Brooks

17/10/2005
FEATURE BY MIKE LAWRENCE

When the Cadwell Park circuit held its first car race in 1962, I was a marshal. I revisited the circuit last year and have to say I was in the best spot for spectating, it was the spot I had chosen to watch motor cycle racing from, I also realised that I must have been regarded as pretty well expendable. It was the days of straw bales rather than Armco. "We'll put the kid there, his body should slow a car so it doesn't get to the crowd."

Because it was the first car meeting there was an opening ceremony and the highlight was Tony Brooks, recently retired from racing, doing three laps in a Ferrari Testarossa. They were quick laps, Tony had kicked off his shoes so he could feel the pedals, and two things impressed me. One was that, without having seen the circuit before, he found the right line, to the inch. The other thing I shall never forget was the sheer style, I have never again seen a driver who seemed to be so much a component of a car, like the engine or gearbox, and to flow with it.

Fifty years ago, 23rd October 1955, Tony Brooks, then a dental student and amateur racing driver won the Syracuse Grand Prix in a Connaught, beating five works Maseratis. Mercedes Benz had just withdrawn from racing so Maserati was the top team, It was the first time in more than thirty years that a British car had won a Grand Prix and it proved to us that we could win. Brooks and Connaught broke a massive psychological barrier.

Britain could win at Le Mans, we usually held the World Land Speed Record, we could do a lot of things, but we could not win in Formula One. BRM was meant to win, but had become a joke. Vanwall was regrouping and would win. For outfits like Cooper and Lotus, success of that order was a distant dream.

Connaught was the name of an ancient kingdom and Rodney Clarke and Mike Oliver, who had both been fliers with the RAF, set up a used car business called Continental Automobiles which specialised in Bugatti. CONtinental AUTomobiles led to Connaught. Rodney and Mike were both fine engineers and they prepared a Maserati for an amateur racer called Kenneth McAlpine who was delighted with their work. McAlpine was scion of one the largest building companies in Britain and, in the immediate postwar period, there was no shortage of work. You may have read about the V1 'Flying Bomb', I have encountered one at close quarters.

McAlpine wanted a special sports car so Clarke and Oliver took a Lea Francis 1750 in hand. Oliver reworked the engine, Clarke made some adjustments to the vintage style chassis (beam front axle, cable brakes) and then they clothed the result with a hideous, bulbous, body and so was born the Connaught L1.

My friend, Duncan Rabagliati, owns a Connaught L2 and I have been lucky enough to have driven it more than 1,000 miles. Despite its looks, it remains my favourite car and I have driven a fair few. The secret is that the chassis may be vintage, but the engine responds like a modern engine, it is a car you steer on the throttle.

McAlpine then wanted a (2 litre) Formula Two car and that was the Connaught Type A. It had a further development of the Lea Francis pushrod engine, an ageing design, but Mike Oliver did everything right. Mike is still with us, incidentally, and when he finished with motor racing he went back to flying and did the major testing on the Folland 'Gnat' which was used by the Red Arrows aerobatics display team.

Mike Oliver applied to his engines the approach of a test pilot who is taking off in a prototype and who hopes the wings don't drop off.

When the 2.5 litre Formula One was announced, Clarke believed he would have the Coventry Climax FPE 'Godiva' engine. The Connaught J Type was to have been a monocoque design with the Godiva engine amidships and driving through a five speed transaxle. This was no pie in the sky, the chassis was close to completion and one of the transaxles still exists. The problem lay with Coventry Climax which feared its engine would not be up to scratch because they believed the horsepower stories spread by everyone else.

The Coventry Climax 'Godiva' was the best engine of its time. It was compact and light, and its 258 bhp was not only better than Mercedes Benz could manage with a very heavy unit, the 'Godiva' had a much wider power band. Mercedes Benz had a straight eight, Coventry Climax had a V8, when did you last hear of a straight eight?

For the first time, I reveal what Denis Jenkinson thought. Jenks told me, "The problem with the men at Coventry Climax is the fact they were all based in Coventry, which is a long way from anywhere, and they didn't get out much. Once a year they would get out to go to Le Mans and by the time they reached the boat at Dover, they were pissed out of their brains. They would believe anything anyone told them."

That is not my opinion, it is something Jenks told me, but I have never doubted his version. Coventry Climax had the world's best engine and had Connaught, Cooper, HWM and Kieft wanting to buy, and the guys in Coventry did not believe what they had. The history of motor racing would have been different had that jewel of an engine been released.

We know that the Godiva worked because one bank of the unit became the Coventry Climax FPF engine which was powerful and very reliable.

Rodney Clarke had a mid engined monocoque under construction and people still bang on about the Lotus 25. Drawings of the Connaught appeared in Autosport in 1955.

