primotipo…

Look at that packed grandstand, grid for the first Lakeside International, 11 February 1962…

Jack Brabham is on pole from Bib Stillwell, Cooper T55 Climax 2.7 ‘slimline’ and T53 2.5 ‘lowline’ respectively, a great performance by the Melbourne Holden dealer. On the second row in the blue #10 Cooper T53 2.7 is Bruce McLaren and alongside the very quick John Youl in a now ageing Cooper T51 2.2. Then its Angus Hyslop’s white Cooper T53 2.5 and a smidge further back you can just see the red nose of Lorenzo Bandini’s Cooper T53 Maser 2.8. Other top-liners on the grid were Lex Davison’s T53, Ron Flockhart Lotus 18 and Arnold Glass in a BRM P48.

Brabham won the short 30 lap race in 30 minutes by a second from Stillwell, Hyslop, Davison, Youl and Bandini.

This photograph is another by Bill Miles, an enthusiast with a fine talent for composition. The eyes of Brabham and Stillwell are riveted on the starter, who is just about to commence his flag upswing with the hatted Judge of The Start ready to pounce on anybody with a jittery clutch foot…

I didn’t realise Kiwi up-and-comer Angus Hyslop had raced in Australia- he was sixth at Warwick Farm, fourth at Longford and ninth at Sandown that summer off the back of a pair of sixths at Wigram and Teretonga and seventh in the NZ GP at home.

Even more impressive was his 1963 season in the same Cooper T53- not exactly the latest bit of kit by then.

Q8 and second behind John Surtees’s Lola Mk4A Climax at Pukekohe in the NZ GP was a stunning start, buoyed by that performance he was Q2 behind Brabham’s new Brabham BT4 Climax in the following round at Levin for DNF halfshaft, a rare non-finish. Q5 and fourth at Wigram and Q6 and fifth down south at Teretonga were strong results- in addition all the fast boys were running 2.7 ‘Indy’ Climaxes whereas Hyslop’s FPF was only an ‘F1’ 2.5.

Clearly a driver of promise, the Hastings sheepfarmer went on to win the NZ Gold Star Championship in 1963 and then retired which is a shame as he was clearly a very fast racer who finished motor races

The shot above is a better one of Hyslop’s Cooper T53 Climax- this time its the start of the Renwick 50, a road race held about 6 miles west of Blenheim in New Zealand’s South Island, in November 1962.

Angus’ white Cooper T51 Climax is on pole from Maurie Stanton’s Stanton Chev and then Tony Shelly’s partially obscured Lotus 18/21 Climax. Bob Eade’s Maserati 250F dwarfs the Barry Cottle Lola Mk1 Climax sports, the distinctive nose between and back a bit from these cars is the youthful Amon C, Maserati 250F.

The front-engined car behind Eade’s Maserati is John Histed in a Lola Mk2 Ford FJ and finally at right the Bob Smith’s Ferrari 555 Super Squalo 3.5

Angus won from Chris Amon and Barry Cottle.

 

Hyslop, born 1928, first rose to prominence in a Jaguar D Type (XKD534 ex-Jack Shelly/Sam&Bob Gibbons/Hyslop/Taylor/Bremer/Foster) he raced from October 1958 to 1961, successes included twice finishing second in the national Sports Car Gold Star competition.

After the 1961 internationals at home in a Cooper T45 Climax 2 litre FPF he before travelled to Europe to race in a half-dozen or so British FJ events in a ‘New Zealand Grand Prix Racing Team’ Lotus 20 Ford running immediately in the top ten- fourth behind Allan Rees, Gavin Youl and Dennis Taylor on 19 August at Goodwood was indicative of his pace.

During that year he also shared a works Fiat Abarth 850S with Denny Hulme at Le Mans- the pair finished fourteenth in the little car and won their class.

He returned to New Zealand and continued to raced the Cooper T45 in 1961/2 towing it behind the D Type!

The other apocryphal Hyslop/D Type story is that after the wet 1961 Wigram meeting in which Angus finished third behind Brabham and Moss in his 2 litre Cooper T45 but ahead of the 2.5 litre Coopers of McLaren and Hulme his bank manager, who had been staying in the same hotel as Angus to watch the race, complimented him on his wet weather driving whereupon Hyslop responded that he thought the skill had been learned by using the D Type to round up the sheep on his farm…

He ‘hit the bigtime’ when the New Zealand International Grand Prix Executive Committee approved a loan to allow him to buy an ex-Yeoman Credit Parnell Cooper T53- the car carried the same chassis plate as Angus’ T45 in the usual Antipodean manner to avoid import duty- the Cooper was sold to Jim Palmer after Hyslop ‘retired’.

I’m intrigued to know how far he strayed from the sport though- not far is my guess given his fourth place in the 1972 New Zealand International Heatway Rally in an Abingdon prepared Group 2 Mini 1275GT- Andrew Cowan won in the sister car crewed by Jim Scott.

Hyslop died in 1999, aged 71.

Etcetera…

Angus Hyslop and Mike Langley in their works Mini 1275GT, Heatway Rally 1972.

BLMC/New Zealand Motor Corporation went all out to win the event, entering four cars- two 1275GT’s and two Morris Marina 1800TC Coupes, one of which was driven by Jim Richards finished 61st, the other 52nd, both the updated ‘Morris Minors’ had suspension problems.

Jim was unlucky- Cowan had been allocated a Marina to rally but he was having none of that so Jim got the bum seat and Andrew the car he wanted, which he put to rather good effect!

Hyslop at Dunedin in 1961, D Type in a support race.

He qualified second behind Denny Hulme’s Cooper T51 Climax in the feature Dunedin Road Race on the ‘Oval Circuit’ finishing third in his Cooper T45 behind Denny and Pat Hoare’s Ferrari 256 3 litre V12.

Credits…

Bill Miles, Allen Brown’s oldracingcars.com, Marlborough Car Club Inc, Alamy, NZ Jaguar D Type History ‘Nostalgia Forum’ thread

Tailpiece: Hulme/Hyslop works Fiat Abarth 850S, Le Mans 1961…

Finito…