
How do you rate him, Ray ?
And was there pressure from Ansett to replace him with
another driver ?

Certainly no pressure from Ansett, they hardly put anything into the team, if I've got my facts right.
McCormack could indeed eat him, but perhaps it was more a case of him putting more into his driving and tapering off his other responsibilities as a constructor when the MR8 came along. More than that, he had McCormack as team leader back in the early times, later on he was part of a group that were struggling to keep their formula alive. He had to go better, and he had a great car in which to do it. Shame the MC9 didn't get the run it deserved.
He was a third place man... that's how I'd rate him. He only ever won one major Australian race where there was significant competition, and everyone fell out in that.. though there were other factors and he had been leading quite early.. that was Mallala, 1970, I think.

Mallala 1969, second on grid (by 0.1sec) and fastest lap by a fair margin.
http://members.optusnet.com.au/dandsshaw/i...lts/races69.htm

Didn't he also win a Singapore GP?