David McKay was an Australian journalist and prominent motoring identity.

While most well known as a journalist, specifically as a motoring writer, McKay was also a prominent figure in motor racing as both a driver and a race team owner. That team, Scuderia Veloce

Scuderia Veloce

Scuderia Veloce was an Australian motor racing team founded by journalist racer David McKay that competed in many motor racing categories in the 1960s. The team is regarded as the first professional motor racing operation in Australia....

, was the first Australian-based professional racing team, and in addition to furthering McKay's own racing career also furthered the careers of many young racing drivers including Spencer Martin, Brian Muir and Greg Cusack amongst others.

In 1958 McKay won the Australian Tourist Trophy

Australian Tourist Trophy

The Australian Tourist Trophy is a CAMS sanctioned national motor racing title for sports car drivers. The title was awarded for the first time in 1956 and then annually from 1958 until the introduction by CAMS of an Australian Sports Car Championship for 1969...

 at Bathurst

Mount Panorama Circuit

Mount Panorama Circuit is a motor racing track located in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is the home of the Bathurst 12 Hour motor race, held each February, and the Bathurst 1000 motor race, held each October...

 in an Aston Martin DB3S

Aston Martin DB3S

The Aston Martin DB3S was a sports racing car built by Aston Martin as a replacement for the heavy and uncompetitive Aston Martin DB3. In total 31 cars were made, with 11 works cars and 20 cars being sold for customer use. The DB3S was introduced in 1953 and it proved somewhat more successful than...

. Then in 1960

1960 Australian Touring Car Championship

The 1960 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for drivers of Appendix J Touring Cars. The title, which was the inaugural Australian Touring Car Championship, was contested over a single 20 lap, 75 mile race held on 1 February 1960 at the Gnoo Blas circuit...

 McKay achieved the most memorable victory in his career, winning the inaugural Australian Touring Car Championship

Australian Touring Car Championship

The Australian Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing award held in Australia since 1960. The series itself is no longer contested, but the title lives on, with the winner of the V8 Supercar Championship Series awarded the trophy and title of Australian Touring Car Champion.-History:The...

 at the Gnoo Blas circuit

Gnoo Blas circuit

Gnoo Blas circuit was a motor racing circuit at Orange, New South Wales, Australia. The circuit was formed from rural roads and highways outside of the town, around the grounds of Bloomfield Hospital and what is now known as Sir Jack Brabham Park. It was 6.03 km long...

 in Orange

Orange, New South Wales

Orange is a city in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. It is west of the state capital, Sydney, at an altitude of . Orange has an estimated population of 39,329 and the city is a major provincial centre....

 driving a Jaguar Mark 1

Jaguar Mark 1

The Jaguar Mark 1 was a saloon car produced by Jaguar between 1955 and 1959. Referred to in contemporary company documentation as the Jaguar 2.4-litre and Jaguar 3.4-litre, the word "Saloon" was often added. The designation "Mark 1" was included retrospectively upon its replacement by the Mark 2...

. But for a post-race penalty for a jump start, McKay would also have won the 1961 Australian Grand Prix

1961 Australian Grand Prix

The 1961 Australian Grand Prix was a motor race held at the newly completed Mallala Motor Sport Park on 9 October 1961. The race had 17 starters....

 at Mallala in South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

 but instead finished 3rd, only 4 seconds behind Lex Davison

Lex Davison

Alexander Nicholas Davison was a racing driver who won the Australian Grand Prix four times between 1954 and 1961 and won the Australian Drivers' Championship in 1957...

 and Bib Stillwell. McKay drove a Cooper T51

Cooper T51

The Cooper T51 was a Formula One and Formula Two racing car designed and built by the Cooper Car Company for the 1959 Formula One season. The T51 earned a significant place in motor racing history when Jack Brabham drove the car to become the first driver to win the championship with a rear-engined...

