Stan Jones, well aloft over the railway crossing on Tannery Straight at Longford aboard his Maserati 250F, leads Len Lukey, Cooper T45 Climax 2-litre, during their epic battle for honours in the March 2, 1959 Australian Grand Prix.
Stan Jones gets the jump in his Maserati 250F at the start of the 25 lap, 110 mile Formula Libre race from Len Lukey, Cooper T45 2-litre, Arnold Glass, Maserati 250F, Doug Whiteford, Maserati 300S, Ron Phillips’ Cooper T33 Jaguar 3.8, and #4, Alec Mildren, Cooper T43 Climax 2-litre.
In a long race of thrust and parry between the nimble Cooper and brawny Maserati, 30,000 spectators saw the battle resolved in Stan’s favour.
The reigning Gold Star champion had just enough power to offset the handling and roadholding advantage of Lukey’s new fangled mid-engined Cooper. Armed with a 2.5-litre Coventry Climax FPF – not readily available to customers at that time – the result wouldn’t have been the same, but karma looked after Stan that day, he had well-and-truly paid his AGP dues since 1952 after all!
More about Stan here: https://primotipo.com/2014/12/26/stan-jones-australian-and-new-zealand-grand-prix-and-gold-star-winner/
While Len Lukey missed out on that ‘59 AGP win, the Melbourne proprietor of the substantial Lukey Mufflers business took a great Gold Star win in a long championship of twelve rounds. He only won two of them but was a consistent front runner and point scorer throughout. Jones and Bill Patterson won two rounds, and Alec Mildren three, taking this pace into 1960, winning the title in a locally developed Cooper T51 Maserati.
Kiwi Ross Jensen’s Maserati 250F Bathurst 100 March 30, 1959 win was the last Gold Star victory for a front-engined car.
Etcetera…
So near to Australian Grand Prix wins in 1954, 1955, 1957 – he took the chequered flat that Caversham day – and 1958, it must have been an immensely satisfying moment for the 1954 New Zealand Grand Prix winner and reigning Australian Gold Star champion, Stan Jones, to take the chequered flag at super demanding Longford.
Otto Stone and Stan exchange congratulations in the Longford paddock. It wasn’t just the superb car preparation of racer/engineer Stone that made the difference to Jones’s results in 1958-59, it was a little bit more of a percentage play in his driving as well.
Otto was no slouch behind the wheel, there seems little doubt that he was able to communicate with Stan as a peer ‘to bring the thing home’. And yes, I’m not forgetting that (Repco’s) Charlie Dean was a good steerer too.
Jones only won two of the nine Gold Star rounds to win the title in 1958 but he had enough consistency to win a championship he richly deserved, let’s not forget Otto’s role in that regard…
Super rare colour shot of the 1959 AGP dice between Jones and Lukey on the cover of the 1960 Longford program.
Gay Dutton’s tribute to Stan’s great victory.
Credits…
The much used and abused money-Longford-shot was taken by Charles Rice, here courtesy of Paul Cross’ collection, Bob Young Collection, Lindsay Ross’ oldracephotos.com, Andrew ‘Slim’ Lamont Collection, Gay Dutton, The Northern Courier
Tailpiece…
‘Don’t even think about it Stanley!’ muses Len Lukey as Jones shoves his nose into a rapidly diminishing gap. What a shot! The money-shot used on the cover of Neil Kearney’s excellent book actually…
Finito…
primotipo... 
Thanks for this email Mark. As I had heard nothing about the book for ages, I foolishly assumed it had been delayed.
Googled and found most booksellers had sold out - good for Neil but not for me . . . however it turns out that his own site still has copies, so I get the book and he gets all the profit. Winners all round, just like Stan!