Formula 1
Teams Constructors TeamsAlan Brown Equipe: 1959 Formula One Season By Jeremy McMullenAt the 1952 Swiss Grand Prix, Alan Brown would be at the wheel of a Bristol-powered Cooper T20 and would start from a lowly 15th on the grid. Yet, despite the all-conquering Ferrari 500, Brown would manage to overcome the attrition and the reckless Bremgarten circuit to finish 5th. Not only would Brown finish better than names like Stirling Moss, Giuseppe Farina and Louis Rosier, it would be his and Cooper's very first points in the new Formula One World Championship. It was the very beginning days of a coming British dominance that would result in the island nation becoming the center of the Formula One world. At that time, however, it was a surprising result seemingly unlikely to repeat itself.
The year before, Brown and Ecurie Richmond had managed to beat the factory Cooper drivers within Formula 3. The move of the World Championship to embrace Formula 2 regulations opened the door for Cooper's involvement and Brown's opportunity to gain those 2 championship points. It would also be the beginning of a career in Formula 2 that would carry on throughout the remainder of the 1950s.
Alan Brown would race D-Type Jaguars for Ecurie Ecosse and would even be involved in the early stages of the development and testing of the new Vanwall chassis. But by this time, he was pushing his late 30s and had been recently married. Therefore, Alan would retire from the cockpit, but not racing.
About the same time Brown was hanging up his racing helmet there would be another realizing he needed to do the same. Ken Tyrrell had tried his hand in the lower formulas. However, when he was beaten by a young Bruce McLaren in the last race of the 1958 Formula 2 season, Tyrrell would face facts and would turn his attentions toward managing instead.
Tyrrell had already formed a partnership with Brown in 1958. Ken would be involved in the managerial side of Alan Brown Equipe, but he would also drive as well. This would change following the '58 season.
The partnership between Brown and Cooper would result in the Formula 2 team running T45s in 1958. Throughout the '58 season, despite Tyrrell's revelations of himself just not being a racing driver, the team would enjoy some success. Unfortunately, a certain Bruce McLaren just kept beating them in his own Cooper T45. Tyrrell's retirement from racing meant he and Brown could focus on supplying competitive cars to the best available talent possible. Not surprisingly, McLaren would be one of those the team would pursue to drive for the team.
The 1959 grand prix season would not get an early start in South America. Instead, the season would kick-off with the usual races on the continent and on English shores. The first of these would be the Easter Monday Races held at Goodwood. Held on the 30th of March, these races would be the first of the season and provided the first glimpses of the upcoming season.
The Easter Monday Races was quite a popular event boasting of a number of different categories of racing all happening on the same day. Therefore, the crowd would be able to watch Formula One cars strut their stuff while the Formula 2 cars would also have an event of their own. The Lavant Cup was for Formula 2 and it would be the 10th edition of that race in 1959.
Alan Brown Equipe, with the help of Ken Tyrrell, would have a strong entry in the race. The American Masten Gregory would be driving one of the team's Cooper T45s. The other would be driven by Tyrrell's nemesis throughout the '58 campaign, Bruce McLaren.
The pair of Brown entries would look good but would be unable to really challenge the factory Cooper of Jack Brabham over the course of the 15 lap event. The closest to give Brabham any kind of trouble would be Roy Salvadori in an older T43 Cooper.
Fastest lap be Salvadori meant he was right up the back of Brabham throughout the event and it would end with Brabham edging out Salvadori by just four-tenths of a second. Jim Russell would complete the podium while Gregory and McLaren would finish 5th and 6th respectively.
Brown's effort would manage to retain McLaren's talents for the next race on the Formula 2 calendar, which would be the British Empire Trophy race held at Oulton Park on the 11th of April.
Joining McLaren would be Mike Taylor but Taylor's race would be short-lived as the rainy and damp conditions would lead to an accident on the opening lap of the 40 lap race taking Taylor immediately out of the picture.
Despite McLaren's best efforts he too would be out of the picture. Finishing a lap behind the eventual winner Jim Russell, the New Zealander would have a rather quiet day amidst the changing conditions. He would finish 4th.
The Formula 2 calendar would be a busy one during the early part of the '59 season. Following the British Empire Trophy race on the 11th, the BARC 200 event would be scheduled at Aintree. This would be a big event on the Formula 2 calendar, and a rather important one for the racing season on a whole.
