John Taylor raced Bob Gerrard’s Coopers to good effect in FJ period, especially at Mallory Park, so every year John’s widow Irene awards the Trophy which she and her family have generously provided. Irene is escorted at the presentations by Jeremy Bouckley, who was a close friend of John when they raced together.

With very changeable weather in the offing we were thankfully blessed by warm sunshine all day and this encouraged many FJ competitors to wander the lakeside and marvel at some of the VSCC’s astonishing circa Edwardian racing behemoths.
The sight of one of these monsters tow starting another one in the paddock, via a chain of nearly Brunel proportions, was certainly an occasion not to be missed. When considering the vast torque of the huge engines and the minimal brakes on narrow wheels it was surprising that spontaneous mating didn’t occur ~~ maybe this is how some of the extraordinary aero engine hybrids happen.

The FJ entry was perfectly formed however; modest in number but great in quality.
Your scribe was busily noting this when a familiar Kiwi hove into view ~~ no less than Len May over here en-famille again on another Grand Tour taking in a few UK and European FJ races as well as visiting some of the more generally accepted cultural highlights of the northern hemisphere. When Len returns home, eventually, hopefully he will be even further enthused when racing his, previously, Don Thallon Cooper T56.

Although the VSCC timetable was favourable, Andrew Wilkinson had barely 2 hours sleep, having been delayed on his return flight from holiday. He arrived home at 1am but was on the road from Somerset with his Cooper T59 in tow before 5am ~ you can’t keep a good Cooper driver down.
With even further to travel, Vern Williamson drove from Edinburgh to spend Saturday night in his truck at the circuit and was able to enjoy a famous Mallory Park breakfast at leisure on Sunday morning, but sadly his Scorpion expired after 2 laps of practice with a broken rear hub shaft which proved impossible to rectify at the circuit.
Brian Mitcham’s Mallock U2 Mk2 continued to have a gearbox malfunction, especially changing down into 2nd gear for the Hairpin. Another with gearbox issues was Simon Ham making a welcome reappearance in his Brabham BT2, fresh from a great race result at the Nurburgring Sports Car event. Simon was noticed to be changing down two gears for Gerrards, so maybe he still had Monza set-up.
Pole position went to Jon Milicevic with a time of 51.31, his Cooper T59 gear linkage problem now rectified, he came in after just 7 laps, whilst Simon Armer’s Cooper T59 took 2nd ahead of Ham and Wilkinson.
The race included a round of the FJ Front Engine Series and Derek Walker claimed best time for this with 55.60 in his Terrier ahead of Mitcham and Andrew Tart’s Bond ~ they being placed 5th, 6th & 7th on the grid.

For the race, the time honoured flag start was conducted with exemplary swiftness and everyone, including Bill Grimshaw, got away cleanly.
David Abbott racing your scribe’s Cooper T56 made up a couple of places from his 16th start position but Paul Hewes Lotus 18 wasn’t going quite as well of late.
Walker kept ahead of Mitcham with Tart hot on his heels. Peter St.Barbe’s Elva 100 had only front brakes operational but he seemed to coping well enough to maintain 4th of the front engine cars. David Bishop’s Elva 100 improved on his practice time whilst Keith Roach’s Gemini Mk2 lost out to Justin Fleming’s Elva 100 but fought mightily and ultimately successfully against Mark Witherspoon’s Elva 100 in a fierce midfield scrap.
Gordon Russell’s Gemini Mk2 kept ahead of Fleming but David Crowther’s Lotus 22 was steady lower down the field.
Roger Dexter’s Elva 100 was going very well, now with new and beautifully made inlet manifolds for the triple Amal carburettors on the 2 stroke DWK 3 cylinder engine. This engine is so small, neat and uncluttered one can easily appreciate what the attraction was back in period days ~~ it’s such a shame that the things are so, so, sensitive and Roger is to be applauded for his perseverance.
Unfortunately the drop-box on Grimshaw’s Moorland failed after 8 laps. This very attractively proportioned car was the forerunner of the production Gemini and Bill keenly campaigns it in the FJ Championships and proudly raced at a Monaco Historic GP event.
Meanwhile Milicevic had stormed off the line but Armer kept with him round the long sweeping Gerrards. Gear deprivation scuppered Ham’s chances of making an impression on Armer despite improving his lap time by 1 second, but sleep deprivation didn’t seem to trouble Wilkinson who also lowered his lap time in his pursuit of Ham.
After a dozen laps Milicevic led Armer over the finish line by some 8 seconds well ahead of Ham, Wilkinson and Walker in 5th who led the front engine cars of Mitcham and Tart.

Jon Milicevic proudly received the magnificent trophy from Irene Taylor before he and Simon Armer and Simon Ham were all interviewed at length by the commentator.
It was very much appreciated that the VSCC arranged for presentations to be made in a quiet period between races, rather than with the broadcasts having to compete against the noise of racing engines.

Results were.
1st Overall, Jon Milicevic, Cooper T59. 51.94
2nd              Simon Armer, Cooper T59
3rd               Simon Ham, Brabham BT6
5th Overall & 1st Front Engine, Derek Walker, Terrier, 55.42
6th & 2nd                        Brian Mitcham, Mallock U2 Mk2
7th & 3rd                         Andrew Tart, Bond

Your scribe was naturally very pleased that, appropriately, Coopers filled the top places in this prestigious race. We can probably stretch a point to include Brabhams as sort of honorary Coopers ~ because if Jack had stayed on and continued his influence on design the cars we know as Brabhams might well have had a Cooper badge instead.

The Cooper Cockpit Correspondent.                                                 26th September 2010