Talon

Sam Posey in his Talon MR1. Image issued by Corel.

The Talon Formula 5000 cars were built from 1974 to 1976 in California by McCormack Racing Enterprises of San Juan Capistrano. They were based on the McRae GM2 which had first appeared at the end of 1973, won the Nov 1973 Australian GP but then had a disappointing run in the 1974 Tasman series. Graham McRae sold the design to Jack McCormack and the American built three cars in time for the start of the US season.

The new MR-1s were initially of the pace of the leading Lola T332s but could usually qualify comfortably inside the top ten and fight the Eagles for the minor places. At the end of the season, Chris Amon took a car out for the 1975 Tasman series and won at Teretonga, easily the Talon marque's best result.

For the 1975 US series, a two-car team of improved MR-1A was planned, alongside three customer cars, but only a single car for Warwick Brown appeared at the opening races. With the Lola teams struggling to make sense of their T400s, Brown was amongst the leaders at first - his fourth at Watkins Glen being the team's best US result - but dropped back as the season wore on. At Long Beach in September, five Talons appeared with Amon joining the Norris Industries-backed works team and three customers cars including one from the Interscope team.

The team soldiered on with a rebuilt car for Sam Posey in 1976 but the money ran out after a couple of races and the Talon name faded away. The monocoque of one car found a second life as the Wolf-Dallara Can-Am car of 1977 and two other talons were also converted for Can-Am service.

In 47 first class race starts, the Talons netted one win, one third and four fourth places. On top of Amon's amazing Tasman run, where he qualified second five times, Talons also qualified third a couple of times in the US. Give their primary competition was the unassailable Lola T332, it's a pretty good record.

It appears that the Talons weren't numbered although one of the 1975 customer cars is said to be chassis 007. Any help putting histories together for the individual cars would be most welcome. If anyone from the Norris McCormack team is reading this, please get in touch and help give this car the recognition it deserves.

Please email Allen if you can add anything.

These histories last updated on 8 November, 2018 .