Ken Tyrrell - information required

[Ray Bell]

I've been asked to do something of an obituary on Ken Tyrrell, but I can't recall his history before he was running the Cooper Formula Junior Team in the early sixties. I think he started that about 1961, but what was his history prior to that point?

Thanks in anticipation...

[Vitesse]

First raced 1952 (F3 Cooper-Norton). Raced F3 till 1957. Formed F2 team with Alan Brown & Cecil Libowitz 1958 - Brabham, McLare, Ireland, Gregory, Flockhart, Lucas etc drove for them. Retired from driving 1960 to run works-backed FJ Cooper team.

In haste ....

[Ray Bell]

I'm very grateful for that, Vitesse... and just realised that I have a gap between FJr and the start of the F1 team, but he ran the Matra F2 team, didn't he?

[Milan Fistonic]

Tyrrell ran both the FJs and the Mini-Coopers for the works in 1961 and 1962. Ken managed the Cooper F1 team for a period after John Cooper had his accident in the Twini-Mini. In 1965 he ran Coopers in F2 with Cosworth and BRM 1-litre engines before being approached by Matra Sport to run their F2 team. That led on to the F1 team in 1968.

[Rob29]

Small correction to last post.Tyrell did not run the Matra Sport team this was a separate French based outfit with French drivers.Ken ,no doubt, got a good deal when he aquired Matra chassis to replace his Coopers in 1966.At least I hope that your obit,Ray, will not repeat the common error that the Tyrell F1 team started in 1970,when it first appeared at Kyalami 1968 as Matra International (based in Surrey)

[Ray Bell]

Thanks Rob... I was aware of that... that was, after all, my era, the days of FJ and so on, the days when I read seven or eight mags a month as well as Autosport...

Were there any highlights in the days he drove himself?

[Vitesse]

Nothing notable in F2 - best result 4th overall behind McLaren, George Wicken and Ronnie Moore (all Coopers) in a 2*10-lapper at Brands Hatch, May 18th 1958.

Sorry, I've no F3 details ...

[Ray Bell]

Thanks for that, Vitesse... somebody put me onto The Times on another forum and it says he first raced 1957, but I would have doubted than anyway... maybe I've seen some mention of him in the Cooper book of
Arthur Owen... I knew I'd seen something somewhere about F3 stuff, anyway, but no idea where.

[Rob29]

Sheldon's F3 fact book 1947-52 has all Ken's results for '52.I don't have the later one, maybe someone else has?

[Vitesse]

Sorry, should have mentioned that there's no record in Sheldon of him running in 1959 in F2.

Also, Ken ran the works Mini-Coopers in 1961. Don't forget he gave Surtees his first race in cars!!

[Ray Bell]

Thanks again, I don't think I need to get into a race-by-race detail of his career, but if he won a major event it should be included. Or came second to Stirling Moss or Peter Collins or something.

His entry of Surtees is something I should have remembered, and it came out in the Times article, though it was so apparently inaccurate I'm glad you have confirmed it was in fact FJ's first race on four wheels.

[alessandrosilva]

Ray,
I do not think that Ken got any decent racing result; but who cares! He was such a shrewd judge of driving talent. Besides the obvious Surtees, Stewart and Scheckter - in the period you are mentioning only think at Ballisat, Banks, Love, Maggs, Procter and Taylor..

[Ray Bell]

Cevert, Alboreto... the list does go on... just hoping there was something of interest way back in his own days at the wheel...

[Rob29]

Don't forget Ickx!
My 1952 F3 reserch found nothing significant.I think the whole point is that he realised that he had no talent as a driver,and devoted his life to promoting those who had.Both Srewart & Ickx were plucked from obscure local club racing-amazing!

[Ray Bell]

Ah yes, Ickx in the F2 Matra running away at the 'ring, mixing it with the F1 cars in... was it '67?

[Vitesse]

Yes, 1967. He ran as high as fourth, dicing with Amon and Brabham, but his suspension broke on lap 12 of 15.

[Jeroen Brink]

Was he not trading timber to start with? It would be interesting in this light what brought him to the sport from there.

[Vitesse]

Jeroen - it's explained in his obituary in the Times:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,...295236,00.html

Before he became known as "Uncle Ken", his nickname was "Chopper", a reference to the woodyard.

ps If you need the cricketing references explained, you only have to ask!!

[Jeroen Brink]

Thx Vitesse. As to your offer to explain cricket-backgrounds to a dutchman, I appreciate your courage... This sport simply goes beyond our comprehension. Life is too short to learn us that

[Ray Bell]

Cricket is too slow to make it worthwhile learning...

[Vitesse]

Originally posted by Jeroen Brink
Thx Vitesse. As to your offer to explain cricket-backgrounds to a dutchman, I appreciate your courage... This sport simply goes beyond our comprehension. Life is too short to learn us that

Actually Jeroen, the Dutch cricket team is one of the strongest in Europe! Although I think a fair number of Dutch players are ex-pat Aussies and Indians ...

[Jeroen Brink]

Originally posted by Vitesse


Actually Jeroen, the Dutch cricket team is one of the strongest in Europe! Although I think a fair number of Dutch players are ex-pat Aussies and Indians ...

I heard something of that sort as well, so I made no reference to that one. Pleasing however, as it is another sign that the Amsterdam area is very attractive to live in as foreigner. In fact, Nigel Roebuck likes as well. Let me quote him, also in connection to the track where I lived closed by, Zandvoort:

"Back to Zandvoort, which was, in my opinion, the best circuit for pure racing anywhere. I loved the place: it had every kind of corner as it wound its way, up and down, through the sandhills, and it also had an abnormally long pit straight – a little like Indianapolis -- at the end of which was the legendary Tarzan hairpin. I always watched from there, and in the course of one afternoon would see more overtaking than in the rest of the season put together. It was here, in 1979, that Gilles Villeneuve took the lead from Alan Jones's Williams - on the outside...

Most of us would stay in Amsterdam, a city much to our taste, and commute to the track by train. The journey took about 20 minutes, and at the other end there was a short walk to the track in the brisk sea air. It was a great race weekend, and quite unlike any other.

Unfortunately, though, Zandvoort paid the penalty of being 'old'. It may have provided the best racing anywhere, but its paddock and pits were small and tatty, and by the mid-80s, an increasingly 'corporate' Formula 1 felt out of place there. I miss it still"

[Milan Fistonic]

Ray

This is probably too late for your article on Ken Tyrrell but I've just found a photo of him in a 1961 Motor Sport. The caption is: Kenneth Tyrrell, winner of Heat 2 of the Crystal Palace Trophy, takes the Alan Brown Cooper-Climax up Anerley Ramp towards Maxim Rise at Crystal Palace on Whit Monday. I've looked up the race result and Ken beat Tim Parnell (Cooper-Climax) and D.Taylor (Lotus-Climax). His average speed was a bit slower than first heat winner Ivor Bueb (Lotus-Climax), 77.16 mph to 77.83 mph.