Posts Tagged ‘1959 Bathurst 100’

Bathurst 100 1959…

Posted: May 18, 2024 in Fotos, Who,What,Where & When...?
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It’s Easter Monday 1959. March 30, the Bathurst 100 grid. Alec Mildren on the wheel of his Cooper T45 Climax, Ross Jensen behind and to the left of his Maserati 250F and Stan Jones perched on the back wheel of his 250F…

Top contenders for the 100 mile classic were the three Maserati 250Fs driven by Stan Jones – winner of the AGP at Longford on March 2 and the South Australian Trophy at Port Wakefield only two days before on March 28 – Arnold Glass, and Kiwi 1957 Gold Star winner, the very experienced and accomplished Ross Jensen. His 250F Maserati is ‘in the blue and white colours of the Automobile Club of El Salvador – an NZGP publicity gimmick,’ wrote John Medley.

Doug Whiteford’s Maserati 300S, the 1958 Bathurst 100 winner was a contender as were the 2-litre Coventry Climax FPF powered Cooper T45s of Alec Mildren, Len Lukey and Bill Patterson.

Raceday, bright and sunny, attracted 25,000 spectators.

(unattributed)

The first three lap qualifying heat was won by Glynn Scott’s Repco Holden from Bill Reynold’s Orlando MG and Alwyn Rose’s big, booming Dalro Jaguar. The second three-lapper was won by Jones’ Maserati 250F from Mildren’s Cooper T45 Climax and Jensen’s 250F.

The photo above shows the grid prior to the start of the second heat, with Jack Myers beside his WM Holden and then the Maserati 250Fs of Jones and Jensen. Myers’ special was a very clever concoction of Cooper T20 chassis – although by then the frame was of Jack’s construction – and six-cylinder Holden Grey block atop which sat a Merv Waggott designed and built aluminium DOHC, twin-cam, two-valve cylinder head. This car in Jack’s capable hands always punched above its weight, read about it here; https://primotipo.com/2015/02/10/stirling-moss-cumberland-park-speedway-sydney-cooper-t20-wm-holden-1956/

Parade lap, logically before the Bathurst 100…(unattributed)
(unattributed)

After the parade lap the Bathurst 100 grid of 27 starters was ‘away in indescribable noise, dust and confusion’, Jones was first to Hell Corner from Mildren Lukey and Whiteford – then Jensen, Glass, Scott, Jack Myers WM Cooper – with Ray Walmsley in the Alfa P3 GMC rolling to a halt out of Hell.

Mildren led at the end of lap one from Jones, Lukey, Jensen who was closing and Doug Whiteford who was falling back. Jensen passed Lukey on lap four and then challenged Jones, roaring past before The Cutting with the three leaders nose to tail through Reid Park.

Jones, 250F (unattributed)

Lukey’s Cooper was close, Whiteford a bit further back and Glass much further back, and then the Myers WM. Into lap five Medley records that the Kiwi started his run by putting in two laps of 2:51, taking the lead and extending it whilst Stan Jones pitted, restarted and retired after six laps.

Then Mildren was black flagged due to a loose bonnet catch, he pitted and rejoined after the drama was rectified, but he was now behind Jensen, Lukey and Whiteford.

Mildren got the bit back between his teeth and passed Whiteford up Mountain Straight at half distance and Lukey under brakes at Murray’s – Doug took Len two laps later as well. By then up to second, Mildren retired at Quarry having done a 2:55 lap and 147.73 mph on Conrod. Whiteford too retired from transmission failure.

Jensen passes Whiteford and his stranded Maserati 300S as he goes over the finishing line, out with transmission woes (PIX-SLNSW)

After Mildren’s pitstop Jensen wasn’t threatened and ‘motored the next 80 miles to win easily’ with a best lap of 2:50.6 and a speed through the Conrod traps at 139.53 mph.

Jensen won a race of incredible attrition – only 11 of the 27 starters finished – from Len Lukey, Cooper T45 Climax, and Glass in the ex-Hunt/Stillwell Maserati 250F, then Jack Myers WM Cooper Holden, Walmsley’s Alfa P3 GMC and Werner Greve in the ex-Moss/Davison 1954 AGP winning HWM Jaguar.