-Climax FPF

Coventry Climax

Coventry Climax was a British forklift truck, fire pump, and speciality engine manufacturer.-History:The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, but two years later, following the departure of Stroyer, it was relocated to Paynes Lane, Coventry, and renamed to Coventry-Simplex by H...

 in the Grand Prix.

Interestingly, despite continuing to race various cars from open wheelers

Open wheel car

Open-wheel car, formula car, or often single-seater car in British English, describes cars with the wheels outside the car's main body and, in most cases, one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have their wheels below the body or fenders...

 to sports cars

Sports car racing

Sports car racing is a form of circuit auto racing with automobiles that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built or related to road-going sports cars....

 and Production Touring Cars

Group E Series Production Touring Cars

Group E Series Production Touring Cars was an Australian motor racing category for production based sedans competing with limited modifications. It was current from 1964 to 1972....

 until his last race, the 1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000

1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000

The 1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 was the 20th running of the Bathurst 1000 touring car race. It was held on September 30, 1979 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst...

 in a standard Volvo 242 GT

Volvo 200 series

The Volvo 200 series is a range of large family cars , produced by Volvo from 1974 to 1993, with more than 2.8 million units sold worldwide. The 200 series was essentially an updated version of the 140; both were designed by Jan Wilsgaard. It shared the same body, but included a number of...

 with Spencer Martin where they finished 20th, McKay never again contested the ATCC as a driver following his win in 1960.

McKay was also responsible for the first ever factory backed Holden

Holden

GM Holden Ltd is an automaker that operates in Australia, based in Port Melbourne, Victoria. The company was founded in 1856 as a saddlery manufacturer. In 1908 it moved into the automotive field, before becoming a subsidiary of the U.S.-based General Motors in 1931...

 team in 1968 when he formed the Holden Dealer Racing Team

Holden Dealer Racing Team

Holden Dealer Racing Team, , was an Australian motor racing team, backed by General Motors-Holden, which contested both the London–Sydney Marathon and the Bathurst 500 endurance race in 1968....

. The team ran 3 brand new Holden Monaro GTS 327's in the 1968 Hardie-Ferodo 500

1968 Hardie-Ferodo 500

The 1968 Hardie-Ferodo 500 was the ninth running of the Bathurst 500 production car race. It was held on 6 October 1968 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst...

 at Mount Panorama

Mount Panorama Circuit

Mount Panorama Circuit is a motor racing track located in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is the home of the Bathurst 12 Hour motor race, held each February, and the Bathurst 1000 motor race, held each October...

, Bathurst

Bathurst, New South Wales

-CBD and suburbs:Bathurst's CBD is located on William, George, Howick, Russell, and Durham Streets. The CBD is approximately 25 hectares and surrounds two city blocks. Within this block layout is banking, government services, shopping centres, retail shops, a park* and monuments...

. Jim Palmer and Phil West finished 2nd outright behind the winning Monaro of Bruce McPhee

Bruce McPhee

Bruce Alexander McPhee was a former Australian motor racing driver.He is most famous for winning the 1968 Hardie-Ferodo 500 , defeating both the Holden and Ford factory teams. He drove a Holden Monaro GTS327 painted yellow and black stripes with the number 13...

 and Barry Mulholland

Barry Mulholland

Barry Mulholland was an Australian racing driver.While a skilled racing driver, Mulholland was more infamously known as Bruce McPhee's 'contractual obligation' co-driver...

