Jack Brabham’s Cooper T53 Climax during the Warwick Farm 100 on 29 January 1961…
Jack didn’t figure in the race with fuel dramas, it was won by Stirling Moss’ Rob Walker Lotus 18 Climax from Innes Ireland’s similar works machine and Bib Stillwell’s Cooper T51 Climax.
Moss, Gurney and Hill are on the front row, the latter two fellas in BRM P48’s. Ireland and Brabham, to the right, are on row two. Row three comprises Ron Flockhart, Austin Miller and Bib Stillwell in T51’s, with row four again T51’s in the hands of Bill Patterson and Alec Mildren.
Moss and Warwick Farm supremo Geoff Sykes before the off, car to the right is Austin Miller’s Cooper T51 Climax.
Crazy men in long strides, long sleeved shirts and ties on a scorcher of a Sydney day.
Moss, Gurney and Hill on the front row, Lotus 18 and two BRM P48s, then Innes Ireland, works Lotus 18 Climax and Jack Brabham, Cooper T53 Climax and then Austin Miller and David McKay in Cooper T51s. #9 in the shot below is Bill Patterson in another T51.
Fourth to and fifth places were bagged by Miller and Flockhart with the rest of the starters, nine cars, failing to finish the 45 laps in a race of attrition run in scorching, humid, Sydney heat.
Etcetera…
Note the left-hand shift of the 5-speed Colotti transaxle, it wasn’t the first time Moss shed body panels in the heat, but perhaps it was the last.
Graham Hill qualified his BRM P48 third behind Moss and his teammate, Dan Gurney but was out after 10 laps with a fuel tank problem.
The BRM’s best result of that Australasian Tour was Gurney’s win – the only international win for the P48 – in the Victorian Trophy on the Ballarat airfield circuit a fortnight later. Moss and Brabham were absent by then mind you…
Tailpiece…
The worlds best credentialed driver coach! Stirling Moss shows Innes Ireland the fast way around Warwick Farm, here crossing the causeway. The car is Tom Sulman’s Aston Martin DB3S, a machine rather familiar Moss as an ex-works Aston pilot.
Credits…
Don McPhedran, Getty Images, oldracingcars.com, Australian Motor Heritage Foundation via Brian Caldersmith, Bob Donaldson via the State Library of New South Wales
Finito…
primotipo... 
Hot as Hades that day didn’t some drivers pit and have buckets of water thrown over them
Mark,
I would say that the BRMs were P48s rather than P25s.
Cheers Rob,
I reckon you are spot on, brain in neutral- thanks!
Mark
[…] A Warwick Farm flaggie dealing with the excruciating summer heat during the 1961 Warwick Farm 100 international meeting, see here: https://primotipo.com/2018/11/16/1961-warwick-farm-100/ […]