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Link: British Bullet at Indy – Brabham’s Cooper Climax shocks at Indy 500, 1961

Submitted by on March 17, 2011

Jack Brabham in Cooper ClimaxI came across this great piece written by Kenneth Rudeen, which originally appeared in Sports Illustrated back in 1961. It’s the story of Jack Brabham and the impact he made by taking the first rear engined car to the Indianapolis 500.

Here is the intro from the article ” Almost everything will seem very much as usual next Tuesday when some 250,000 persons assemble at Indianapolis for the annual 500-mile auto race, but one thing will make the occasion very different: the presence of the small, green British bullet shown below. Lurking five rows down in pole position as the 33 cars line up for this 45th running of America’s greatest race, this Cooper-Climax adaptation of a Grand Prix racer will pose a hard, new question, which all the color and clamor of Indy on Memorial day will not be able to smother: Is the time-honored Indianapolis roadster still master of the Brickyard, or is it merely an expensive fossil soon to be pulverized by intruders from overseas?

Read the full story in the Sports Illustrated Vault here

Via: Paul P

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