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1961 Australian Grand Prix

Field	Value
Type	CUST
Description	Race 5 of 5 in 1961 Australian Drivers' Championship
Grand Prix	Australian
Country	Australia
Location	Mallala Race Circuit, Mallala, South Australia
Date	9 October
Year	1961
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course_mi	2.1
Course_km	3.38
Distance_laps	50
Distance_mi	105
Distance_km	168.95
Weather	Sunny
Pole_Driver	Bill Patterson
Pole_Country	AUS
Pole_Team	Cooper-Climax
Pole_Time	1'42.0
Fast_Driver	Bill Patterson
Fast_Team	Cooper-Climax
Fast_Driver2	Lex Davison
Fast_Team2	Cooper-Climax
Fast_Time	1'44
Fast_Country	AUS
Fast_Country2	AUS
First_Driver	Lex Davison
First_Country	AUS
First_Team	Cooper-Climax
Second_Driver	Bib Stillwell
Second_Country	AUS
Second_Team	Cooper-Climax
Third_Driver	David McKay
Third_Country	AUS
Third_Team	Cooper-Climax

The 1961 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula Libre motor race held at the newly completed Mallala Race Circuit in South Australia on 9 October 1961. The race, which was Round 5 of the 1961 Australian Drivers' Championship, had 17 starters.

The race was the twenty sixth Australian Grand Prix and would be the last to be held in South Australia until the first Formula One World Championship Australian Grand Prix was staged at the new Adelaide Parklands Circuit in 1985. Lex Davison won his fourth and final AGP setting a record for wins that still stands today, having only been equalled by Michael Schumacher. David McKay actually crossed the finish line first but had been assigned a one-minute penalty, for a jumped start, which relegated him to third position behind Davison and Bib Stillwell.

Davison's Australian Grand Prix victory would be the last for a domestically based Australian until Frank Matich won the 1970 AGP at Warwick Farm in Sydney driving a McLaren M10B Formula 5000 car, although British-based Australian Jack Brabham had won the AGP in both 1963 and 1964.

The Ricardian which was driven by John Newmarch in the 1961 Australian Grand Prix. The car is pictured at Mallala in 2012

Classification

Results as follows.

Pos	No.	Driver	Entrant	Car / Engine	Laps
4	Australia Lex Davison	B.S. Stillwell	Cooper T51 / Coventry Climax FPF 2.2L	50	1h 29m 01s
6	Australia Bib Stillwell	B.S. Stillwell	Cooper T55 / Coventry Climax FPF 2.5L	50	1h 29m 42s
14	Australia David McKay	Scuderia Veloce	Cooper T51 / Coventry Climax FPF 2.5L	50	1h 30m 05s
9	Australia Bill Patterson	Bill Patterson Motors P/L	Cooper T51 / Coventry Climax FPF 2.5L	48
15	Australia Murray Trenberth	M Trenberth	Alta / Holden 2.5L	46
20	Australia Eddie Clay	E Clay	Cooper T23 / Bristol 2.2L	45
26	Australia Alan Jack	Briefield Motors	Cooper T39 / Coventry Climax FWB 1.5L	48
45	Australia Trevor Ellis	T Ellis	Austin 8 Special / Austin Supercharged 0.9L	38
16	Australia Mel McEwin	M McEwin	Tornado Mk II / Chevrolet 4.6L	35
60	Australia Peter Wilkinson	P Wilkinson	Elfin Steamliner / Ford 1.2L	35
5	Australia John Youl	Scuderia Veloce	Cooper T51 / Coventry Climax FPF 2.5L	46	Exhaustion
8	Australia Keith Rilstone	K Rilstone	Zephyr Special / Ford 2.3L	33
19	Australia Doug Whiteford	Bill Patterson Motors P/L	Cooper T51 / Coventry Climax FPF 2.5L	30	Engine
11	Australia John Ampt	J Ampt	Cooper T38 / Jaguar 3.8L	25
30	Australia John Newmarch	J Bruggeman	Ricardian / Holden 2.4L	14
56	Australia Helene Bittner	H Bittner	Vitesse / Ford 100E 1.2L	1	Gearbox
3	Australia Laurie Whitehead	L Whitehead	Ausper T2 / Ford 1.0L	0
2	Australia Stan Jones	Stan Jones Motors Pty Ltd	Cooper T51 / Coventry Climax FPF 2.5L		Engine
29	Australia Garrie Cooper	Elfin Sports Cars	Elfin Formula Junior / Ford 1.1L		Gearbox
44	Australia Dud Dansie	Bakewell Bridge Motors	BBM rotary valve special / Holden - Dunstan Rotary Valve

Notes

Pole Position: Bill Patterson - 1:42.0
Fastest Lap: Bill Patterson / Lex Davison - 1:44.0

References

The Australian Grand Prix, 1961 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, page 52
[http://members.optusnet.com.au/dandsshaw/images/results/races61.htm 1961 Gold Star Races, members.optusnet.com.au/dandsshaw] {{webarchive. link. (1 April 2012 Retrieved on 14 March 2013)
McKay, Peter. (3 January 2005). "Dashing enthusiast of motor sport". The Sydney Morning Herald.
(1986). "The Official 50-race history of the Australian Grand Prix". R & T Publishing.
[http://www.oldracingcars.com/results/result.php?RaceID=AU61 1961 Australian Grand Prix, www.oldracingcars.com] Retrieved on 14 March 2013

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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