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The Record-Breaking Coopers


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#1 DeanAshleyOwen

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Posted 06 January 2014 - 06:52

Dear Sirs,

 

My name is Dean Owen, and my late father wrote a book called "The Racing Coopers" that some of you are familiar with.

 

I have decided to attempt to write a novel based on the last Chapter of the book, "The Record-Breaking Coopers".

 

As a brief synopsis of the novel, the story starts in the Algarve, Portugal where my father, Arthur Owen, went to retire. In the mid-1990's he was stopped at a road block just outside Albafeira whilst driving a racing green Alfa Romeo. The local police asked to see his license, and then green lighted him to proceed whilst cautioning him to please always wear a seatbelt. (My father had stubbornly always abstained from wearing seatbelts).

 

Then we flash back to 1955 and the first record breaking attempts by Jim Russell, Bill Knight, and Arthur Owen at Montlhery. The story continues to the 1957 attempts at Monza where Cooper's works manager Ron Searles pleads with Knight and Owen to be their third driver because John Cooper could not attend since he was expecting a baby. They accept and start preparing for the attempts. And many of you know that just 16 minutes from completing the 12 hour record, there was a tragic accident that resulted in the death of Ron Searles. "The car had shot up into the air and landed thirty yards down the track on its back. Ron did not have a chance, he must have been mercifully killed outright, with only sixteen minutes to go to achieve his greatest ambition".

 

My father always asserted that had Ron Searles not been harnessed in, he might have been able to escape the fireball of a wreckage. 

 

Then we flash forward to the Algarve Portugal again, with my father driving away from the road block, with no seatbelt.

 

And the final Chapter will be on the 1959 record attempts where Knight and Owen successfully take the one hour record in a 2 litre Mark IV. 

"This misty run ended the Cooper record breaking story. Monza owed it to them...."

 

So firstly, for the some of you that may have been fortunate to know the drivers involved, I ask for your blessing in writing this novel. I very much want to tell the Ron Searles story and honour his memory.  That said, I was born in October 1967, 10 years after that fateful day. My father never talked about his racing career to any of his family. So my sources for this novel will largely be based on his, and Doug Nye's books. The silverware (trophies) were stolen during a burglary in London, and all the racing photos we had have dissipated over the last decades.  

So if any of you kind gentlemen do have any information on the record breaking events, or any stories that you wouldn't mind sharing, do please let me know.

 

And if any of you could share any information whatsoever on Ron Searles, Bill Knight, Roy Salvadori, Jim Russell, or any of the marvelous characters that will fill this book, please do share. 

 

Warm Regards,

 

Dean Owen



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#2 DeanAshleyOwen

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Posted 20 January 2014 - 04:46

Any help on this would be much appreciated. If any of you know how I could get in contact with the families of Jim Russell, Bill Knight, Ron Searles, or anyone related to the record attempts it would be much appreciated. I dropped a private message to Doug Nye, but perhaps his mailbox is full as the message bounced back.

 

Warm Regards

 

Dean Owen



#3 Tim Murray

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Posted 20 January 2014 - 09:39

Dean, welcome back - are you still based in China? The forum search engine throws up several mentions of Ron Searles, quite a few in this thread:
 
Mystery Cooper(s)
 
which includes this in a post from Richard Page:
 

Incidentally Ron Searles was the father of Bob Searles who is well known in Aston Martin circles. I dont know if Bob still races but until quite recently he peddled a very quick AM V8. Ron was killed at Monza in a record attempt 1957 - See "Motorsport Memorial"

Googling on Bob Searles comes up with this site:

 

http://www.rsclassicracing.co.uk/index.php?menu_id=32

 

with which Bob obviously is or was closely associated, but there are no contact details and the site hasn't been updated since 2008. Bob is obviously a member of the Aston Martin OC:

 

http://www.amoc.org/component/option,com_easygallery/act,photos/cid,1194/Itemid,343/

 

and I feel sure they'll be able to put you in touch with him.


Edited by Tim Murray, 20 January 2014 - 09:58.


#4 DeanAshleyOwen

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Posted 20 January 2014 - 09:52

Hi Tim,

Yes I am still in China but have quit my career in Finance to focus on writing.
Thanks for the response. Certainly Bob Searles is a person I really need to contact, so thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
I feel a little uneasy that on the fateful day, in the last remaining minutes of the record attempt, Ron needed to speed up or risk failing the 12 hour record so my father went on to the track and as Ron zoomed by, my father motioned with his arms to go faster. Then walking back to the pit the heard a huge explosion. Like I said, he never talked about this to us, but I felt in some way that he often blamed himself for the tragedy.
Best,
Dean