With Coventry Climax being very silly, Connaught had no engine for 1954 and so wasted a year while Mike Oliver sorted out an Alta design. Instead of a mid engined monocoque, the new car was pretty conventional, except it had an all enveloping streamlined body. The body worked very well on the track, in fact the Connaught streamlined body worked better then the one on the Mercedes Benz W196, which only worked in a straight line. The problem was what you did with the bodywork when you wanted to work on the engine. There was nowhere to put the body in the pitlane of the 1950s.

Kenneth McAlpine married in 1955 and his wife demanded that he give up his dangerous sport and you could not blame her after more than 80 people were killed at Le Mans. Connaught had shed many jobs and was about to close when the organisers of the Syracuse Grand Prix offered good money for entries.

Rodney Clarke contacted the usual suspects, but they all wanted to be paid. Eventually he came across the names of Les Leston and Tony Brooks.

Of the two, Leston had the better form, he was the 1954 British Formula Three Champion. Brooks was an amateur most of whose races had been in handicaps at Goodwood.

Tony had signed as a junior driver for Aston Martin in 1955 and he got one race, Le Mans, when so many died. Tony's partner at Le Mans, John Risely Prichard, had pressure put on him from his family and retired from racing. He owned a Connaught A Type and entered Tony in a couple of minor races, That is why Brooks was on Rodney Clarke's list.

He had signed for Aston Martin on an annual retainer of fifty pounds, plus expenses and £50 was the average Brit's monthly pay. Tony thought Santa had called. Aston Martin would not only give him a car to drive, but would put him up in a hotel. When Clarke made his offer, the expectations of Tony Brooks were not high. The trip to Syracuse has never been straight forward but in 1955 it was a major event involving many hops and aeroplanes with propellers.

On the flight(s) out Tony swotted for his dental finals. When he finally reached the circuit, he discovered that Connaught was so short of money that serious practice was not allowed, he had to hire a scooter to learn the circuit. He was allowed 15 laps in a car, but his revs were limited. If the car was not on the starting grid, Connaught did not get starting money. The story of how the mechanics got the cars there in a converted bus is a tale for another time, and it is an epic story.

Despite everything, Tony started the race from the front row, He knew he had to preserve the car so made a cautious start. He was fourth at the end of lap one, but took the lead on lap 22 of 70 and sailed away. Of the Maserati team, only Luigi Musso managed to finish on the same lap. Everyone else Brooks lapped twice.

On his flights home, Tony swotted for his finals and he remains the last graduate to win a World Championship Grand Prix (Germany, Avus, 1959).

Today, Brooks would have been greeted home as a sporting hero, but this was 1955 when motor racing barely rated a mention in the British press unless death was involved. Nobody noticed the return of Tony Brooks. Connaught should have been showered with money, but was not. Kenneth McAlpine supported the team for another year, but he had to call a halt. He had sunk a quarter of a million pounds into the team and you cannot put that into today's terms.

An auction of Connaught's effects was conducted in 1957, not long before a Vanwall delivered Britain its first World Championship win, the drive was shared and the drivers were Tony Brooks and Stirling Moss. Stirling is Tony's greatest fan and. as one who knows Stirling pretty well, I would say there are only two drivers on his list of admired drivers, Fangio and Brooks. Moss never feared Jim Clark, he beat Clark all the time and in a non works car. Stirling has always maintained that Clark would only be a worry if he, Moss, was in an old car.

When Connaught was auctioned, one of the successful bidders was Bernie Ecclestone. Bernie completed a timed lap in a Connaught for the 1959 Monaco GP, so he qualifies as a Grand Prix driver.

Tony Brooks was always an amateur at heart. He was number two to Moss at Vanwall and that is the role he played. In 1958 when Moss retired at Spa, the Nürburgring and Monza, Tony simply moved up to take responsibility for the team and he won. Moss was meant to win, but when he retired it became Tony's responsibility to win, and he did, it was as simple as that.

Tony Brooks was without equal at Spa and the 'Ring. I don't think circuits like Silverstone meant much to him because he never regarded them as a challenge.

Brooks could have been World Champion for Ferrari in 1959. He went to the American GP with a chance, but was nudged at the start by a team mate. Rather than take unnecessary chances, Tony went into the pits to have his car checked. He was an amateur at heart, a pro would have carried on and hoped everything would turn out right,

Brooks was runner up to Jack Brabham in the 1959 World Championship, but nobody remembers who came second.

I do not believe there has ever been a better racing driver than Tony Brooks when you could arouse his interest. Tony was always an amateur at heart, but on 23rd October, 1955, he did something spectacular, he showed we Brits we could win.

Winning is something you have to learn. There was a time when climbing Mount Everest seemed impossible, now you book your trip to the top through a travel agent.

Mike Lawrence

Sincere thanks to Rob Ryder for the picture of Tony Brooks

To check out previous features from Mike, click here

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Published: 17/10/2005
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