Zach Brown remembers the first time he visited the Grand Prix

Zach Brown is a highly respected figure in the motorsport world, not only because he manages McLaren Racing and co-owns the United Autosports team competing in the WEC, but also because he sometimes still gets behind the wheel of a race car.

For example, this weekend at the California circuit in Long Beach he will drive the historic car Williams FW07, with which Alan John won the championship title in 1981. In addition, this is a car from Zack Brown’s personal collection.

Zach Brown: “I first went to the Grand Prix in 1981, it was a Long Beach Formula 1 race, but I remember it like it was yesterday. The cars were parked in a fenced area where today old cars participate in the race of historic vehicles.

After that Grand Prix I had a chance to talk to Eddie Cheever – in my opinion he took 5th place then. And then I returned here already in 1987 and met the legendary Mario Andretti, who was my hero. Then I decided to dedicate myself to motorsport. And today among my friends there are many famous racers, this is a great honor for me. I’m talking about Danny Sullivan, Al Anzer Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti – they are all legends of our sport.

In general, it all started in Long Beach for me. I can be considered a racing maniac, because I also collect cars – I’ve always done this, ever since I started competing in the junior series. But then they were just copy models, and now I have their bigger originals too! (laughs) I like it when people admire race cars.

Stars like Mario Andretti have made such an impression on me in their day that I feel it is my duty to let fans really enjoy the McLaren teams competing in Formula 1, IndyCar and other series.

And now we are preparing for the IndyCar race at this circuit, which will be entered by our Arrow McLaren team, which has always been competitive, but previously simply lacked the financial resources. We bought her, now she’s on a budget and all three of our riders can fight for wins.