NSW Championship

Bathurst, 1 Oct 1961

Notes on the cars:

1. Cooper Mk IV 'T51' [F2-16-59] (Noel Hall): Delivered to R Hall less engine according to the Cooper Register.
2. Talbot T26C [110 007] (Barry Collerson): Talbot-Lago T26C chassis '110 007' was Paul Vallee's Ecurie France car driven by Chiron 1948-49 and Apezteguia in 1950. To Tom Hawkes in Australia in 1951. From him it passed to Doug Whiteford, Rex Taylor and then a string of Australian, UK (including a loan period in the Donington Collection), Swiss, US and French owners to Bernie Ecclestone's collection in 1997. Retained 2002.
3. Cooper Mk IV 'T51' [F2-22-59] (Ross Dalton): Delivered to A Mildren (Australia) less engine in Oct 1959 according to the Cooper Register.
4. Cooper Mk IV 'T51' ['CTA/59/F1'] (Arnold Glass): Tommy Atkins team built a new Cooper for the 1959 season to be fitted with a Maserati 250S engine. The car was purpose-built by Harry Pearce at the Atkins' team workshops so does not appear in Cooper records. It is given the number 'CTA/59/F1' here to aid identification. Both the Formula 1 Register and John Blanden identify this car as F2-15-58, a F2 T45 used by the Atkins team in 1958, but Doug Nye makes it quite clear the 1959 car was newly built. After a disappointing 1959 season it was sold to Sid Greene of Gilby Engineering for 1960 and raced by son Keith but was uncompetitive and was sold to Arnold Glass for Australian libre racing in August. It was then sold to Dennis Geary in Sep 1961 but he damaged the engine and, still unrepaired, went to John Hough for 1962. He was killed when thrown from the car at Lowood in Sep 1962, only his second race in the car. The damaged car remained with the Hough family thereafter and was still on the family farm in 2016 awaiting restoration.
5. Cooper Mk I 'T41' [F2-2-56] (Doug Kelley): The fouth and final Mk 1 built for 1956 went to Ken Wharton and was then shipped out to New Zealand for the Internationals. Ater Wharton's death in a sports car race, the Mk 1 returned to the UK and was sold to Bill Whitehouse for the early 1957 races. When Whitehouse took delivery of his Mk II, the ex-Wharton Mk I went to Paul England, on holiday from Australia. England later sold the car to Austin Miller, another Aussie over in Europe and he shipped it back to Australia. It ran as the Miller Special for several seasons and remained in Australia with later owners. (Sources: Cooper Cars, Nye; Historic Racing Cars in Australia, Blanden)
6. Cooper Mk I 'T41' [F2-3-56] (Lyn Archer): Jack Brabham was allocated the second Mk I which first appeared in his hands at the Oulton Park Gold Cup in Sep 1956. After a second race in October, Brabham took the car to New Zealand and Australia and, after an impressive run of results, sold it to Alex Mildren. It was later owned by Arthur Griffiths, John Roxburgh and Lyn Archer. This car now bears the chassis plate F2-P-56. (Sources: Cooper Cars, Nye; Historic Racing Cars in Australia, Blanden)

Sources

Note that the identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' published results.

These results have been compiled by David McKinney from a wide rangle of sources, including his own magazine articles and books. The 1959-1963 results are complete but for the 1957 and 1958 seasons, the only cars currently shown in the results are the F1, Intercontinental and F2 cars that feature elsewhere on this site plus the major Australian specials.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can help in any way with our research.