Friends for Life
Hingham, MA. It was the mid 1950’s and they were buddies in
high school. Tyler Alexander, Paul Wuori and Larry Cronin all loved cars and tinkering
with them. They also had the same passion for scuba diving, photography and
model airplanes. Tyler and Larry once rigged up a plastic box and their Argus
camera to use on their dives. Tyler’s dad, Jim, was a master welder, and he
taught the kids to weld properly. After high school, Tyler went to Wentworth Institute
and studied aeronautical engineering while Paul and Larry developed their own
businesses. But they were always friends and spent much of their youth together.
A nearby Hingham neighbor was John Field, a successful National Champion racer of a 500cc Norton powered formula car. John was a very competitive driver and as he befriended the boys, they became a part of his team.
Interest in racing was growing rapidly in the mid-fifties. The Nassau Speedweeks, with their great weather, party-like atmosphere and attractive British resort hotels became an exotic racing destination in December. Hosting races on an abandoned airfield during Nassau’s slowest tourist period proved a low-cost boon for the business community and was an excellent location for an end-of-season party for racers from Europe and America.
As a National Champion, John Field was invited to Nassau and
Paul, Larry and Tyler went along to care for the car. During the week of
partying and racing the boys met other Americans and a Kiwi who would change
their lives. The Americans were Roger Penske based in Philadelphia and John
Mecom of Texas, plus Timmy and Teddy Mayer of Scranton PA. The Kiwi was Bruce
McLaren. Spending a week together they learned about each other and Tyler went
to work as a race engineer first for John Mecom’s racing enterprise and eventually
for Bruce McLaren.
The program with McLaren Cars began easily enough; Bruce was planning to contest the United States Road Racing Championship (USRRC) for Group 7 cars with a modified Cooper F1 car that he had bought from Roger Penske. Tyler and fellow New Zealander Wally Willmott were charged with preparing the car in Hingham. Paul and Larry helped them bring it to USRRC races and were part of the support team. As the racing grew in popularity, so did the McLaren company.
The team moved to Livonia, Michigan, and Tyler moved to England. The company was competing in Formula One in Europe and the Can-am and Indy car races in America. Whenever they were needed, Larry and Paul would drive or fly out to crew for the team on weekends. It was a great time for the three friends from Hingham to all be involved in some way with the famous McLaren team and they tell wonderful stories of early day racing with Bruce McLaren. There was nothing they wouldn’t do for him. Paul felt very close to Bruce and even today considers himself “most fortunate” to have known Bruce and been part of the early McLaren experience. When Tyler first went to England, he lived with Bruce and his family. Bruce McLaren was a remarkable person and his death was a major tragedy in all their lives.
After Bruce’s death, Teddy and Tyler took over the team, as the company grew, even though Tyler had moved back to the US to supervise the Indy car business, there was far less time for the three friends from Hingham to be together.
Today, though still involved, Tyler no longer has official
responsibilities with the McLaren team. Paul keeps busy working on his hot rod
pick-up and other projects, Larry lives on Nantucket where he builds water-gardens.Their boyhood interests persist. Tyler and Larry still scuba dive and Tyler’s
photography has been exhibited internationally. Since the 1970’s they all have
been meeting in Nantucket every June to go fishing. They then attend the
Canadian GP together in Montreal.
Paul and Larry are recognized by the team as founding members and Tyler makes certain that the current McLaren team all gets to spend some time with his friends. Just like the old days, they watch the race from the pits. They all marvel at how things have changed since their early USRRC days when they would tow race cars across the country on open trailers and then try to get back to Hingham for Monday’s work day.
In their company you see the ease that fifty plus years of friendship has wrought.
A friendship that began with cars in Hingham Massachusetts.