29 replies to this topic

[TerryS]

See the attached ad for this Cooper Bobtail.

https://racecarsdire...is-number-cs356

Intrigued to see it was first run by an Aussie Alan Mackay. He ran it in the 1956 Imola GP.

I don't recall ever hearing of this guy. Does anyone else.?

It says it later competed in the 1959 Australian Grand Prix. This was at Longford.

According to Graham Howard's AGP History book there were two Cooper T39 competing in that race.

There was Lyn Archer in a 1098cc version and Alan Jack in a 1460cc version.

It is not possible to pick which was this for sale car.

Can anyone help?

[Dick Willis]

You are correct Terry, the McKay car did pass to Lyn Archer and subsequently to a host of other Australian owners before being exported.

[Tim Murray]

Here’s what the Racing Sports Cars site has on Alan Mackay and the Bobtail:

http://www.racingspo...MacKay-AUS.html

[TerryS]

Here’s what the Racing Sports Cars site has on Alan Mackay and the Bobtail:http://www.racingspo...MacKay-AUS.html

Thanks Tim for fInding this site. Two points:

- so according to that site he didn’t actually drive in the Imola race.

- why is this car on a sports car site? Was it a sports car or a Formula car?

[Tim Murray]

As that page indicates, Alan Mackay drove in the Imola race. Dennis Taylor was also listed as a driver for that car, but didn’t actually drive it. The Imola race (and all the others listed on that page) was for sports cars:

http://www.wsrp.cz/n...mp1956.html#113

Doug Nye in Cooper Cars tells how at around the time of the Imola race Jack Brabham asked Charles and John Cooper if there was a chance of a works drive for 1957. Charles replied: ‘Yeah - you can ‘ave a works drive. You can drive the transporter down to Imola!’ Doug then wrote:

Jack also learned at Imola ‘what life might be like as a Cooper works driver’. They had taken the third Bob-tail there for the Australian tourist driver Alan Mackay and late in practice its gearbox broke, the casing split and Jack had to weld it back together and rebuild the internals: ‘So I worked virtually all night and didn’t get to bed at all. In the morning the car was just about complete and everyone wanted to get to the circuit. My car hadn’t even been looked at. By the time we started the race I was ready for bed, and I had just begun to realise how much hard work motor racing could be ...’

He still managed to finish second in the race.

[Patrick Fletcher]

I have Alan Mackay's autograph from 1957 Ryall Bush event [near Invercargill New Zealand]

Edited by Patrick Fletcher, 17 June 2018 - 10:11.

[TerryS]

As that page indicates, Alan Mackay drove in the Imola race. Dennis Taylor was also listed as a driver for that car, but didn’t actually drive it. The Imola race (and all the others listed on that page) was for sports cars:http://www.wsrp.cz/n...mp1956.html#113
Doug Nye in Cooper Cars tells how at around the time of the Imola race Jack Brabham asked Charles and John Cooper if there was a chance of a works drive for 1957. Charles replied: ‘Yeah - you can ‘ave a works drive. You can drive the transporter down to Imola!’ Doug then wrote:He still managed to finish second in the race.

Sorry Tim, I misread the Racing Sports Car Page.

Was the Imola race a “GP”?

[Tim Murray]

According to the WSRP entry I posted above, its official title was ‘Gran Premio Shell d’Imola’ so it was a GP, but run for sports cars, not Formula cars. As there appears to be nothing bigger than 1500 cc listed in the results, I’m assuming the race was for sports cars up to 1500 cc.

[Tim Murray]

I have Alan MacKay's autograph from 1957 Ryall Bush event [near Invercargill New Zealand]

Patrick, perhaps you can confirm how the man himself wrote his name - is it Mackay, MacKay or McKay?

[Patrick Fletcher]

It is Mackay - have a photo as well car rego was 640APJ

Edited by Patrick Fletcher, 17 June 2018 - 10:09.

[wenoopy]

As stated on the racecarsdirect.com site, Mackay took his car to New Zealand for the January 1957 series. He was entered as Alan or A J C Mackay.

 

Apparently he managed to break his arm before the NZ Grand Prix, and didn't appear until the Wigram meeting, Here he finished 3rd in the 75-mile sports car race behind Brabham's similar car and Gibbons' D-Type Jaguar, and started in the Lady Wigram Trophy -  not clear where or whether he finished. He then ran at Dunedin street races, again finishing 3rd in the sports car race, but stopping due to cramp in the main event. He raced at the fast 3.65 mile road circuit at Ryal Bush the next weekend but retired from the main race, then returning to Australia. Did he ever race the car in Australia?

 

Stu Buchanan   

[Tim Murray]

It is Mackay - have a photo as well car rego was 640APJ

As stated on the racecarsdirect.com site, Mackay took his car to New Zealand for the January 1957 series. He was entered as Alan or A J C Mackay.

Thanks chaps - Mackay it is.

[TerryS]

So does anyone know anything about Alan Mackay in Australia?

[john medley]

When my brother David bought the Cooper BMC (B-series) from Peter Cray we went together to collect it. Unfortunately my brother was in a business suit and I wore overalls, so when the GHASTLY trailer misbehaved on the way home, I had to do all the dirty work. Later re-engined with Coventry Climax and significantly rebuilt, it was sold to the USA.

[TerryS]

You are correct Terry, the McKay car did pass to Lyn Archer and subsequently to a host of other Australian owners before being exported.