Walmsley’s fifth place in a Gold Star round in his pre-war Alfa Romeo P3 was surely the highest placing for such an old car in any Gold Star round?

(PIX-SLNSW)

Ross Jensen…

While Aucklander, Ross Jensen’s performance may have astonished fringe-race-fans in Australia in fact he had been a front runner in New Zealand amongst the visiting internationals for years.

He purchased the ex-Moss Maserati 250F #2508 1956 NZ GP winner finishing second to Jack Brabham’s Cooper in the 1958 NZ GP. Later that year he raced works-Lister Jaguars in the UK, placing second at Snetterton and Brands in July-August and winning Scott-Brown Memorial – a man he got to know on Archie’s early ’58 NZ Tour – at Snetterton in September. He then returned home having taken delivery of the long shark-nosed 250F #2509 in time for the 1959 NZ internationals.

Ross Jensen shared this Lister Jag with Ivor Bueb and Bruce Halford during the September 1958 Tourist Trophy at Goodwood, DNF (LAT)
Soggy Ross – Jensen and 250F during the early stages of the 1959 Waimate 50. “famously there was a cloud burst just after the start…once the rain stopped, it dried up quickly and we had some really great racing,” Allan Dick wrote (Classic Auto News)

Bruce Sergent wrote that “the car was built around the frame of the Bira race winner (NZ GP) of 1955, but with the latest motor and transmission, giving the low, offset driving position.”

He was fifth in the NZ GP, qualified on the front row at Wigram but DNF with transmission problems, was second behind Bruce McLaren’s Cooper at Waimate, and was fourth behind McLaren, Flockhart’s BRM P25 and Brabham, Cooper T45 at Teretonga. He was no slouch…

Jensen established a race preparation shop, retired from racing in 1961 but was always part of the scene – foundation member and on the board of the NZ Grand Prix Association, founding trustee of the Bruce McLaren Trust – and later imported Renault, Jaguar and BMW amongst others. He died, aged 78 in October 2003.

Etcetera…

(PIX-SLNSW)

Stan Jones (right) dispenses some words of wisdom to a gent in the exclusive confines of the Mobilgas hospitality suite. BYO chair clearly.

(SLNSW)

Great Pit Straight panorama with the #33 Bruce Leer MG TC Spl, Jesse Griffiths Maserati 4CL #36 and John Schroeder, covered Nota Consul. All of them contested the Bathurst 100 and all were DNFs.

(unattributed)

Porsche 356 Coupe leads Stan Jones and Ross Jensen on the parade lap.

(PIX-SLNSW)

Mildren, Cooper T45 and the Jensen and Jones 250F’s on the front row at the start of the 100, feel the vibe…Len Lukey’s #5 Cooper Climax on the outside of row two

(unattributed)

Arnold Glass’ Maserati 250F goes inside Bill Clarke’s 492cc two-stroke, three-cylinder, air-cooled Berkeley SE492 Excelsior, the speed differential between some of the cars that weekend was mega.

Credits…

Russell Beckman, Bill Miles Collection, ‘Bathurst: Cradle of Australian Motor Racing’ John Medley, sergeant.com, Allan Dick-Classic Auto News, LAT, Maserati 250F chassis number source: http://8w.forix.com/250f-redux.html

Tailpiece…

Ross Jensen’s Maserati 250F in 1959, on the cover of the 1960 meeting programme.

Finito…

Jumpin’ Jack Myers…

Posted: May 2, 2024 in F1, Features, Touring Cars
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
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(C Lynch/SLNSW)

Jack Myers may well have been the very first Holden Hero, but if not he was certainly an early bird in the very long line of touring car champs to race General Motors Holdens’ products.

Here he is in front of the pack aboard his very quick, self modified 48-215 during a South Pacific Trophy support race at Gnoo Blas, Orange in January 1956.

Hard chargers both, Stan Jones and Jack Myers at Mount Panorama during the October 1960 Craven A International weekend (C Lynch-SLNSW)
(B Williamson Collection)
Myers at Bathurst in 1958

The Kingsford, NSW racer/mechanic/engineer/retailer was up to his armpits in Holden 48-215s from early on, racing a 110mph cream Humpy from 1953.