. Brian Muir and 1964

1964 Armstrong 500

The 1964 Armstrong 500 was a production car race held on 4 October 1964 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia. The 500 mile race was open to Australian built production sedans of which 100 examples had been registered...

 winner George Reynolds

George Reynolds (racing driver)

George Reynolds is a retired Australian racing driver.The career of Reynolds, who was born on 8 May 1928, extended from the late 1950s into the late 1960s...

 finished 5th while the Paul Hawkins / Bill Brown car was disqualified. The team then entered the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon

London-Sydney Marathon

The London–Sydney Marathon was a car rally from the United Kingdom to Australia. It was first run in 1968, a second event was organised in 1977 and a third in 1993 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the original. Two further rallies have subsequently been contested in 2000 and 2004.The original...

 under the name of The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

 under a sponsorship deal with the Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 newspaper where McKay was motoring editor. Mckay himself drove the lead car with Sydney's Barry Ferguson the lead driver in the teams second car while three time Australian Grand Prix

Australian Grand Prix

The Australian Grand Prix is a motor race held annually and is held to be the pinnacle of motor racing in Australia. The Grand Prix is the oldest surviving motor racing competition held in Australia having been held 76 times since it was first run at Phillip Island in 1928. Since 1985 the race has...

 winner Doug Whiteford

Doug Whiteford

Doug Whiteford was an Australian racing driver.Whiteford was best known as a competitor in the Australian Grand Prix which he won three times in four years. He was fondly remember for his Talbot-Lago T26 Formula One car which he used to win his second and third Grands Prix. His third win was at the...

 was drafted in to drive the third Monaro. McKay failed to finish, Ferguson finished 12th while Whiteford finished 14th.

McKay's career as a writer began in 1949 and he worked for The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph (Australia)

The Daily Telegraph is an Australian tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, by Nationwide News, part of News Corporation.The Tele, as it is also known, was founded in 1879. From 1936 to 1972, it was owned by Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press. That year it was sold to...

and The Sunday Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph (Australia)

The Daily Telegraph is an Australian tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, by Nationwide News, part of News Corporation.The Tele, as it is also known, was founded in 1879. From 1936 to 1972, it was owned by Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press. That year it was sold to...

from 1956 to 1975, first as a writer and later as the motoring editor.

McKay died on 26 December 2004.

