Yes, yes, yes, I know I’ve done Longford to death, but there’s no such thing as too much of the good thing.
This time the catalyst is a bunch of colour photographs taken by longtime racer Noel Barnes on a trip to help look after Ron Ward’s MGA Twin-Cam #14 below, to the 1960 Longford weekend, March 5-7. The feature events were the Formula Libre Longford Trophy and Australian Tourist Trophy, in which the MGA was entered.
#12 is Gerald Tattersall’s Buchanan MG, #18 is G Watt’s MG Holden, #101 is a Triumph TR and the T-Type are unidentified.
The first shot shows the gridding of the Australian Tourist Trophy with J Wright’s Aston Martin DB3S alongside Doug Whiteford’s Maserati 300S, Harry Cape’s MGA Twin-Cam is #17.
Ray Gibbs aboard his Cooper T39 Climax, #25 is a Healey and #11 I’m not sure. Do give me a yell if you can assist.
The shot above shows the start of the ATT with that unidentified TR at the rear, #12 is the MG Holden G Watt. The 24 lap, 108 mile race was won by Derek Jolly’s Lotus 15 Climax 2-litre FPF from Whiteford’s Maserati and Frank Matich’s Jaguar D-Type. See here:https://primotipo.com/2018/05/17/1960-australian-tourist-trophy/
The next shots are of our Jack’s Cooper T51 Climax. Yes. He’s necking a cuppa, and the older gent with the braces is Brabham’s Dad, Cyril.
Brabham won the 17-lap Longford Trophy in a Triple Treat for Cooper’s Type 51: JB’s 2.5-litre FPF-powered machine won from Alec Mildren’s 2.5-litre Maserati 250S-engined car, then Bib Stillwell’s FPF 2.2. See here:https://primotipo.com/2015/01/20/jack-brabham-cooper-t51-climax-pub-corner-longford-tasmania-australia-1960/
Interesting pit panorama framed by a pair of Rice trailers, much vaunted then and now.
#92 is David Finch’s Jaguar D-Type – sixth in the ATT – the T-Type, the unidentified car referenced above. Bib Stillwell’s Cooper T51 carries his usual #6 while #31 is the Lou Abrahams/Ted Gray Tornado 2 Chev, Australia’s fastest racing car in 1957-58.
The big, booming fuel-injected Chev 283-powered weapon was an also-ran by 1960. It didn’t start the trophy race, but I’m sure it frightened the hell out of the seagulls on The Flying Mile during practice.
Gray won the 1958 Gold Star round at Longford in Tornado 2 Chev. The last occasion on which she garnered Gold Star points appears to be on October 4, 1959, when Ted placed second to Stillwell’s Cooper T51 2.2 in the NSW Road Race Championship at Bathurst, a circuit to which the brawny-legged missile was eminently suited. More on the ’58 Longford Trophy here:https://primotipo.com/2018/10/11/1958-longford-trophy/
Glyn Scott, a long way from Brisbane, lines up his Cooper T43 Climax 1.7 (sixth) while the flash of red at right is Arnold Glass’s Maserati 250F (fourth). The Cooper #19 behind Glyn isn’t listed in my material, but will be either Lynn Archer’s or Jon Leighton’s, my money is on Jon’s T45 2-litre FPF.
Glass’s 250F again at left, #9 is Bill Patterson’s Cooper T51 with Scott alongside #20, while red-13 is Ern Tadgell’s Lotus 12 Climax 1.5 FWB aka Sabakat.
This shot was way out of focus. I used the built-in WordPress photo enhancement tool to make it of usable quality, but some of the numbers on the cars are now wrong/unintelligible via the process: #26, Austin Miller’s Cooper is correctly, #60 and the two Coopers in front of Scott’s #20 now have wonky-looking #13s on them. The lesson here is not to enhance out-of-focus shots of cars with numbers that are too difficult for the bot’s scanner to read. It’s such a good feel-the-vibe shot, I’ve chosen to run it.
I’ll take your advice as to the motorcyclists and their mounts.
Great colour of the David McKay and Ron Hodgson Jaguar 3.4s approaching the starter. Who won these encounters folks?
Credits…
Noel Barnes, photographer via his son, John Barnes
Tailpiece…
The Longford Trophy is underway, from little things did big Longford things grow…
Finito…
primotipo... 