John Nicholson

John Barry Nicholson (6 October 1941 - 19 September 2017): New Zealand racing driver from Auckland whose father was an armourer in the Air Force and raced powerboats. In his youth John helped prepare them, and after leaving school he worked for an engine reconditioning business. In his final exams after a four-and-a-half-year engineering apprenticeship he earned the top marks in the whole country. He decided to head to England with an ambition to race in F3, and after earning some cash as a mechanic in the Far East he arrived on 9 May 1969.

Nicholson was the 1973 and 1974 British Formula Atlantic champion using a Lyncar chassis, and in his 'day job' was an engine-builder for McLaren. He established Nicholson-McLaren Racing Engines in early 1973. That year Denny Hulme scored the new company's first GP win in Sweden, and later Peter Revson won at Silverstone and again in Canada. He won two Formula One World Championships as an engine builder, taking Emerson Fittipaldi to the title in 1974 and James Hunt two years later.

Using his own BDA engines he won Formula Atlantic titles in 1973 and 1974 against quality opposition including Tom Pryce, David Purley, Alan Jones, Tony Brise, and Jim Crawford. He participated in two Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 20 July 1974, scoring no championship points. Following his Formula Atlantic success, Nicholson commissioned Martin Slater of Lyncar to build him a Formula One car despite, by this time, having established his own engine building business which meant he was unable to commit to a full grand prix season. His race entries were mainly in non-championship races.

Lacking a proper budget, Nicholson only made three appearances, all in the UK. He was a non-classified finisher at the Race of Champions in March and in April finished a respectable sixth at the International Trophy. He entered the British Grand Prix in 1974 and 1975 and qualified for the latter race, finishing classified 17th five laps behind despite crashing in the heavy storm towards the end. Nicholson subsequently planned a further and stronger attempt at Formula One with a privateer McLaren M23 but the purchase fell through.

He did continue in both Formula Two and Formula 5000 in 1976 before racing in his native New Zealand in January 1977. After retiring from racing, Nicholson turned his sporting attention to powerboat racing as well as continuing with his business interests.