1959 Australian Grand Prix
The 1959 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula Libre motor race held at the Longford Circuit in Tasmania, Australia on 2 March 1959.
The race, which had 13 starters, was the twenty fourth Australian Grand Prix and the third race of the 1959 Australian Drivers' Championship. Stan Jones won his only AGP, breaking through after years of trying with the Maybach series of specials to win in his Maserati 250F, in what would be the last Australian Grand Prix victory for a front-engined car.
The grid for the Grand Prix was determined by race times set in two qualifying races on the Saturday prior to the main race. The first heat was won by Doug Whiteford from Arnold Glass and Bill Patterson. The second heat was won by Jones in a race time almost 20 seconds shorter than Whiteford's, giving him the pole position, from Len Lukey and Alec Mildren.
Classification
Results as follows.Pos | No. | Driver | Car | Entrant | Laps | Time |
1 | 1 | Stan Jones | Maserati 250F / Maserati 2.5L | Stan Jones Motors Pty Ltd | 25 | 1h 11m 44s |
2 | 5 | Len Lukey | Cooper T45 / Climax FPE 2.0L | Lukey Mufflers Pty Ltd | 25 | 1h 11m 46s |
3 | 7 | Arnold Glass | Maserati 250F / Maserati 2.5L | Capitol Motors | 25 | 1h 13m 21s |
4 | 4 | Alec Mildren | Cooper T43 / Climax FPF 2.0L | AG Mildren Pty Ltd | 25 | 1h 13m 50s |
5 | 6 | Alan Jack | Cooper T39 / Climax FPE 1.5L | A Jack | 21 | |
6 | 14 | Lyn Archer | Cooper T39 / Climax 1.1L | Ecurie van Diemen | 20 | |
Ret | 74 | Max Stephens | Cooper T40 / Bristol 2.0L | Max Stephens' Palm Grove Car Centre | 18 | |
Ret | 56 | Ron Phillips | Cooper T33 / Jaguar 3.8L | J & R Phillips | 13 | |
Ret | 19 | John Roxburgh | Cooper T41 / Climax 1.5L | Kingsbridge Service | 13 | |
Ret | 60 | Austin Miller | Miller Special / Climax FWB 1.5L | Victorian Amateur Drivers Club Inc | 8 | |
Ret | 3 | Ted Gray | Tornado Mk.II / Chevrolet 4.6L | Lou Abrahams | 4 | |
Ret | 44 | John Lanyon | MG TC Special / MG 1.3L S/c | Victorian Amateur Drivers Club Inc | 0 | |
Ret | 26 | Doug Whiteford | Maserati 300S / Maserati 3.0L | Doug Whiteford | 0 | |
DNS | 75 | Bill Patterson | Cooper / Climax FPF 1.8L | Bill Patterson Motors Pty Ltd | ||
DNQ | 55 | John Youl | Wylie Javelin / Jowett 1.5L S/c | John C Youl |