Melbourne Grand Prix

Albert Park, 30 Nov 1958

Notes on the cars:

1. Cooper Mk III 'T45' [F2-22-58] (Jack Brabham): It is not clear when this Mk III (T45 F2-22-58) first appears but Doug Nye reports that it was new in September, implying it was Jack Brabham's self-entered F2 car at Avus in Sep and at Montlhéry two weeks later. Brabham had this car for the 1958/59 New Zealand and Australian races and then used it as a private F2 entry during 1959 and again in the early F2 races of 1960. It was sold to Wolfgang Seidel, replacing his ex-Atkins Mk II (T43), in time for the 1960 Solitude GP and he ran it through the rest of the 1960 season. He took the car to South Africa at the end of 1960 for their internationals and sold the Cooper to Jo Eckhoff who was killed in an accident in the car later in 1961. (Source's Cooper Cars, Nye pp209, 212, 214; Historic Racing Cars of New Zealand, Vercoe; Springbok Grand Prix, Young p26)
2. Cooper Mk I 'T41' ['F2-3-56'] (John Roxburgh): Jack Brabham was allocated the second Mk I which first appeared in his hands at the Oulton Park Gold Cup in Sep 1956. After a second race in October, Brabham took the car to New Zealand and Australia and, after an impressive run of results, sold it to Alex Mildren. It was later owned by Arthur Griffiths, John Roxburgh and Lyn Archer. This car now bears the chassis plate F2-P-56. (Sources: Cooper Cars, Nye; Historic Racing Cars in Australia, Blanden)
3. Miller Spl (Cooper T41) ['F2-2-56'] (Austin Miller): The fouth and final Mk 1 built for 1956 went to Ken Wharton and was then shipped out to New Zealand for the Internationals. Ater Wharton's death in a sports car race, the Mk 1 returned to the UK and was sold to Bill Whitehouse for the early 1957 races. When Whitehouse took delivery of his Mk II, the ex-Wharton Mk I went to Paul England, on holiday from Australia. England later sold the car to Austin Miller, another Aussie over in Europe and he shipped it back to Australia. It ran as the Miller Special for several seasons and remained in Australia with later owners. (Sources: Cooper Cars, Nye; Historic Racing Cars in Australia, Blanden)
4. Talbot T26C [110 007] (Owen Bailey): Talbot-Lago T26C chassis '110 007' was Paul Vallee's Ecurie France car driven by Chiron 1948-49 and Apezteguia in 1950. To Tom Hawkes in Australia in 1951. From him it passed to Doug Whiteford, Rex Taylor and then a string of Australian, UK (including a loan period in the Donington Collection), Swiss, US and French owners to Bernie Ecclestone's collection in 1997. Retained 2002.

Sources

Note that the identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' published results.

These results have been compiled by David McKinney from a wide rangle of sources, including his own magazine articles and books. The 1959-1963 results are complete but for the 1957 and 1958 seasons, the only cars currently shown in the results are the F1, Intercontinental and F2 cars that feature elsewhere on this site plus the major Australian specials.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can help in any way with our research.

Individual sources for this event

The entry list and organiser's full results for this race were provided by Keven Drage. The cars shown here are the F1s and F2s present plus the most prominent of the specials but also in the race were the twin Maserati 300S Sports of Bob Jane and Doug Whiteford, Geordie and Cyril Anderson's Jaguar D-Type for Bill Pitt to drive and a host of smaller sports cars and specials.