The BARC 200 would feature and Formula One and Formula 2 race run concurrently around the 3.0 mile that was situated within and without the famed Grand National course. Furthermore, the BARC event would be the first time most of the drivers would have an opportunity to take to the Aintree circuit in their actual cars for the season. The British Grand Prix would be held at Aintree in '59 and this meant the BARC event would provide some important track time and testing for the upcoming round of the World Championship months later.
Alan Brown Equipe would be present at the race with two of their cars entered within the Formula 2 category. Despite his terrible first lap accident in the wet at Oulton Park, Mike Taylore would be behind the wheel of one of the Coopers. The other would be piloted by Peter Ashdown.
Among the Formula One entries, the fastest would be Masten Gregory in a Cooper. His time of 1:59.6 would be four-tenths of a second quicker than Jean Behra's best in one of the Ferrari Dino 246s. Harry Schell would take a BRM 25 and would put it 3rd on the grid, the final spot on the front row.
Among the Formula 2 entries, Alan Brown's team would be impressive. Despite the rain that had fallen earlier, Taylor would be among the quickest around the circuit in practice. His best of 2:08.4 would make him third-quickest within the Formula 2 ranks and this would result in a 12th place position on the grid, or what was the middle of the fifth row. Ashdown wouldn't fair a whole lot worse. His best effort would be less than a second off of Taylor's but the competition within Formula 2 would be so tight that he would start from the seventh row of the grid in the 16th position overall.
Heading into the race, Ashdown had already enjoyed success scoring victory in a sportscar race. The conditions were overcast but there seemed no threat of rain over the course of the 67 lap race. At the start, it would be Gregory that would lead the way. Behind him would come a whole gaggle of Formula One cars entrenched in a tight battle for 2nd place. In the period of just a few laps that battle would turn into just Stirling Moss and Harry Schell chasing after Gregory.
Further back, Taylor would be embroiled in an entertaining battle for the lead. The lead would change hands a number of times. The battle would become separated slightly and it would be Ivor Bueb leading the way.
At the front of the whole field things would be changing dramatically. The Ferraris of Behra and Brooks would finally find their legs and they would begin to challenge. Behra would be up to 3rd place and soon 2nd place when Gregory's Cooper failed the test and thereby handed the lead to Moss. Behra would no sooner get comfortable in 2nd place that he would find himself in the lead as Moss headed to the pits with gearbox failure. Brooks would make his way by McLaren and would find himself in 2nd place when his former Vanwall teammate departed the scene.
It would be a similar situation in Formula 2. Bueb would lead the way for a majority of the race. Bueb would fall out of contention handing the lead to Brian Naylor. Naylor looked in control of everything except for communication with his pit crew. In need of fuel, Naylor's crew would fail to understand and would keep him out. When he did finally pit the crew would do some damage and the result would be that Naylor would lose a great deal of time in the pits.
Taylor would end up in the lead of the race, helped out by setting what was to be the fastest lap of the race some four seconds quicker than his best effort in practice. Brown's team was in control of the race, but down to just a single car following Ashdown's retirement earlier in the race from gearbox trouble.
The Ferraris would cruise home to victory. Behra would take the win while Brooks would follow across the line some 10 seconds behind. Bruce McLaren would bring the factory Cooper home to a 3rd place finish ending the day nearly a minute behind Behra's Ferrari.
Within the Formula 2 ranks, it would be a good day for Alan Brown Equipe. Taylor's quick pace and error-free driving provided a great turn-around from the previous week's race. Taylor would power his way to the win defeating Keith Greene in another Cooper. Overall, the team would finish a little more than three laps behind the Ferraris but had survived a very tough test victorious. Things looked good for the British Grand Prix later on in the season.
The British Grand Prix would have to wait. There were still a few months and a number of races in between. One of those that would come in between would come along the following week, but on another island, this one located within the heart of the Mediterranean.
For years, the Syracuse Grand Prix had been a Formula One event. This would change in 1959. No longer would the race to take place on the island of Sicily be a Formula One race. Over the last couple of years the race had turned into a boring processional with very little on-track battling. Instead, it would be a Formula 2 race. It was believed that by becoming a Formula 2 race the event would attract more entries and the racing would be much closer than what it had been. Sure enough, the race would draw some of the best drivers and teams. This would be evidenced by the presence of Stirling Moss, Jean Behra, Jack Brabham and others in the entry list.
