16 replies to this topic

[Marcor]

Do you know more about the first F1 race of Jackie Stewart ?

Rand GP, on December 12, 1964
Kyalami (South Africa), Two-heat aggregate result

Lotus:
The third copy of the Lotus 33, the chassis R10, was completed December 1964 and send immediately in South Africa for the first GP of the 1965 season on January 1, 1965. Previously, it was used for the 1964 Rand GP, a non-championship race run in 2 x 25 laps with addition of the results. As Jim Clark had moved a disc of the vertebrae (or had a slipped disc) at Cortina d'Ampezzo on his winter sports holiday - during a snowball fight - a few days earlier, his young compatriot Jackie Stewart replaced him and made his F1 debut. The other car, Lotus 33-R9, was driven by Mike Spence.

Tim Parnell, who took over his father Reg Parnell when he died the previous year, entered the Lotus 25-R4 BRM for Tony Maggs in the two South-African races. Some engine troubles led to withdraw in the first race and he finished a remote 11th at East-London in the 1965 South-African GP.

Brabham:
John Willment had just bought the ex-Rob Walker racing Brabham BT11-BRM and entered Graham Hill, as the Owen Organisation Team was absent. This car was later driven by Frank Gardner in 1965 GPs.

Bob Anderson entered his own Brabham BT11 Climax and we could notice two FJ Brabham BT10 driven by Paul Hawkins and David Prophet.

The other official team:
The Official Team Brabham Racing Organisation (Dan Gurney and Jack Brabham), Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC, Owen Racing Organisation and Cooper Car Company were not present in the Rand GP.

Cooper Car Company was in trouble after Charles Cooper suffered a fatal heart attack and died on 2 October 1964 and John Cooper was still not really fit after a road accident. This winter saw Bruce McLaren Motor Racing building a new Tasman Cooper for the 1965 series.

Of course, the local boys made up the starting grid
The Alfa-Special was starting to show its age (as it was a three year old special with a production-based engine, the Alfa Romeo Giulietta engine), but Piet de Klerk was still one of the quickest local in this race. He took sixth in heat one but retired after a spin in the second heat.

The Heron was originally a rear-engine Formula Junior which made little impact, and the prototype was then sold in 1961 to Tony Maggs. The car was fitted with an Alfa Romeo engine and entered by Scuderia Alfa in the 1961 South African Temporada (Rand GP, South African GP, Cape GP). Three years later, the Heron appeared again in a F1 race, the 1964 Rand GP, and this time it was drive by David Hume. It qualified 14th, finished 11th in the first heat, 13th and unclassified in the second, and on aggregate was a nominal 13th, but again unclassified.

LDS: Louis Douglas Serrurier, alias Doug Serrurier, a leading SA driver in the 50's and 60's, made a total of 13 LDS specials. He first built some single-seater for his own use and soon built for other drivers.

In the 1964 Rand GP, more than 3 LDS were entered:
The LDS-3 appeared in the hands of Pretorius, who practised way off the pace and failed to make the start.
Steve Mellet had LDS-5 for this race and was the slowest of the field.
Doug Serrurier himself had LDS-7 which was a Mk 2 model, based on the 1961 Cooper and fitted with an Alfa Romeo engine. He took sixth overall.

I think that Sam Tingle also appeared in a LDS Mk2 LDS-6 but I'm not sure.

Brausch Niemann entered a Lotus 22 which was FJ car with a enlarged Ford engine. He managed to finish fifth on aggregate, with the same number of laps as the winner Graham Hill.

Netuar: This Cooper copy had a Peugeot engine, was made by Rauten Hartmann (Netuar = Rauten spelled backwards) and appeared in the Rand GP in the years 1961 to 1964. In the car's 1964 appearance, Hartmann qualified near the back, setting second slowest qualifying time, finished 15th from 15th classified finishers in the first heat but retired in the second with engine problems.

Realpha: Built by Rays Engineering Ltd in Rhodesia (now Swaziland) and driven by Ray Reed, the Realpha was a slim Alfa-Romeo-engined Cooper copy and appeared in this race. Reed qualified in 17th from and was classified 14th in the first heat. The car's big ends had gone and so it didn't appear for heat 2. Also entered in the 1965 South African GP under the name RE it failed to appear.

The race
Stewart set pole from Spence (0.6s in front of his team-mate) but his transmission failed on the line of the first heat. While the others drivers fought among them on the track, the Lotus mechanics tried and succeeded in to start up the Stewart's car again for the second heat. Graham Hill won easily the first heat as Mike Spence had also given up.

