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Vaughan Lucas


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#1 austmcreg

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Posted 02 January 2014 - 09:06

Can anyone assist with information on Vaughan Lucas, who briefly raced an ex Patterson  Cooper T43 in Australia in January-March 1962 but appears to have no racing history outside this.

 

I have tried the search function and found nothing on him  - he seems to have come from nowhere to the Cooper, which was apparently bought from Bill Patterson less engine, had a 1500cc Hillman engine installed, and ran as a formula Junior. I have been told that the Hillman installation was done by Doug Whiteford, but have no hard evidence of that.

 

I have records of three entries:

Calder 14/1/62 (the opening meeting) entered in the formula Junior races as Cooper FJ 1500, colour red. I dont have any results.

Longford 3&4 / 3/62. Late entry, not in program, but practised on 2/3/62, but with a very slow time and did not start any races. I have a colour image of the Cooper (painted red) on its European-style VW transporter, at Longford.

Sandown International Cup 12/3/62. Enterd 1496cc Cooper, colour black. Famously got tangled with Stirling Moss when being lapped.(SM later explained to him that he should not brake unexpectedly while being overtaken)

 

What was his background? Any other racing history? Is he still about? There are quite a few V.Lucas is white pages but is our man one of them?

 

Any information on the man and other racing activity appreciated.

 

Rob Saward


Edited by austmcreg, 02 January 2014 - 09:08.


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#2 Vitesse2

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Posted 02 January 2014 - 13:38

A dig on Ancestry throws up two possible candidates on Australian electoral rolls:

 

Noel Vaughan Lucas, usually described as an 'ironworker' on the electoral roll. Lived in Maitland NSW. Probably born about 1920-25 - maybe a bit later. He married in Randwick in 1944, but doesn't seem to be on the roll until 1949, so born 1928 at the latest.

 

Vaughan Patrick J Lucas, sometimes a 'subcontractor', later 'company director'. Lived in South Yarra, then Mansfield, Vic. Later moved to Labrador, Qld. However, he doesn't appear on the electoral roll until 1968, so probably too young.

 

Both were still on the roll in 1980, but the first one looks slightly more promising, I think.



#3 P.Dron

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Posted 02 January 2014 - 17:52


 

Both were still on the roll in 1980, but the first one looks slightly more promising, I think.

 

If that was "promising", I could have been a superstar.



#4 Ray Bell

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Posted 03 January 2014 - 20:12

Geography suggests the other one...

 

A lot of people don't enrol to vote when they should.



#5 austmcreg

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Posted 05 January 2014 - 02:44

Geography suggests the other one...

 

A lot of people don't enrol to vote when they should.

Thanks Vitesse, I agree with Ray regarding the geography - the second sounds more likely. South Yarra and company director are definitely the sort of backgrounds I would expect for a wealthy young man who can go and buy a good Cooper from Bill Patterson and pay Doug Whiteford to install an engine in it (probably recommended by Bill, for whom Doug did a lot of preparation work and some driving).

 

I can see I should be paying for an Ancestry.com subscription. I shall follow up on this.

 

Rob Saward


Edited by austmcreg, 05 January 2014 - 02:45.


#6 RCH

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Posted 06 January 2014 - 08:09

Sorry to butt in on a purely Australian topic but you guys amaze me sometimes!

Did you have a different Formula Junior to everyone else? A 1500cc Hillman engine FJ Cooper? Hillman?? You cannot be serious! And what was Stirling Moss doing in an FJ race?

Sorry, carry on as you were.

#7 austmcreg

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Posted 08 January 2014 - 13:24

Sorry to butt in on a purely Australian topic but you guys amaze me sometimes!

Did you have a different Formula Junior to everyone else? A 1500cc Hillman engine FJ Cooper? Hillman?? You cannot be serious! And what was Stirling Moss doing in an FJ race?

Sorry, carry on as you were.

Ray Bell will know the detail better than me, but yes, Australian FJ was different - a bit more relaxed, in the Australian manner. Formal FJ races were probably more strictly controlled, but the Calder meeting referred to here was what in Britain would be called club meeting (run what ya brung). Anything that had a pushrod four cylinder production engine was close to the mark. By about 1964 this morphed into the ANF 1.5, our second level class for 1500cc production based engines, but Lotus Ford twin cams quickly became the norm.

 

The Hillman engine had a good reputation here and was apparently quite tuneable, with 8 ports, albeit not cross-flow.Several older Coopers were converted about the same time.

 

The race in which Lucas and SM got involved was the Sandown International, a formula Libre race with an international field. Small cars were accepted, but there was a big performance difference between guys like Vaughan Lucas and the 2.7 FPF Climaxes at the front of the field.

 

Rob Saward