Turning to become a Formula 2 event, the Gran Premio di Siracusa would be another supreme test for Formula 2 cars. Lasting 55 laps and boasting of a high average speed, the 3.48 mile Syracuse circuit would push the 1.5-liter engines to their breaking point.
Brown's team would enter just one Cooper T45 in the race. It would be driven by Masten Gregory. Gregory would not be able to take pole for the race like he had done at Aintree for the BARC 200 event. No, it would be Stirling Moss driving the Rob Walker Cooper that would take the pole for the race, but he would have Jean Behra in one of the potent Dino 156 Ferraris and Jack Brabham in a factory Cooper all right there to challenge his supremacy during the race.
During the race, Jean Behra would apply a great deal of pressure in the Ferrari. However, Moss would prove more than the equal of the Frenchman turning aside every attack. Instead, Moss would pull away and take victory by more than 20 seconds over Behra. Gregory would end up a lap down in the end but he would be battling Brabham for the final spot on the podium nearly the whole way. Unfortunately, Gregory would finish 4th. While the podium had been within reach, the 4th place would still be a fine result following up the victory at Aintree.
The season was heading into the month of May. Instead of heading back to England and taking part in the upcoming International Trophy race on the 2nd of May, Alan Brown Equipe would make its way into the continent, and particularly the foothills of the Pyrenees. Just a week after the Monaco Grand Prix, a similar city in the south of France would play host to a Formula 2 race.
Grand prix racing would have its beginnings in a race conducted between the small city of Pau and the other coastal cities of France. More than 50 years on, Pau remains a presence in grand prix racing hosting the Grand Prix Automobile de Pau. However, the Formula 2 race in 1959 would be vastly different from that first even back at the turn of the 20th century.
Where that first event would take place over public roads traversing the countryside en route to the Atlantic coast and back, the Pau Grand Prix would be entirely situated within the confines of the city of Pau itself. Therefore, the circuit would be short, slow and very tight and winding. High speed would not be the main concern around 1.40 mile circuit. Instead, handling, braking and acceleration would be of paramount.
In many respects, the Pau circuit would be quite similar to Monaco. Starting out with a tight hairpin turn that leads uphill and eventually around a casino at the top of the hill, the circuit then descends rapidly through a rather blind chicane and around another hairpin before spilling back out on a short straight leading to the start/finish line.
The race in Pau would include a couple of regulars. Both Maurice Trintignant and Jean Behra had scored victories around the circuit when it was a Formula 2 and Formula One race before. This time, Trintignant would start from pole. Bruce McLaren would be back driving for Alan Brown's team. He would be right up there as well. Masten Gregory would be the team's second driver.
Not surprisingly, Behra would prove quickest around the circuit in his own Porsche. However, he would run into trouble over the course of the 80 lap race and would be down in the order. Gregory would be another that would run into trouble. Running into pinion problems around the quick but unforgiving circuit, Gregory would be out of the running.
It would matter little as Trintignant, driving for Rob Walker, would be invincible this day. Despite McLaren's best efforts to chase down the Frenchman, the Rob Walker driver would actually disappear into the distance around the circuit taking the victory by well more than a minute over the New Zealander. The victory would ensure French supremacy around the streets of Pau yet again.
The Formula 2 calendar would be heavily-laden with races and would often make stops at the same circuits hosting a Formula One event. However, there would be a number of other sites on the calendar that would host a Formula 2 event. Some of these places had never hosted a Formula One race before and some had. One of those that would have a Formula 2 race on the calendar that had also hosted Formula One would be Rouen-les-Essarts.
Rouen last hosted a Formula One grand prix in 1957. It would be a rather processional affair with Juan Manuel Fangio utterly dominating the proceedings en route to his fifth, and final, World Championship. However, on the 12th of July in 1959 the circuit would play host to Formula 2 and a tight battle between privateer teams running Cooper chassis.
The Rouen circuit would be the same as that had hosted Formula One in '57. The circuit of a little more than 4 miles would be fast and technical at the same time. For the Formula 2 cars, the Rouen circuit would be a particularly tough test. Lacking the horsepower of the Formula One cars, the Formula 2 chassis needed speeds to be maintained. Any loss of momentum would be detrimental to a fast lap. Around Rouen, momentum would be easily lost. Between the elevations changes and blind entries into some of the corners, it would be very easy to miss the ideal racing line, and therefore, have to come off the gas thereby destroying any speed. Still, a popular circuit with drivers and teams alike, Rouen offered a sense of the old road course feel at a time when aerodrome circuits were becoming more and more prevalent.