In the second heat, Stewart was boosted and overtook all his competitors. He won the heat and set fastest lap. His initial retirement brought him a 17th place overall. Graham Hill had wisely secured a second place which gave him the victory. Paul Hawkins confirmed his recent victory in Rhodesia by a pretty second place.

Three weeks later, Jackie Stewart had joined the BRM Team , he would never again raced a Lotus. Jim Clark was back on form in the 1965 South-African GP.

The results
1- Graham Hill Brabham BT11/F1-4-64 BRM n°3, entered by John Willment Automobiles.
2- Paul Hawkins Brabham BT10/F2-2-64 Ford, entered by John Willment Automobiles
3- Bob Anderson Brabham BT11/F1-5-64 Climax, entered by DW Racing Enterprises
4- ?
5- Brautsch Niemann Lotus 22 Ford, entered by Ted Lanfear
6- Doug Serrurier LDS Mk2 LDS-7 Alfa Romeo, entered by Otelle Nucci
7- ?
8(5th heat 1)- John Love Cooper T55 F1-11-61 n°9, entered by John Love
...
13(11th heat 1, 13th heat 2)- Hume Heron Alfa
..
16- Mike Spence Lotus 33-R9 Climax V8 n°2, entered by Team Lotus
17- Jackie Stewart Lotus 33-R10 Climax n°1, entered by Team Lotus
18- David Prophet Brabham BT10/F2-10-64 Ford entered by David Prophet Racing

DNF(14th heat 1, DNS heat 2)- Ray Reed Realpha
DNF(15th and last heat 1, retired heat 2)- Rauten Hartmann Netuar Peugeot
DNF(heat 1)- Dave Clapham Cooper T51-F2-16-60 Maserati n°19
DNF(heat 1)- Trevor Blokdyk Cooper T59 Alfa Romeo n°11, entered by Trevor Blokdyk
DNF(6th heat 1, DNF heat 2)- Piet de Klerk Alfa Special, entered by Otelle Nucci

DNS- Maggs Lotus 25-R4 BRM P56 V8 n°5, entered by Reg Parnell Racing
DNS- Jack Pretorius LDS 3 Climax FPF, entered by Jack Pretorius

Other potential entrants (local boys)
Ernst Pieterse Lotus 21 Climax, entered by Lawson Organisation
Neville Lederle Lotus 21 Climax, entered by Scuderia Scribante
Clive Puzey Lotus 18/21 Climax, entered by Clive Puzey Motors
Dave Charlton Lotus 20, entered by Team Tomahawk
Alex Blignault Cooper, entered by Team Valencia
Sam Tingle LDS Mk2 LDS-6 Alfa, entered by Sam Tingle

[Felix Muelas]

Originally posted by Marcor

Brabham:
John Willment had just bought the ex-Rob Walker racing Brabham BT11-BRM F1-4-64and entered Graham Hill, as the Owen Organisation Team was absent. This car was later driven by Frank Gardner in 1965 GPs.

Bob Anderson entered his own Brabham BT11 Climax F1-5-64and we could notice two FJ Brabham BT10 driven by Paul Hawkins F2-4-64and David ProphetF2-10-64.

In the 1964 Rand GP, more than 3 LDS were entered:
The LDS-3 appeared in the hands of Pretorius, who practised way off the pace and failed to make the start.best practice time 1.48.1

I think that Sam Tingle also appeared in a LDS Mk2 LDS-6 but I'm not sure.Tingle drove LDS-2 and Lionel Wilmot LDS-6. Wilmot did not start, oil loss

Brausch Niemann entered a Lotus 22 22-J-17 which was FJ car with a enlarged Ford engine Ford 105E

The results
1- Graham Hill Brabham BT11/F1-4-64 BRM n°3, entered by John Willment Automobiles.
2- Paul Hawkins Brabham BT10/F2-2-64 Ford, entered by John Willment Automobiles
3- Bob Anderson Brabham BT11/F1-5-64 Climax, entered by DW Racing Enterprises
4- Sam Tingle LDS Alfa Romeo LDS-2, self entered
5- Brautsch Niemann Lotus 22 Ford, entered by Ted Lanfear
6- Doug Serrurier LDS Mk2 LDS-7 Alfa Romeo, entered by Otelle Nucci
7- Clive Puzey Lotus 18 "P2"
Not classified
8(5th heat 1)- John Love Cooper T55 F1-11-61 n°9, entered by John Love
9 Bob Hay Lotus 20 "20-J-876" self entered
10 Neville Lederle Lotus 21 "952" entered by Scuderia Scribante
11 David Hume Heron-Alfa entered by Team Valencia
12 Alex Blignaut Cooper 53 "F1-1-61" entered by Team Valencia
13(11th heat 1, 13th heat 2)- Hume Heron Alfa
13 Steve Mellet, LDS-5 self entered
14 Rauten Hartmann Netuar Peugeor self-entered
15 Piet de Klerk