Dick do you know names of subsequent owners?

Also was this the only car that Alan Mackay raced?

[Dick Willis]

After Lyn Archer, Ray Gibbs, Jim Downie, Peter Cray, Stan Pomroy, David Medley, George Goodare, Art Valdez (USA)

[TerryS]

After Lyn Archer, Ray Gibbs, Jim Downie, Peter Cray, Stan Pomroy, David Medley, George Goodare, Art Valdez (USA)

Thanks Dick, appreciated

[ellrosso]

Couple of T39 shots from Longford 1959

[Ray Bell]

Lindsay, the numbers on the cars don't look right...

9 was always Patto's number, Jack ran No 6 in that race and Miller No 60.

At least according to the AGP book.

[ellrosso]

I actually had this caption down as Miller leading Patterson in 1958, mainly due to the number on the T39 Ray. However, I can't find any reference to Miller at the '58 Longford meeting at all which would be unusual if he was there, even if he didn't get past practice or whatever. He is mentioned (as is Jack in the ex Patto Cooper T39) several times in the '59 meeting report, which does point to this shot being from that meeting. I've gone through and changed what I thought were '58 shots to '59 but I'm thinking the b/w shots may be '58 as I now realised Archer was there in '58 with the T39. Very difficult to caption when you have two photographers shooting on different film stocks (3 including the b/w) and Tassy weather being so variable anyway, with many of the same drivers in the same cars mostly unchanged (livery, numbers etc) over the two years.

Edited by ellrosso, 19 June 2018 - 00:35.

[ellrosso]

Thanks to cooper997 I can now confirm it is Miller leading Patterson in 1958. Corrected picture attached.

[TerryS]

So far we have had a lot about the Cooper Bobtail but basically nothing about the driver. He seems a real mystery as I expected someone would know something.

Can I raise three points:

- Surely Alan Mackay must have raced in Australia before going to Europe. He knew that the Cooper Bobtail would be very good, being latest model and could be entered for both sports car and formula car races. Also he must have had some racing record or would the English and European race organisers have accepted his entry. These were serious races he was entering. Then he sold the car after the NZ races and "disappeared".
Having looked in all the normal places I can find no record of him racing in Australia.

- In his site Bruce Sergent notes the following about the 1957 NZ Grand Prix at Ardmore:
"A mystery Formula 2 Cooper turned up. It was sent to NZ by BRITISH driver Alan Mackay, but not entered in time. Then Mackay arrived with a damaged hand which would have prevented him from driving in any case, and sportingly handed it over to NZ's Alex Stringer who justified the choice by finishing the course safely in 12th place."
Over the next 3 weeks Mackay drove the car at Wigram, Dunedin and Royal Busy in International races but failed to finish each time.
So was he really a Pom which is why no Australian record of him?

- There was an Eric Mackay entered for the 1933 AGP at Phillip Island in a Bugatti type 39 Monza for its first Grand Prix.
According to Graham Howard's AGP History book, he did not front as he had sold the car to Carl Junker two weeks before the race.
Perhaps this guy might have been Alan Mackay's father?

Edited by TerryS, 24 June 2018 - 07:46.

[Tim Murray]

Here’s a link to the Sergent page:

http://www.sergent.c...motor/1957.html

There are some obvious anomalies. In the text Mackay is given his correct first name and is described as British, as Terry says. However, in the results table he’s listed as Australian, and with the wrong first name.

The car driven by Alex Stringer is listed as a Cooper T41 (open-wheel F2 single-seater), not a T39 Bobtail (sports racer). Mackay is listed as a DNA having entered a T39.

So did Stringer actually drive Mackay’s T39, or someone else’s T41, or did Mackay have two cars, or is T41 just a typo (a proper T41 would surely have had an engine bigger than 1098 cc)?

[Ray Bell]

John Ellacott has two T39s in one pic at Longford in 1960...

[Patrick Fletcher]

 Ecurie Ecosse site has an Alan Mackay as an English driver. There a few results in a T45 [F2-6-58] up to 1960 then the last in a Sebring Sprite at Le Mans.

 

I spoke to a David Mackay owner of Allan Mackay Volvo in Sydney today and he told me that David McKay called him years ago trying to locate our man.

They had been friends when he was in Australia but lost touch over the years.

 

Edited by Patrick Fletcher, 09 July 2018 - 09:07.

[Ardmore]

Stringer didn't drive Mackay's Bobtail at Ardmore in 1957, he drove the F2 Cooper brought to NZ by Ken Wharton.

 

Mackay finished 12th at Wigram.

[Patrick Fletcher]

Alan Mackay was an Australian born 1924 and passed away 2014.

Thinking that he may have met Brabham during RAAF service searched lots of records but nothing came to light.

Contacted CAMS for any help that they could provide but silence on any records that they may have for our man racing in Australia.

Have found records and verification that Alan was in another service and was demobbed 1945 - have sighted his papers and the signature is near identical to the autograph from 1957 that I have.

Edited by Patrick Fletcher, 13 August 2018 - 10:20.

[Tim Murray]

Brabham was born 2nd April 1926, so would have been a couple of years younger than Mackay.

[Allen Brown]

Brabham was born 2nd April 1926, so would have been a couple of years younger than Mackay.

 

Exactly the same day as my mother.  #oddbutuselessfacts

[D-Type]

Exactly the same day as my mother.  #oddbutuselessfacts

And exactly 21 years before yours truly.