Pole position would belong to Hans Herrmann driving one of Jean Behra's Porsches. But while Herrmann would earn the pole for the 35 lap race there would be any number of drivers that could take the victory. There would be Stirling Moss driving for Rob Walker, Jack Brabham at the wheel of a factory Cooper and Americans Harry Schell and Masten Gregory. Alan Brown Equipe would enter two Coopers in the race. Gregory would be at the wheel of one of them. Bruce McLaren would again be at the wheel of the other.
Over the course of the race, Stirling Moss would set the pace turning the fastest lap and leading the way. Despite the fact Herrmann started from the pole he would find himself out of the race after just 8 laps due to transmission failure. This, and the fact Moss would be the quickest around the Rouen circuit, meant the Rob Walker Cooper disappeared into the distance. The only real battle left on the track heading into the final lap of the race would be for 2nd place between Schell and Gregory.
The two Americans would go at it tooth and nail and there would be nothing between them. Heading into the final lap, there would be nothing more than a couple of car lengths between the two. Who exactly would take the position was very much in doubt.
The only doubt anyone had about Moss would be whether or not the Cooper would make it all the way to the finish. Powering down the long straight toward the finish line, the question would be answered in fine fashion as Moss would take the victory with more than 30 seconds in hand.
There would be no such gap between 2nd and 3rd. Even coming out of the final corner, there would be nothing between Schell and Gregory. It would be a drag race to the line. Driving the newer T51, Schell would manage to out-drag Gregory to the line taking 2nd place by just two-tenths of a second. This would be a bittersweet result for Gregory but it would be taken much better by the team as McLaren crossed the line in 4th place making it both cars within the top five. This was just the kind of result the team needed with the British round of the World Championship only a week away.
Leaving the wooded hills surrounding the meandering Seine, Alan Brown Equipe would make its way to the coast and then across the Channel to its native shores. There was no time to waste. Upon arriving on home soil the team would immediately make its way to the northwest coast of the island nation. The destination would be a famed racecourse just outside of Liverpool. It was back to Aintree as it was time for the British Grand Prix.
It had been months since Mike Taylor had been gifted victory around the 3.0 mile Aintree circuit, but now the team was back riding a good result at Rouen. This momentum would be important heading into what was certain to be a race filled to the brim with entrants.
There would certainly be no shortage of entrants. British manufacturing was coming to the fore supplanting Ferrari as the only dominant force in Formula One. What's more, these potent challengers were also customer cars and this meant any well organized privateer could challenge for victory. This encouraged even more entrants. Of course, what encouraged the greatest number of entrants in the British round of the World Championship would be the fact the race featured a Formula One and Formula 2 race ran concurrently. The best of Formula 2 would have the opportunity to test themselves against of Formula One.
Unfortunately for Brown's team, Bruce McLaren and Masten Gregory would all have drives in Formula One Coopers for the 75 lap race on the 18th of July. Therefore, Brown would be in the position of having to find competitive replacements for his two cars. Alan had turned to Mike Taylor before and it had proved successful. Therefore, Taylor would be back driving for the team. Peter Ashdown had also driven for the team the last time they had visited Aintree. It had ended up a short term deal as an early retirement blunted any opportunity Ashdown may have had. However, Ashdown would find himself with a big opportunity being offered the second seat in the British Grand Prix.
Even for a Formula 2 car, Aintree suited the Cooper quite well. The straights were no long enough to demand incredible out-right speeds. However, the circuit would feature a number of technically-difficult corners that barely shared anything in common with each other. This demanded a car that handled extremely well and that could get on and off the power without unsettling that handling. The rear-engined Cooper certainly suited such a requirement much better than the front-engined challengers.
Jack Brabham would demonstrate this fact in practice by setting the fastest lap and taking pole. Roy Salvadori would be at the wheel of the brand-new, front-engined, Aston Martin and he would be quite impressive posting a nearly identical lap time to Brabham. Harry Schell would complete the front row of the grid driving a BRM 25 to a lap time of 1:59.2, just a little more than a second slower than Brabham.