16- Mike Spence Lotus 33-R9 Climax V8 n°2, entered by Team Lotus
17- Jackie Stewart Lotus 33-R10 Climax n°1, entered by Team Lotus
18- David Prophet Brabham BT10/F2-10-64 Ford entered by David Prophet Racing
19 Ray Reed, Realpha RE1 entered by Rays Engineering Ltd

DNS- Maggs Lotus 25-R4 BRM P56 V8 n°5, entered by Reg Parnell Racing camshaft, best practice time 1.36.1
DNS- Jack Pretorius LDS 3 Climax FPF, entered by Jack Pretorius

Other potential entrants (local boys)

Ernst Pieterse Lotus 21 Climax, entered by Lawson Organisation Yes
Neville Lederle Lotus 21 Climax, entered by Scuderia Scribante Yes
Clive Puzey Lotus 18/21 Climax, entered by Clive Puzey Motors Yes
Dave Charlton Lotus 20, entered by Team Tomahawk Yes, but did not start because of a fire in practice
Alex Blignault Cooper, entered by Team Valencia Yes
Sam Tingle LDS Mk2 LDS-6 Alfa, entered by Sam Tingle see above

Felix

[sat]

GRID:

Jackie Stewart / Mike Spence
Paul Hawkins / Bob Anderson
Trevor Blokdyk / John Love
Piet de Klerk / Brausch Niemann
Doug Serrurier / Ernest Pieterse
Neville Lederle / Sam Tingle
Clive Puzey / David Hume
Ray Reed / Dave Clapham
R. Hay / Rauten Hartmann
Alex Blignaut / Graham Hill
Steve Mellett

[Marcor]

Félix, sat thank you for your data.

Here I've copied a extract of a text where Jackie Stewart was talking about Jim Clark to Adam Cooper (in Motorsport October 1997). It's mainly about that race.

In 1964 I tested a Lotus F1 car, at the British GP meeting at Brands Hatch. It was at the end of practice; Colin went to the officials and said "I'd like this guy to do a few laps". The gearbox was the reverse way out, quite complicated.

Later that year I had offers from Lotus and BRM for 1965. I might have gone to Lotus, because of Jim. He thought It would be nice for us. I looked very carefully, and decided that every single driver who'd driven with Jim Clark and Team Lotus had ever developed to be anywhere else, like Trevor Taylor and Peter Arundell. And Innes hadn't done very well out of it either. I thought there was one man in Colin's eyes, and that was Jim.
...
At BRM I thought I could learn more from Graham Hill than I could from Jim, and I thought I'd get more testing with BRM than Lotus, which proved to be the case. And Colin was very difficult to deal with. He offered me a paltry amount of money, then doubled it, doubled it again and, finally, doubled it again. By then it was more than BRM was offering, but I thought I wouldn't be able to sleep if I had to look over my shoulder every day. Why didn't he just give me a decent offer to start with ?

At the end of 1964 Jim was injured, throwing snowballs at the Cortina introduction ! Colin called me up and asked me to drive a F1 car and a Lotus Cortina at the Rand GP in South Africa in December. I had already agreed to drive for BRM in '65, so I was under contract. He asked me whether, if they would agree that I could do it, I would ? He'd phoned up Tony Rudd who said it would be OK, because he thought it would give me experience. So I agreed, and went down there with Mike Spence.

It was a brand new Lotus 25 (33-R10), never been raced. It was a lovely car. The big hassle in the saloons was Basil van Rooyen. The thing was that the local hero was going to nail me - but his big disappointment was that he wasn't going to get a chance to nail Jim Clark. The guy nobody had heard of was coming instead.

I put the car on pole for the F1 race, and then a driveshaft broke. I still have it in my office. The race was in two parts, I had to start from the back of the grid for the second part, and I won it. Graham won overall.

[Ray Bell]

Graham Hill in a Brabham (well, that was nothing new), Jackie Stewart in a Lotus, and GP drivers hurling sedans around at the same meeting... those were the days!

[quintin cloud]

Heres some extra info about the race.

Qualfying time for Jackie Stewart was 1,35.3s (pole for first race.)


