Silverstone July 1994

I took this photograph during the Chopard HGPCA 100 Mile Grand Prix Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

Leading this group is the 1955 Cooper Bobtail of Katharina Schmidt, which is the 2 litre Cooper T40 Bristol that Jack Brabham drove in his first World Championship Formula 1 race in 1955. Behind that is the 1952 Connaught A-Type of Spike Milligan, chassis A7, and bringing up the rear is the 1953 Cooper Bristol T23 of Graham Burrows.

Classic Car Sports Car Race - Silverstone 1994

I took this photograph at Luffield Corner during the Classic Car Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

Leading is Valentine Lindsay in his 1955 Aston Martin DB3S (DB3S/110) followed by Stirling Moss in his Lola Mk1 and Wessel von Loringhoven in his 1959 Porsche 718 RSK. On the right-hand side is Katharina Schmidt in her 1955 Cooper T40 Bobtail, the car with which Jack Brabham made his Grand Prix debut in the 1955 British Grand Prix.

Cooper T40 Bristol Bobtail

This car competed in the Louis Vuitton 1950s Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1997, although it's first appearance was as a Formula One car in the 1955 British Grand Prix at Aintree.

Listed in the programme as Katharina Schmidt's 1955 Cooper Bobtail, it's the 2 litre Cooper T40 Bristol that Jack Brabham drove in his first World Championship Formula 1 race in 1955.

On 20 May 2014 I showed a photograph of Katharina Schmidt sitting in this car in the paddock at Silverstone in 1993.

The car behind the Cooper is Paul Pappalardo's 3 litre 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO, chassis #5111GT.

Jaguar C-Type

This car replaced the car listed in the programme of the event in the Classic Car Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

It's Hugh Taylor's Jaguar C-Type, and the car it replaced in that race is Hugh Taylor's Willment-Climax, which is the car behind the C-Type in this photograph. There are three other C-Types shown here - car number 12 is that of Martin Morris, which was driven by David Morris in the race; number 7 is Aubrey Finburgh's car which was piloted by Paul Grist; and the only other C-Type listed in the programme is that of Burkhard von Schenk. Next to that car is a Maserati 300S, and what looks like another 300S behind the people of the right of the photograph.

Here's Hugh Taylor in the race at Luffield corner leading the Porsche RSK of Wessel von Loringhoven, and the Cooper Bristol Bobtail of Katharina Schmidt.

Sir Jack Brabham OBE

It was sad to hear the news of Jack Brabham's death yesterday at his home in Australia's Gold Coast in Queensland at the age of 88. I saw him race on several occasions in the 1950s and 60s at Oulton Park and Aintree, most notably his winning drive in the 1959 British Grand Prix at Aintree in a Cooper Climax T51 on his way to winning his first World Championship. Here are a couple of photographs I took of him preparing to take part in a demonstration run in a Cooper T51 at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

My copy of the programme of the meeting was autographed by Jack Brabham at one of the signing sessions, together with Lofty England, Tony Rolt and Roy Salvadori, all of whom are no longer with us.

Also competing at the 1993 Silverstone meeting was the Cooper Bristol T40 which Jack Brabham drove in the British Grand Prix of 1955 and which in 1993 was owned by Thomas Bscher and driven in the Champagne Charles Heidsieck Sports Car race at the meeting by Katharina Schmidt.

After winning the 1959 and 1960 World Championships with the Cooper Climax T51 and T53 cars Jack Brabham went on to form his own Brabham team and in 1966 became the first (and so far only) driver to win the Formula One World Championship in one of his own cars. For the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1996 the organisers paid a special tribute in the programme to Jack Brabham in his 70th year and the front of the programme featured a montage of drawings of him.

Although it did not take part in the racing the Brabham Repco BT19 with which Jack Brabham won the 1966 World Championship was on display in the paddock during this meeting.