Among the Formula 2 runners, Chris Bristow would prove the quickest around the Aintree circuit. Driving a Borgward-powered Cooper T51, Bristow would set a lap time just over six seconds slower than Brabham's best in a Formula One Cooper T51. Bristow would start from the seventh row of the grid.
Alan Brown's two drivers would be an interesting study. Rain had fallen leading up to the BARC 200 race a few months earlier. Rain would fall throughout the weekend of the British Grand Prix as well. However, during the BARC 200, Taylor would prove the most capable handling the changing conditions and taking the win. However, a few months later, it would be Ashdown that would seem best at ease with the conditions recording a lap time of 2:06.2 and taking the 23rd position on the grid. Last on the grid, one lonely spot on the 10th row of the grid, would go to Taylor, the winner of the race a few months earlier. Though surprising and perhaps a little disappointing, Brown would still have both of his cars in the field, which would have to be a little encouraging seeing that five others failed to make the field.
While the earlier parts of the race weekend had been dominated by overcast conditions and some rain, the closer the race approached on the 18th the nicer the weather became until sunshine shone down on the circuit setting a beautiful scene for a motor race.
The British faithful would be exuberant as they poured into the grandstands. British cars and drivers were everywhere with just a handful of red Italian machinery dotting the landscape of the grid. Among the Formula 2 field, it would be all British manufacturing and nearly all British talent behind the wheel. Everyone expected a great day for England.
The grandstands would be overflowing as the cars would be wheeled out to their positions on the grid following a drivers parade of Sprites. Then, finally, all would be in place for the start of the 75 lap race.
When the flag dropped to start the race, Brabham would be immediately on it and in the lead of the field while everyone else fought wheelspin, and each other, to find position. Further back, most of the Formula 2 field would find its charge delayed by a couple of stalled Formula One cars. The tail-end of the field would getaway rather slowly. Two drivers, however, would make it through the delay on the grid and would be much further forward than any early expectation. Thankfully for Brown, both of those with good starts would be Ashdown and Taylor.
Brabham would pull out an advantage just over the course of one single lap. Behind him, the BRMs of Jo Bonnier and Harry Schell battled it out for position. They would soon be joined by Masten Gregory and another BRM 25, this one driven by Stirling Moss. Within the Formula 2 field, Ashdown and Taylor would complete the first lap in really good shape. Both would begin to slip back as a result of being off the pace or driver error.
Approaching the 20th lap of the race, Taylor and Ashdown would not only be at the back of the field, they would also be at the back of the Formula 2 field. Taylor's return to Aintree would not be a memorable one as he would continue to fight with Ashdown for places at the tail-end of the whole field. Then, after just 16 laps, the transmission in the Cooper would let go and he would be left out of the remainder of the race.
All of Brown's hopes would rest on Ashdown, but this would prove little consolation, at least early on. By the time Taylor parked his Cooper, Ashdown was running dead-last in the whole field. Bristow was the leader within the Formula 2 field and he would be running inside the top fifteen while Ashdown was inside the top twenty only as a result of attrition.
Up at the front of the whole field, Brabham would have no use for excuses. He would be in the lead and rather comfortably over Moss in a BRM. Schell and Bonnier would drop off the pace, and so, Bruce McLaren and Maurice Trintignant would take up the fight following along behind Moss.
Moss would allow the gap between himself and Brabham only get out to so far and then he would begin to mount a charge. Brabham would soon find his comfortable lead dwindling. He was still in a comfortable position but he was soon finding this irritation he didn't have a few laps earlier. Meanwhile, Ashdown would be the beneficiary of attrition and would make his way further forward. One-third of the way into the race he would be barely inside the top twenty. By the 50th lap of the race, he would be knocking on the door of 15th overall and top three within Formula 2.
Brabham would find Moss coming quicker and quicker. However, Moss would soon make a stop. He had burned through his tires and needed a change. The fight with Brabham would come to naught, but he would return to the circuit still in 2nd place, but only just.
Just when Moss intended to take the fight to Brabham, he would find himself under attack from McLaren in another of the factory Coopers. The New Zealander would be all over Moss heading into the final few laps of the race. In fact, he would even be ahead of Moss for a couple of laps until Stirling was able to get the position back. Brabham was now removed from Moss' mind. It was another from down-under that now occupied his thoughts.
Ashdown making it to the end was about the only thing that occupied Brown's team's thoughts. Late fade in performance by Ivor Bueb meant Ashdown, who was still at the back of the field, was now in position to finish in 3rd place within Formula 2 as long as he could keep things together.
