Master Mechanic Geoff Smedley made a pretty fine part-time photographer while fettling racing cars for the likes of John and Gavin Youl.
The 1963 South Pacific Championship has just got underway at Longford on March 4. Bruce McLaren is on pole in his Cooper T62 Climax at left with Bib Stillwell’s new Brabham BT4 Climax in the middle and Lex Davison’s Cooper T53 Climax on the right.
McLaren won the race comfortably from Bib Stillwell after Bruce’s dice with Jack Brabham’s leading BT4 Climax 2.7 ended with engine failure on lap 14 John Youl was third in his Cooper T55
Context…
The Cooper vs Brabham Australasian summer was set during the 1962 Australian Grand Prix, November 18 weekend at Caversham, outside Perth, when McLaren’s new Cooper T62 Climax and Jack Brabham’s equally new Brabham BT4 Climax faced off for the first time. A fantastic dice between Bruce and Jack that day was resolved in McLaren’s favour after a passing he-zigged-when-I-zagged manoeuvre between Brabham and Arnold Glass’s BRM P48 Buick V8 went awry.
Both machines were inspired by their Coventry Climax FWMV 1.5-litre V8-powered Grand Prix siblings: the Cooper T60 and Brabham BT3. By the time the eight-race Tasman Circus travelled to Warwick Farm, round five, the weight of numbers favoured Jack Brabham and Ron Tauranac’s Motor Racing Developments business with BT4s in the hands of Brabham, David McKay, who had bought Jack’s ’62 AGP car’, and Bib Stillwell, who had acquired a newie.
Bruce won two of the four Kiwi rounds at Wigram and Teretonga with his Cooper T62, while John Surtees won the NZ GP at Ardmore in an ex-F1 Lola Mk4A Climax 2.7, with Jack taking a Levin win in his BT4.
The additional power and torque from 2.7-litre Coventry Climax FPF Indy four-cylinder engines were causing a great deal of driveline stress to gearboxes, clutches and driveshafts.
At Warwick Farm, Brabham won in his new BT4-IC-2-62 from Surtees’ Lola Mk4A, McLaren and McKay in his first race of the ex-Jack BT4-IC-1-62 with Stilwell fifth in his new BT4-IC-1-63; all cars powered by Indy 2.7s.
At Lakeside on February 17, Surtees won from Graham Hill’s Ferguson P99 Climax 2.5 FPF and Stillwell. It was a great shame that the Ferguson went home at this point, we Victorians and Taswegians didn’t get to see it. McLaren spun and could’t restart while Jack was a no-show. It was an even greater shame the Fergy didn’t arrive in New Zealand with a pair of 2.7-litre FPFs…
Then Bruce won at Longford and at Sandown Park on March 10, so McLaren and Cooper won the 1963 Faux Tasman Cup. Jack was a DNF with engine failure with Tony Maggs in the other Bowmaker Racing Lola Mk4A Climax 2.7 second and McKay third.
Longford…
Down in the South Island Lex Davison was having a whale of a time in the Cooper T53 John Surtees used to win at Longford in 1962! He won both the Saturday 45-mile Formula Libre preliminaries, the first from Bib Stillwell and John Youl after Bruce McLaren retired from the leadership of the race with a broken universal joint.
The second Saturday race also fell to Melbourne’s famous cobbler, from Chris Amon, Cooper T53 Climax 2.5 and John Youl, Cooper T55 Climax 2.5. McLaren didn’t start this race; Brabham did, but then had carburettor problems during lap two that caused his retirement.
On top of that, the staunch traditionalist continued his flirtation with touring cars, finishing second in the 45-mile Touring Cars Championship aboard Len Lukey’s Ford Galaxie behind Bob Jane’s then-dominant Jaguar Mk2 3.9, with Ern Abbott’s Chrysler Valiant 3.9 in third.
The Jag was timed at 142mph on The Flying Mile, the Galaxie did 141mph in an experience Davison told Autosport reporter FGN Ewence as ‘Like Driving a Haystack.’ Ewence wrote that ‘It came out of corners as though they were launching pads, but its braking and handling let it down.’
Bigger FPFs were fitted to Australian sports cars as well, notably Bib Stillwell’s Cooper T Monaco and Frank Matich’s Lotus 19, with FM winning the 45-mile Sports and GT Cars Championship from Stillwell and Bob Jane’s Jaguar E-Type.
Matich pushed his own lap record up to 108mph and was chuffed enough about the pace of his Lotus two-seater that he entered it in the Formula Libre feature.
