You couldn’t move in the UK last week without hearing the beery ‘It’s coming home’ refrain being sung across the pubs and gardens of the land.

The old England football song, released more than 20 years ago, is something of a national anthem, a bittersweet symphony. It’s not, as some critics have suggested, a chorus of confidence; more a song about both success and failure. Ultimately, it’s about how sport gives us this cyclical reason to hope and believe.

And who doesn’t need a little bit of that these days?

At McLaren, we’re no stranger to success or failure – what team is? – but we know there are moments when it’s necessary to celebrate.

So when Johnny Rutherford, McLaren’s IndyCar stalwart who brought home two Indy 500 victories for the Papaya Orange squad in the 1970s, suggested a visit to McLaren – to officially return ‘his’ M16 IndyCar which has lived at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for many years – we jumped at the chance to receive a motorsport icon into our own backyard.

Lone Star JR, as he is affectionately known, isn’t simply a McLaren legend, he’s one of America’s great motorsport heroes – a third Indy win and the Champ Car title, for Chaparral in 1980, really sealed the deal. And he’s become a 500 mainstay across the decades, even working with McLaren during its assault on the 500 with Fernando Alonso in 2017.

While a return to IndyCar for McLaren has been discussed, and attracted much media and public attention, the team has made nothing official.

So Lone Star JR’s visit should be read as a simple moment of celebration: an opportunity to mark the homecoming of one of McLaren’s iconic racing cars, and the privilege of spending time with a McLaren sporting hero.

#M16ComingHome