Brabham would have no problem keeping things together. Leading every single lap and never within reach of Moss' assault, the Australian would ruin a bit of the empire's day as he would power his way across the line to take the victory. All eyes would turn back down the circuit as there would be concern another from down-under would manage to complete the sweep of the top two position in the finishing order.
Heading around on the final lap of the race, Moss would be still ahead of McLaren, but only just. Corner after corner, the New Zealander would be all over the backside of Moss. Though Bruce was just 22 years of age, he pressed the much more seasoned Moss as though he was just some other driver that mad managed to get ahead of him. Most of the drivers within Formula One, event after event, would ask 'what time has Moss done?' There would be no sense of awe here as McLaren pressed Stirling on every side.
Moss would handle the pressure superbly. Rounding Tatts for the final time, he had been here before. He knew what he needed to go. Getting on the power out of the corner, McLaren would have too little time left. Moss would cross the line to take 2nd place beating McLaren by the same margin he had Fangio in 1955 to take his first-ever Formula One World Championship victory.
Chris Bristow would run away with Formula 2. Finishing a little more than five laps behind Brabham, Bristow would have more than a lap in hand over the 2nd place car. That second place car would be Henry Taylor in the Parnell entry. However, further back, but still on the same lap, would be the Cooper of Ashdown.
Though never really a challenger at any point over the course of the weekend, Ashdown would ride the wave of attrition all the way to a 3rd place finish within Formula 2. Bueb's late fade had gifted him the position much the same way Taylor had been gifted the win at the circuit earlier in the year. To finish on the podium within Formula 2 would be a pleasant result following Taylor's early retirement and the fact neither of Brown's cars were really on the pace at any time. It is doubtful the momentum gained right before didn't help the team's confidence as it prepared and struggled over the course of the weekend.
Enjoying the 2nd place result within Formula 2 at the British Grand Prix, Alan Brown Equipe would turn its attentions back to Formula 2 for the remainder of the season. The team would forego the German round of the World Championship as it would not take place at the Nurburgring and would not be open to Formula 2 entries. Therefore, the team would simply focus on races just for Formula 2 cars for the remainder of the season.
The first of these would come only a week after the British round of the World Championship. The event would be the 2nd Trophee d'Auvergne and would be held at the demanding Circuit de Charade in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
When it hosted its first race just the year before, the Charade Circuit would be unlike most every other track on any calendar. Constantly twisting and turning, heading up hill and down dale, the 5 mile circuit would be very reminiscent of the Nurburgring, but without the long Dottinger Hohe. Short straights interrupted by never-ending twists, turns and hairpins meant Charade demanded a great deal of skill to be fast. Not surprisingly, when Formula One began taking part in races around the circuit many drivers would complain about motion sickness from the constant twists and turns.
The German Grand Prix in 1959 would not be held at the Nurburgring but Avus instead. Yet, in many respects, the Formula 2 series would still compete around a very similar circuit. The new Charade circuit would be very much the Nurburgring, just sized for Formula 2.
Not surprisingly, Stirling Moss would be quickest in practice around the circuit in a Rob Walker Cooper. Alan Brown's effort would consist of two cars entered for Masten Gregory and Bruce McLaren. Both would be right in the mix and would have been nice additions to the team at Aintree the week earlier.
The Charade circuit would become famous for tire deflations because of rocks being kicked up by drivers cutting corners. Sure enough, during the first couple of laps, Bruce Halford would find his race come to an end as a result of a puncture. But, at least he would be allowed to leave with his life, which is more than could be said of his friend Ivor Bueb.
Bueb would crash on the very same lap as Halford on the backside of the track. Thrown from his car, Ivor would lay dying by the side of the circuit, barely having anyone looking after him. He would die in the hospital some six days later.
Bueb and Halford would be just a couple of the multiple number of cars that would retire over the course of the 26 lap race. Stirling Moss would suffer no such problems. He would not only set the fastest lap of the race, he would be untouchable over the course of the event. He would go on to take an easy victory. Once again, the real battle would be for 2nd place.