Friday qualifying comprised two sessions, one in the morning and another in the afternoon. The quicks were McLaren on 2:23.3, McKay 2:27.0, Davison on 2:27.3. Of Davo, Ewence recorded that ‘Alan Ashton, got the 2.7 Climax to its bellowing best, and his wider wishbones had improved the car’s stability, and he had the brakes to a pitch which enabled Davison to rush up on his opponents as they approached corners.
Youl did a 2:27.4. Ewence noted that John’s Cooper ‘was handling much better following extensive modifications to the suspension, including widening of the track.’ Geoff Smedley was the engineer/mechanic involved.
Brabham didn’t arrive from London, then Sydney, and on to Launceston until after 11am on the Friday morning and then spent most of the day chasing engine problems. Refer to the Climax twin-plug note in Etcetera.
The top three grid slots from times recorded in Saturday’s two races noted above were McLaren, Stillwell and Davison. Then came Maggs, McKay and Brabham, then Youl, Chris Amon, Jim Palmer, and the rest. The only starters from this race still alive are, I believe, Bob Holden, who raced his 1.5-litre Lynx Peugeot Formula Junior from grid 15, and Jim Palmer.
The Race…
Raceday at Longford was always on the Monday Labour Day holiday. There was no racing on the Sunday, giving plenty of time for dramas to be sorted: Jack’s engine, McLaren’s uni and driveshaft, Gardner’s clutch, Magg’s engine mount, etc. Bruce McLaren noted in his March 15, 1963 ‘From The Cockpit’ Autosport column how busy Repco Launceston and Merv Gray’s engineering shop were over that weekend.
The rear of the grid (above) before the South Pacific Championship, showing #87 Frank Matich Lotus 19 Climax, #13 Bob Holden Lynx Peugeot 1.5, on the next row is Frank Gardner’s Brabham BT2 Ford FJ, which is sandwiched by Tony Shelley’s Lotus 18/21 Climax against the pits and Peter Boyd-Squires Cooper T45 Climax. The white #9 Cooper T51 is Bill Patterson, and alongside him is the #3 Cooper T53 of Jim Palmer. Then Chris Amon in the red Cooper T51 #14 with John Youl alongside, Cooper T55 Climax and an obscured Jack Brabham in his BT4. On the second row is David McKay’s Brabham BT4 Climax and an obscured Tony Maggs’ Lola Mk4 Climax with Davison, Stillwell and obscured McLaren up the front.
South Pacific Championship 3-2-3 grid, 14 starters, Longford, Monday, March 4, 1963.
Bruce McLaren Cooper T62 2.7, Bib Stillwell, Brabham BT4 2.7 and Lex Davison, Cooper T53 2.5, then on row two, Tony Maggs, Lola Mk4 2.7 and David McKay, Brabham BT4, on the third row, we can get a glimpse of Chris Amon’s Cooper T53 2.5 near the fence, and #5 John Youl’s Cooper T55 2.5 alongside.
All of the engines were Coventry Climax FPF, whether John Youl was using his Geoff Smedley-developed twin-plug, twin-Magneto 2.5, I don’t know.
F.G.N Ewence reported that it was a great first lap for the Brabham marque with the three of them leading in line astern across Long Bridge. David McKay’s run was short-lived with leaking cylinder head sealing rings; he only compltetd the first lap.
Brabham sat behind McLaren then he took the lead on lap 10, with Bib Stillwell third, but four laps later Jack’s run came to nought with the BT4 puffing plumes blue smoke of increasing volume on The Flying Mile, then through Mountford and into the pits. The ‘manifold leak’ caused a pit fire which was quickly extinguished with Jack leaving an oily calling card at Mountford that caused others some grief.
Bruce took the lead back, having done the fastest lap of the race at 114mph on lap 13 in pursuit of Jack. He then modulated his pace to keep ahead of Bib Stillwell and John Youl. Bill Patterson was fifth behind Jim Palmer’s Cooper T53, and Tony Maggs demonstrated his professionalism by bringing the Lola home sixth despite being liberally coated with engine oil that escaped from a crack in the chassis tube, which conveyed the slippery stuff to and from engine and radiator.
This scrap between Kiwi, Jim Palmer, Cooper T53 Climax and local boy, John Youl, Cooper T55 Climax was over third place, an argument resolved in Youl’s favour.
Palmer was a multiple Kiwi Gold Star Champion, a Tasman Cup perennial whose best placings were fourth in 1966, ex-Clark Lotus 32B Climax and equal fourth with Phil Hill in 1965, Brabham BT7A Climax. Youl was ‘one who got away’, the incredibly gifted driver was fourth in that old T55 in the ‘ 64 Tasman before taking up family farming responsibilities at their Symmons Plains property, not too far from Longford.
