Old timer

Seen at the HSRCA Tasman Revival meeting last month at Sydney MotorSportPark. A 1960's vintage 2.5 litre Cooper Climax Yeoman Credit Racing Team driven at the time by Roy Salvadori. Now owned and raced by Don Thallon seen above fettling the engine. He could not get the engine to rev out. He suspected that the fuel was foaming in the carby bowls but he could not fix the problem which had plagued him at a previous meeting. He drove down from Brisbane with the car in his van. Just how it used to be. It's a long way to come for the car to misbehave.
I would have seen this very car racing in the UK -definitely at wonderful Crystal Palace and probably also at Brands Hatch and Goodwood. The car was built by Cooper at their Surbiton factory near where I then lived . During the summer holidays I used to cycle upto the Cooper works and see the cars being built.
This car with its 2.5 litre Coventry Climax engine is now very valuable. It is really very basic. Just chassis tubes-not a spaceframe. No crash resitance features. The drivers who raced wheel to wheel in cars of this era on circuits which were very dangerous were astonishingly brave. And I reckon Don is very brave driving it today. Great to see it still here in Australia and great to see it racing. I hope you fix that problem Don.

Don working on those pesky Webers

Original Yeoman Credit decal

Neat Don Thallon artwork

On the dummy grid. Second row left.