Henry Taylor had finished in 2nd place at Aintree, just ahead of Ashdown's Cooper. At Charade, Taylor would again be ahead in 2nd place, but would have McLaren all over him. McLaren had been in this position just a week earlier. Second place was within his grasp; he just needed to get by the one in front for the position. Though it would not be Moss directly in front of him, McLaren would suffer a bout of déjà vu as he would cross the line in 3rd place just two-tenths behind Taylor, the same as at Aintree.
Once again, Brown's effort would be rewarded with two top results. McLaren would cross the line in 3rd place while Gregory would run a steady and consistent race to finish 4th. Brown's effort would manage to be the only team to have both cars finish within the top five, but still, it wasn't a victory.
Heading back to English shores, Alan Brown Equipe would be on its way to Fawkham in Kent and the Brands Hatch circuit for there, on the 3rd of August, would be held the 1st running of the John Davy Trophy race.
Alan Brown's team would again enter two cars but the driver lineup would be slightly different. Masten Gregory and Bruce McLaren would both take part in the German Grand Prix at Avus the day before. Gregory would not be present for the race at Brands, but McLaren would. Therefore, Brown would enter a car for Peter Ashdown and Bruce McLaren.
It would be a good thing McLaren came to drive for Brown's effort as he would end up on the pole for the multiple heat race on that Monday. Ashdown would not start so high up in the grid, but the team still was in good shape nonetheless.
The overall results would be determined by aggregate scoring from two heat races covering 25 laps each. In the first heat race, nobody would be able to catch Chris Bristow. Though terribly shaken by Bueb's death, Bristow would come back to racing with great determination and would run away with the first heat race defeating Roy Salvadori and Jack Brabham by more than four seconds. McLaren would finish the first heat a little off the pace in 4th place. Ashdown would be a lap down in 7th place obviously unable to match the pace at the front.
McLaren would have no chance to match anything in the second heat race. After completing two laps, mechanical trouble would arise beginning his assault to an end. The team's hopes now rested with Ashdown.
They needed Ashdown to pick up the pace and he would. He would finish on the same lap as the leaders but he could do no better than 4th place. Bristow would finish the second heat in 3rd place behind Brabham and Salvadori, but would have more than enough in hand to take the overall victory by a couple of seconds over Salvadori. Ashdown would finish the whole race in 4th place overall a little more than a lap behind.
McLaren's pole suggested Alan's entity could have done so much better. In the end, the team would be left with nothing but what might have been.
Alan Brown Equipe would take part in just one more Formula 2 race throughout the rest of the '59 season. This would come at the end of August and would be the 2nd edition of the Kentish ‘100' and would again be held at Brands Hatch.
The format of the Kentish race would be exactly the same to that of the prior race, but it would be a much tougher test with each heat race covering 42 laps. The field for the race would also be filled with a greater number of entrants. So there could be no sitting idly in the back waiting for the race to come to a driver. He needed to be on the pace from the very first lap of the very first heat.
The team would put its trust in the final race of the season in Masten Gregory and Bruce McLaren. These two had not let the team down the all season long. However, as Moss started from the pole, it would not be an easy end to the season.
Brabham would prove he could go faster taking the victory in the first heat by nearly 20 seconds over Graham Hill. Stirling Moss would finish in 3rd place while McLaren would finish 5th. Gregory would make it through the first heat race but he would be a ways back finishing a lap down in 8th place.
The second heat would be more of the same. Brabham would lead the way crossing the line a few seconds ahead of Hill in 2nd. Moss would be pushed down to 4th place by Jo Bonnier but it would be McLaren that would be the biggest loser falling out of the results having stopped because of mechanical trouble. Gregory would vastly improve in the second heat. He would finish nearly 50 seconds behind but would improve to 5th in the results.
When it was all tabulated, the last race of the season for Alan Brown's effort would end with Gregory in 6th place overall while McLaren would be 10th. This was not the fine result the team had come to expect from the pairing but it was still a decent end to a successful Formula 2 season.
It would be the one and only time Alan Brown Equipe would make an appearance in a Formula One World Championship event. Brown had left his racing career behind and would soon leave behind a career as a team manager following the frustrating Emeryson Cars experiment. Instead, he would turn his attentions toward his car dealings. Ken Tyrrell, on the other hand, would become Formula One royalty within a decade of his hanging up his helmet. Those astonishing years would all begin in 1959.
Equipe Alan Brown| Year | Constructor | Engine | Chassis | Drivers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | Cooper | Climax FPF 1.5 L4 | T45 | Peter Hawthorn Ashdown Michael Taylor |