Myers soon offered 100 mph Holden motoring to all for £130. His kit involved boring your block to 3 3/16 inches, new pistons and rings, a shaved-head, re-ground cam, 12 inner valve-springs, an additional Stromberg carb, Myers inlet manifold and extractors, sports air-cleaners and a Lukey muffler. Seems as-cheap-as-chips!

Bathurst’s first ‘Production Car Race’ was held in October 1950; the first Holden entered at Mount Panorama was R Isackson’s Uni Motors car during the Easter 1951 meeting, but he didn’t start the race. The first Holden finisher on this holiest of racing turf was the 48-215 driven by R Mitchell who was fifth in a six lap sedan handicap in 1954. He was timed at 91mph down Conrod.

Fittingly, the first Mount Panorama Holden winner was Jack. John Medley anointed him “the Holden wonder-man of the mid-1950s, his black-roofed yellow car going progressively more quickly over the years.” 109.9mph down Conrod during the Easter 1956 weekend to be precise. He took that win in a six lap handicap in October 1955, the following year he was back in one of the swiftest Greys of all.

Myers aboard the Cooper T20 Holden during the 1957 AGP at Caversham. DNF in the race won by the Lex Davison/Bill Patterson Ferrari 500/625
Aboard the more advanced, spaceframe chassis, but still Cooper derived, WM Holden Special on Pit Straight during practice for the the Craven-A International at Bathurst in October 1960. DNS in the race won by Jack Brabham’s Cooper T51 Climax 2.5 FPF

After campaigning the winning Holden far and wide: Mount Druitt, Gnoo Blas, Mount Panorama, Strathpine, Lowood, Fishermans Bend and Port Wakefield, Myers was up for the next challenge.

He bought Stan Coffey’s, rolled Cooper T20 (#CB-1-52) single-seater and repaired it at his Anzac Parade ‘shop. Then, together with Merv Waggott, he built and progressively developed the big-daddy of early Holden engined racers, the 2.4-litre DOHC Waggott-Holden WM Holden.  

It was always fast among the high-priced European exotica of the day, a front of the grid heat-start in the ’59 Bathurst 100 was indicative of its place in the pecking order. But the machine was an ongoing development exercise so finishing results weren’t great. See here for a feature about the car: https://primotipo.com/2015/02/10/stirling-moss-cumberland-park-speedway-sydney-cooper-t20-wm-holden-1956/

Stirling Moss was so fascinated by this home-grown application of technology to a Cooper type he knew so well, he did some demonstration laps in it at Sydney’s Cumberland Speedway whilst in Oz for the November 1956 AGP at Albert Park. Jack was twelfth at the Park and first Australian car home.

Myers was typical of so many Holden Heroes from the 1950s to 1970s, he serviced them for customers, modified them, made and sold hot-bits and raced them.

Etcetera…

(SLNSW)

Holden 48-215s on the production line – ‘the car floor press’ – at the GMH Woodville plant in South Australia, 1949. Holden’s early days are covered here: https://primotipo.com/2018/12/06/general-motors-holden-formative/

(L Mortimer)

Myers Holden 48-215 at Mount Druitt, Sydney in the early 1950s.

Sitting up in the breeze! Myers, Cooper T20 Waggott-Holden, at Caversham, AGP 1957

Myers in the form-up area, or dummy-grid depending upon your religion, Craven-A International meeting at Mount Panorama in October 1960. That’s Austin Miller’s Cooper T51 at left.

While early on in his ownership of the ex-Stan Coffey Cooper T20, the car was rightly called a Cooper, but as Jack crashed and rebuilt the car/developed it, the machine became more Myers than Cooper, and fitted with that extraordinary twin-cam six fitted, more Waggott-Myers than Cooper!

Note the disc brakes above, albeit the front suspension still looks kosher-Cooper T20, the stylised Jack Myers brandmark in a neat touch. Myers didn’t start the car in the feature won by Jack Brabham’s Cooper T51 Climax.