7- Clive Puzey Lotus 18 "P2" with a Climax engine
8- Bob Hay Lotus 20 "20-J-876" with a Climax engine
10- Neville Lederle Lotus 21 "952" with a Climax engine
12- Alex Blignaut Cooper 53 "F1-1-61" with a Climax engine
13- Steve Mellet, LDS-5 with a Alfa Romeo Engine
14- Rauten Hartmann Netuar Peugeot
15- Piet de Klerk with a Alfa-Romeo Special


Finishing times for the first 4 with both results counting:

1 Graham Hill Brabham BT11/F1-4-64 BRM 1h22m48.7
2 Paul Hawkins Brabham BT10/F2-2-64 Ford 1h23m41.6
3 Bob Anderson Brabham BT11/F1-5-64 Climax 1h24m13.7
4 Sam Tingle LDS Alfa Romeo LDS-2 1h26m19.8

[ry6]

There persists an error with the cars Alec Blignaut drove in South African "F1" events.

He only ever raced his own Cooper T45 Climax which he said was an ex-Jim Russell car with magnesium bodywork.

He NEVER raced the ex-Yeoman Credit ex-Mike Harris T53 as some books say.

[Dick Willis]

As there seems to be quite a depth of information on the 1964 Rand GP, can anyone help me with this one ; I have an Ausper FJ which spent some 25 years in Rhodesia/ South Africa where it was raced with an Alfa motor fitted, I have a copy of a page from the 5th Rhodesian Grand Prix, but I don't know what year it was when the car was entered by C.R. Puzey and driven by N.J. Wesson from Salisbury. My information was that the car was brought to the country by Gordon Littleford who had worked for the Ausper factory in England for a time, but not raced by him, instead being sold to Mike Wesson who fitted the Alfa motor. The car, or what was left of it, came to Australia in around 1995.
I am naturally keen to fill in the gaps in the car's history so if anyone can tell me when and where it raced in South Africa and Rhodesia I would be very grateful.

[Vitesse2]

The V Rhodesian GP was held on Dec 4th 1966:

http://home.hccnet.n...evoort/saf.html

There's a Black Book on the South African Championship races, so I'm sure someone around here must have a copy.

[Allen Brown]

Marcos, Felix

Which LDS numbering system are you using? The cars were not numbered by Serrurier and most systems I have seen are evolutions of the one used by Thompson in his original 1976 F1 Register book.

Subsequent systems have got themselves in a knot over the very first cars and have often ignored Hammon's car.

Allen

[Hieronymus]

Originally posted by Dick Willis
As there seems to be quite a depth of information on the 1964 Rand GP, can anyone help me with this one ; I have an Ausper FJ which spent some 25 years in Rhodesia/ South Africa where it was raced with an Alfa motor fitted, I have a copy of a page from the 5th Rhodesian Grand Prix, but I don't know what year it was when the car was entered by C.R. Puzey and driven by N.J. Wesson from Salisbury.

Dick

How about trying to get the information directly from Clive Puzey? If you are interested, I can supply you with his contact details. Let me know and I shall email it to you.

A remark to all the other chaps....

I always see the name PIET de Klerk. I thought his name was PETER de Klerk and just that. Piet was perhaps just a nickname used by fellow competitors.

What do you say, Rob??

[Dick Willis]

Thanks Hieronymus fot the offer, I had no idea whether Clive Puzey was still contactable, if you could let me know his email address

[Frank Verplanken]

Hi .
Bumping this oldie as I am searching for the number of practice sessions (and their length) for the 1964 Rand GP. We are recreating the race with fellow GPLers and would like to have it as close as possible to the real thing . Anyone knows ?
Thanks in advance

[pmbboy]

Hi,
i am sorry I can't supply any real info on this race other than to say I was there although quite young. My overiding memory of the event was Jackie Stewart three wheeling the lotus Cortina around Sunset bend what a race with the local drivers Basil Van Rooyen and Koos Swanapoel all of them on the limit. Then after this race he steps into a F1 lotus and wins with ease we did not realise what a talent he would go on to be.

One point I did notice at the start of this thread was that LDS was down as Louis Douglas Serrurier I always thought it Leslie Douglas, If this has already been mentioned sorry to go over old ground as this thread did start on 2000.

cheers
Peter

[Hieronymus]

Originally posted by Marcor
Realpha: Built by Rays Engineering Ltd in Rhodesia (now Swaziland)...

Please do not tell Robber Mugabe!

Re. Serrurier...Louis Douglas is correct

Re. Practice rounds at 1964 Rand GP. All I know is that there was an unofficial practice round from 11h30 to 12h15 on race day. Official practice was probably limited to two session (morning and afternoon) on the Friday.

[Frank Verplanken]

Thanks Marius

[ReWind]

Originally posted by pmbboy
One point I did notice at the start of this thread was that LDS was down as Louis Douglas Serrurier I always thought it Leslie Douglas

Apparently he had a brother called Allen Leslie (and three more brothers & one sister). (Source)