Rodger ward

Sir,

Many thanks for finding room in your August Issue for the gist of my letter on the subject of slick tyres. It was rather frustrating, however to turn the page and find a feature on Rodger Ward and his drives in midgets at Lime Rock and Sebring with no mention of the tyres used at all..

It seems fair to me, therefore, to remind Nigel Roebuck that the Sebring race was not Ward’s only Grand Prix. He did in fact drive a BRM-powered Lotus 24 for Reg Parnell at Watkins Glen in 1963 but failed to finish. His name had been connected with a third works Cooper for the 1960 race at the Riverside. Before this event was held the Cooper team had taken one of their Lowline T53s to Indianapolis for Jack Brabham to try. It was this test, with the car in standard F1 form, which convinced the team to run the special car in the 500 a few months later. Rodger was heavily involved in setting up this test session and also drove the Cooper briefly but in the end did not appear at Riverside. The fact that only two Lowlines were available and the third car (taken over by Ron Flockhart) was a T51 held over from the previous season is a possible explanation.

On another subject, Simon Taylor is of course correct when he points out that the Bristol team used the same drivers for the Le Mans 24-hours in 1955 as had been included the previous year. However the death of David Blakely did force the team management to look for a new reserve driver at the last moment. The man that they chose to sign was then a little known colonial going by the name of Jack Brabham.

I am, yours, etc. David Cole, Oakham, Rutland