Brabham was present at Bathurst for the first time since 1955, 6,000 people turned up for practice to see the twice World Champ. Unfortunately, as John Medley wrote, “Jack Myers crashed the newly disc-braked WM Cooper on top of the mountain, bending the chassis and destroying the suspension. There would be no overnight (or any) rebuilds this time. The motor was sold, the remains of the car sold separately, Myers borrowed the little Dalro Reno to run at this meeting, and would then turn his attention to his little hillclimb special – the ex-Saywell/Reynolds Mark IV Cooper with his Triumph ‘twin-twin’ engine.”

Tragically, Jack died at the wheel of the Cooper Triumph at Catalina Park, Katoomba on January 21, 1962 (7/1/18-21/1/62). The WM Holden was ultimately restored and lives at the National Motor Museum, Birdwood Mill campus, in the Adelaide Hills.

Myers – famous for racing in these horizontally hooped T-shirts – and crew in the Mount Panorama paddock, Easter 1959. Bonus points for crew-members names folks? That is a Cooper alloy wheel.

The boys push start that Waggott-Holden twin-cam six into life before the start of the 1959 Bathurst 100 on March 31. Stan Jones’ Maserati 250F is in the middle and race victor Ross Jensen’s 250F on pole at right. All the fun of the fair, look at that crowd! Jack was an excellent fourth behind Jensen, Len Lukey, Cooper T45 Climax, and Arnold Glass, Maserati 250F.

Stan is in the early stages of his best season and a bit ever, he was the reigning Gold Star Champion (1958) and at this stage of the year had won the Australian Grand Prix at Longford a month before. Jensen was seriously quick, he ran the Maserati at Bathurst in ’58, but failed to finish the 100, and finish the job he did a year later in convincing style!

WM Holden in the pits at Gnoo Blas, and again at the start of a race below, in February 1960. The ex-Whiteford Talbot-Lago T26C #110007 was raced by Barry Collerson.

While it is true that the WM-Holden was the sexiest and quickest Holden-powered racing car of the period, the most successful was Tom Hawkes’ Cooper T23 Repco-Holden (below). Chassis #CB/Mk2/1/53) was no less a car than the ex-Jack Brabham Redex Special – a Bristol 2-litre six cylinder powered T23 – albeit continuously evolved by Hawkes after Jack sold the car (to Stan Jones then on to Hawkes) when he left for Europe in early 1955. Its Repco Hi-Power crossflow headed engine was far less exotic than Merv’s twinc, but was more reliable.


(NAA)

Tom Hawkes aboard his Cooper T23 Repco-Holden during the 1956 AGP weekend at Albert Park. The potent, reliable, twin SU fed, Repco Hi-Power crossflow 2.3-litre engine on display; his best was a tremendous second in the 1957 Gold Star and third in the 1958 AGP at Bathurst. See here for features on this car: https://primotipo.com/2017/08/16/tom-hawkes-1958-australian-grand-prix/ and here: https://primotipo.com/2016/06/24/jacks-altona-grand-prix-and-cooper-t23-bristol/

Very late in its in-period competitive life the T23 was fitted with a Chev 283cid V8, a task commenced by Tom Hawkes and Murray Rainey, and finished by Earl Davey-Milne. It’s still owned by the Davey-Milnes and is shown below last week. Mighty fine it is too…

(C Lynch-SLNSW)

Back where we started, Gnoo Blas in 1956, how did Jack do in the touring car races that weekend, and who is at the wheel of in that little VW Beetle 1200!?

Credits…

Cec Lynch-Pix-State Library of New South Wales, Bob Williamson Collection, Les Mortimer, David Medley, Ken Devine, Kelsey Collection, Kaleda Family Collection, National Archives of Australia, ‘Bathurst:Cradle of Australian Motor Racing’ John Medley

Tailpieces…

(Lynch/SLNSW)

“Don’t even think about it kid, my 48-215 has been worked over by Jack Myers, you don’t have a chance!”

This shot is from a Pix puff-piece in 1955 promoting Italian toy cars for David Jones, a national department store chain. The little dude appears to be a handy-mechanic and would be 80’ish now. Chassis number and make of EV unknown…

(Lynch/SLNSW)

Finito…