Career results

Season	Series	Position	Car	Team
1958	Australian Tourist Trophy Australian Tourist Trophy The Australian Tourist Trophy is a CAMS sanctioned national motor racing title for sports car drivers. The title was awarded for the first time in 1956 and then annually from 1958 until the introduction by CAMS of an Australian Sports Car Championship for 1969...	1st	Aston Martin DB3S Aston Martin DB3S The Aston Martin DB3S was a sports racing car built by Aston Martin as a replacement for the heavy and uncompetitive Aston Martin DB3. In total 31 cars were made, with 11 works cars and 20 cars being sold for customer use. The DB3S was introduced in 1953 and it proved somewhat more successful than...
1959 1959 Australian Drivers' Championship The 1959 Australian Drivers Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for drivers of Formula Libre cars. The championship winner was awarded the 1959 CAMS Gold Star....	Australian Drivers' Championship Australian Drivers' Championship The Australian Drivers' Championship is a motor racing championship which has been contested annually since 1957 by drivers of cars complying with Australia's premier open-wheeler racing category as determined by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport. Since 2005 this category has been Formula...	10th	Cooper T51 Cooper T51 The Cooper T51 was a Formula One and Formula Two racing car designed and built by the Cooper Car Company for the 1959 Formula One season. The T51 earned a significant place in motor racing history when Jack Brabham drove the car to become the first driver to win the championship with a rear-engined...  Climax Coventry Climax Coventry Climax was a British forklift truck, fire pump, and speciality engine manufacturer.-History:The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, but two years later, following the departure of Stroyer, it was relocated to Paynes Lane, Coventry, and renamed to Coventry-Simplex by H...
1960 1960 Australian Touring Car Championship The 1960 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for drivers of Appendix J Touring Cars. The title, which was the inaugural Australian Touring Car Championship, was contested over a single 20 lap, 75 mile race held on 1 February 1960 at the Gnoo Blas circuit...	Australian Touring Car Championship Australian Touring Car Championship The Australian Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing award held in Australia since 1960. The series itself is no longer contested, but the title lives on, with the winner of the V8 Supercar Championship Series awarded the trophy and title of Australian Touring Car Champion.-History:The...	1st	Jaguar Mark 1 Jaguar Mark 1 The Jaguar Mark 1 was a saloon car produced by Jaguar between 1955 and 1959. Referred to in contemporary company documentation as the Jaguar 2.4-litre and Jaguar 3.4-litre, the word "Saloon" was often added. The designation "Mark 1" was included retrospectively upon its replacement by the Mark 2...
1961 1961 Australian Drivers' Championship The 1961 Australian Drivers' Championship was a CAMS sanctioned national motor racing title for drivers of Formula Libre cars. The title was contested over a five race series with the winner awarded the 1961 CAMS Gold Star....	Australian Drivers' Championship Australian Drivers' Championship The Australian Drivers' Championship is a motor racing championship which has been contested annually since 1957 by drivers of cars complying with Australia's premier open-wheeler racing category as determined by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport. Since 2005 this category has been Formula...	8th	Cooper T51 Cooper T51 The Cooper T51 was a Formula One and Formula Two racing car designed and built by the Cooper Car Company for the 1959 Formula One season. The T51 earned a significant place in motor racing history when Jack Brabham drove the car to become the first driver to win the championship with a rear-engined...  Climax Coventry Climax Coventry Climax was a British forklift truck, fire pump, and speciality engine manufacturer.-History:The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, but two years later, following the departure of Stroyer, it was relocated to Paynes Lane, Coventry, and renamed to Coventry-Simplex by H...	Scuderia Veloce Scuderia Veloce Scuderia Veloce was an Australian motor racing team founded by journalist racer David McKay that competed in many motor racing categories in the 1960s. The team is regarded as the first professional motor racing operation in Australia....
1962 1962 Australian Drivers' Championship The 1962 Australian Drivers' Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for drivers of Formula Libre racing cars. The winner of the title, which was the sixth Australian Drivers' Championship, was awarded the 1962 CAMS Gold Star.-Schedule:...	Australian Drivers' Championship Australian Drivers' Championship The Australian Drivers' Championship is a motor racing championship which has been contested annually since 1957 by drivers of cars complying with Australia's premier open-wheeler racing category as determined by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport. Since 2005 this category has been Formula...	5th	Cooper Cooper Car Company The Cooper Car Company was founded in 1946 by Charles Cooper and his son John Cooper. Together with John's boyhood friend, Eric Brandon, they began by building racing cars in Charles' small garage in Surbiton, Surrey, England in 1946...  T53 Climax Coventry Climax Coventry Climax was a British forklift truck, fire pump, and speciality engine manufacturer.-History:The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, but two years later, following the departure of Stroyer, it was relocated to Paynes Lane, Coventry, and renamed to Coventry-Simplex by H...	Scuderia Veloce Scuderia Veloce Scuderia Veloce was an Australian motor racing team founded by journalist racer David McKay that competed in many motor racing categories in the 1960s. The team is regarded as the first professional motor racing operation in Australia....
1963 1963 Australian Drivers' Championship The 1963 Australian Drivers' Championship was a CAMS sanctioned national motor racing title for drivers of Formula Libre cars with the championship winner awarded the 1963 CAMS Gold Star...	Australian Drivers' Championship Australian Drivers' Championship The Australian Drivers' Championship is a motor racing championship which has been contested annually since 1957 by drivers of cars complying with Australia's premier open-wheeler racing category as determined by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport. Since 2005 this category has been Formula...	3rd	Brabham BT4 Climax Coventry Climax Coventry Climax was a British forklift truck, fire pump, and speciality engine manufacturer.-History:The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, but two years later, following the departure of Stroyer, it was relocated to Paynes Lane, Coventry, and renamed to Coventry-Simplex by H...	Scuderia Veloce Scuderia Veloce Scuderia Veloce was an Australian motor racing team founded by journalist racer David McKay that competed in many motor racing categories in the 1960s. The team is regarded as the first professional motor racing operation in Australia....