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SOON A FULL F-1 BIOGRAPHY OF:
GANLEY, HOWDEN
Born 12/24/1941, Hamilton, New Zealand
35 Starts
10 points
New Zealander Ganley came to Europe in the early 60’s, cutting his teeth as a mechanic, and staying close to the paddocks. Eventually he made enough money and contacts to race in F-F and F-3, reaching some success against some fierce opposition. By 1970 he was racing in F-5000 and was runner up in that championship. On the strength of such performance, and with private sponsorship, Ganley landed the 3rd seat in the BRM squad, for 1971. After a slow start, including a retirement due to sunstroke in South Africa, Ganley got into the swing of things. BRM was having a relatively excellent year, and by the end of the season Howden was featuring in the top six: he was very close to victory in the Italian GP, a few hundredths of seconds behind his team mate Gethin. He ended up the year with 5 points, including the 5th place in Italy. So it was not surprising that Ganley was back in BRM for 1972, with a more leading role, given the deaths of both Siffert and Rodriguez the year before. The team would be introducing Marlboro as a sponsor, and had a novel approach to racing in the 70s: team boss Louis Stanley intended to field 5 cars in every race - a primary team (featuring Ganley plus Beltoise and Gethin), and secondary “country teams”. This proved to be the downfall of BRM. As one of the few teams that built its own engine, the British team went from race to race without knowing how many cars would start. By mid year, the “country” team scheme had disappeared, and BRM was fielding a more “sensible” three cars. However, this caused enough attrition in the team, to the point that Ganley was punished in the British GP. He came back at the Nurburgring , earning 4th spot, plus 6th in Austria, for a year total of 4 points. It was not surprising that Ganley was not called back by BRM for 1972, but he continued to be supported by Marlboro: he was one of the Williams teams drivers. The bad news was that the Iso Marlboro was pretty much the laughing stock of the 1973 field, and in only two occasions did Ganley look competitive: in Monaco, where he qualified 11th and ran close to the top 10 in the early part of the race, and in Canada, where the pace car mistakenly had him as race leader. Notwithstanding the mistake, Ganley finished 6th in the race, his sole point in 1973. For 1974, Howden began the year driving for March, finishing 8th in Buenos Aires and retiring in Brazil. He was then hired by the hapless Japanese Maki team, in which car Ganley didn’t look even close to qualifying, in the two occasions he was entered: Britian and Germany. In the latter event, Ganley was hurt in qualifying, and this wrapped up his F1 career. He continued to race in odd sports cars events, and eventually would found the Tiga racing concern with Tim Schenken.
OUT OF FORMULA 1Ganley was a front runner in British and Continental Formula 3 in 1969, and was runner-up in the 1970 Formula F5000 Championship. He came in second in Le Mans, 1972, co-driving a Matra-Simca with Francois Cevert.
He almost became a Formula 1 constructor in 1973. The backers for the Ganley F-1 project vanished, but the chassis almost re-merged as the Tiga, later on.
 | Cars driven: |
F-5000: McLaren
Formula 3: Chevron, Brabham
Sports Cars: Matra-Simca, Mirage, Chevron
Interserie/Can Am: BRM