Bruce McLaren receives the plaudits of the Longford crowd from atop the Viaduct, he had a good summer in his Cooper T62 Climax, winning the 1963 Faux Tasman Cup, then came back in ‘64 and won the real one!
The views of experienced outsiders is always an interesting perspective. Here is Ewence’s race report Postscript in full.
‘Postscript: Despite the fact that the Longford Motor Association has no paid officials, it is limited by a lack of population. The whole State of Tasmania has only 350,000 inhabitants. To get 30,000 of them to a meeting is equivalent to an attendance of some four million at a British meeting! This makes the £20,000 budget something of a nightmare for the L.M.R.A. The two previous years’ operations had resulted in losses after necessary capital expenditure was met. This year, the hats went in the air when Treasurer Geoff Hudson’s casting of accounts revealed a small profit. Longford will be on again next year, and State Premier Reece seemed so upset about an interruption caused by a passenger train at the level crossing in Longford township that those on the inside believe that the trains will be very strictly controlled in the future.’
Etcetera…
The start of one of the 45-lap preliminaries with Lex Davison on this side, then John Youl, and Tony Maggs in the yellow helmet. Davo won them both.
Bruce McLaren’s unpainted Cooper T62 Climax at Goodwood for a test session on September 26, 1962 not long before the car was shipped to Fremantle, Western Australia for the 1962 Australian GP at Caversham.
McLaren’s T62 – #CTA/BM/2 – was built on Cooper’s T60 1961-63 jig by Tommy Atkins’ team at his Chessington workshop. Harry Pearce and Wally Willmott were the artisans who built the car. The rear was designed to take a BRM P56 1.5-litre F1 V8; Bruce planned to contest the non-championship F1 races that Coopers chose to ignore. When that engine ran late, Atkins and McLaren decided to convert the car to Climax Tasman spec, gearbox, and a Colotti T32 five-speed.
Bruce McLaren (Eoin Young ghosting Bruce) wrote in ‘From The Cockpit’, ‘Brabham’s car was the centre of interest, sporting an 8-plug head. This was a very impressive looking set-up, but it must have been firing the right plug at the wrong time or the wrong plug at the right time, because he had a lot of trouble getting it to run right.’
‘That was Friday. The Saturday morning practice was kind to most of us except poor Jack again. The Brabham was smoking a lot more than a young car should, and he had to rush back to Launceston to take the engine out and fit his spare 2.7 Climax for the races in the afternoon..
Those with a keen memory may recall that Geoff Smedley developed a race-winning 2.5-litre Coventry Climax twin-plug in Tasmania for John Youl. That engine, with the necessary sparks provided by twin-magnetos, was first raced by Youl fitted to his winning Cooper T55 in the October 14 1963, Gold Star round at Mallala. The engine was then used in the ’64 Tasman, in which Youl finished fourth in that ageing Cooper behind Bruce’s new Cooper T70, Brabham’s new BT7A and Hulme’s year old BT4. Youl and Smedley’s was a mighty effort!
I recorded Geoff Smedley’s twin-plug story here:https://primotipo.com/2017/11/16/geoff-smedleys-twin-plug-coventry-climax-2-5-fpf/
In it, Geoff recalled that ‘Frank Hallam at Repco Research had been playing around with a twin-plug head for one of Brabham’s engines, using two distributors driven from the rear of each cam bank and couldn’t make it work through an inaccurate spark which was put down to windup in the camshafts in the high rev range.’
So it seems the Repco FPF twin-plug was tested over the Longford ’63 weekend. I wonder whether Jack tried it elsewhere? Does anybody know what became of that pair of twin-plug heads?
Credits…
Geoff Smedley, Bob Wright via Kay Wright, Andrew ‘Slim’ Lamont Collection, Historic Racing Car Club Tasmania, Ray Bell, Terry Walker, Ken Devine, Repco. The detail in this article is via Paul Cummin’s archive, specifically F.G.N Ewence meeting report and Bruce McLaren’s ‘From The Cockpit’ column published in Autosport, March 15, 1963, Willian i’anson Ltd, Geoff Smedley, Stephen Dalton
Tailpiece…
One of the men of the weekend, Lex Davison, had gear-selector problems on his sixth lap with his Cooper T53 and is shown bumming a ride from Bruce McLaren, who is just starting the Newry ascent. Ewence reported that Davo ‘Broke down near the pub, where last year he had so spectacularly lost his first 2.7 Cooper in a 130 m.p.h skid. “Why hello, Mr Davison, back again?’ remarked the landlord’s wife as he entered the portals.’
Davo famously wore his cloth helmet under his real one throughout his career. Lex turned 40 on February 12, 1963, and was still mighty fast indeed!
Finito…
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