Rex Flowers: A Story of his 1961 Gemini Mk3A-09 Cosworth-Ford FJ Part 7 of 15
[Continued from Part 6]
Dunedin 4th February 1962 – Coming down to the Tramways Hairpin at the end of Anderson’s Bay Road, #52 Bill Thomasen Cooper T51 Climax tried to overtake #8 Chris Amon’s Maserati 250F. The two cars touched and Thomasen lost a tyre valve which brought the two cars firmly together. With their wheels locked together Amon’s car hit a telegraph pole, hard. Photo Bruce Wilson Collection
Shelly assumed third but withdrew with engine problems soon after handing the unwanted position to Stanton [Stanton Corvette] who was then overtaken by his own back wheel. Cottle [Lola Mk1 Climax] gratefully accepted third. Ian Young [Cooper T23 Bristol sports] and Greenville [Lotus 18 FJ] retired early on [and so did Histed from 4th position on lap 24 in his Lola Mk2 Ford].
Mansel was unable to get the Cooper-Maserati mobile and was assumed a non-starter. About half distance he joined the race and drove around like a man possessed for 10 laps. It ended abruptly when the Cooper failed to take the uphill left-hander just over the grid. The red car hit a telegraph pole and snapped in two. Mansel was thrown out. Ten days later the 33 –year-old driver died of his injuries.’
In 2019, Rex recalled he was behind Jim Palmer and having passed the scene of the Mansel crash, Jim pulled into the Pits. When Rex later asked Jim why he had pulled into the pits, Jim said he saw that a red car had crashed and assumed it was the Gemini and because it upset him so much to think Rex had crashed, he wanted to stop. Rex said he was very touched at the consideration shown to him by Jim. Jim carried on to finish the race a lap down in second position and Rex was sixth.
Dunedin 3rd February 1962 – Rex Flowers Gemini Mk3A Cosworth-Ford – Rex said this was ‘starting up the hill at Dunedin’ (note – there is no number 25 on a white disc under the cockpit RHS; instead there is a number 25 in white numeralson the rear engine cover) – photo Rex Flowers Collection
Results of the 1962 Dunedin Festival Road race over 30 laps in very wet conditions:
1st 19 Pat Hoare Ferrari 256 Dino V12 30 laps 48 min 35.8 sec
2nd 41 Jim Palmer Lotus 20 Ford 29 laps
3rd 57 Barry Cottle Lola Mk1 Climax 28 laps
4th 23 Bob Eade Maserati 250F 2508 28 laps
5th 10 Ron Rutherford 260M-Zephyr
6th 25 Rex Flowers Gemini Mk3A FJ
7th 46 Bob Blackburn Maserati 4CLT
20 John Histed Lola MK2 Ford FJ DNF
17 Maurie Stanton Stanton-Corvette DNF – lost a rear wheel
18 Tony Shelly Cooper T45 Climax DNF – engine
43 Ross Greenville Lotus 18 Ford FJ DNF
17 Johnny Mansel Cooper T51 Maserati DNF accident after 10 laps died 10 days later
9 Ian Young Cooper T23 Bristol DNF
52 Bill Thomasen Cooper T51 Climax DNF accident with Amon
8 Chris Amon Maserati 250F 2504/09 DNF accident with Thomasen
Waimate 50 – 10th February 1962 – Rex entered the Gemini in Race 5, the ‘Waimate 50’ Road race, a NZ Gold Star Championship race. Scratchings from the list of entrants below were:
14 Chris Amon Maserati 250F – accident the previous weekend Dunedin
16 Rod Coppins Tec Mec
17 John Mansel Cooper T51 Maserati – accident at Dunedin from which he died
21 Lou Stonnell Lynx FJ
22 F.S. Johnstone Cooper Triumph
44 Doug Lawrence Lola Mk1 Climax
Additions to the grid were #4 Ron Rutherford 260M Zephyr (but he did not race), and #43 Ross Greenville Lotus 18 Ford FJ.
The start of the Waimate 50 on Queens Street, Waimate on Saturday 10th February 1962 – from the left of the photo is #18 Tony Shelly Cooper T45 Climax; behind Shelly is #20 John Histed Lola Mk2 Ford FJ; to the right of Histed is #19 Pat Hoare Ferrari 256 Dino V12; behind Hoare is #46 Bob Blackburn Maserati 4CLT; to the right of Hoare is #52 Bill Thomasen Cooper T51 Climax; behind Thomasen is the single-seater #43 of Ross Greenville Lotus 18 FJ; to the right of Thomasen is #41 Jim Palmer Lotus 20 Ford; behind and slightly left of Palmer is #57 Barry Cottle Lola Mk1 Climax sports; to the right of and partly obscured by the telephone pole is #25 Rex Flowers Gemini Mk3A FJ; on the right of the photo is #23 Bob Eade Maserati 250F 2508 – photo ‘Waimate 50’ book, page 17
Start of the 1962 Waimate 50 – on the left of the photo, the car in the rear is Blackburn’s Maserati 4CLT; in front of Blackburn is Histed’s Lola Mk2; alongside Histed is Greenville’s Lotus 18 (at the rear), leading the field is #18 Shelly’s Cooper T45; Hoare’s white helmet is barely visible just to the right of Shelly’s helmet and in front of Greenville; to the right of Hoare is Thomasen’s Cooper T51 (the single seater with a white nose-band); to the right of Thomasen is #57 Cottle in his Lola Mk1 sports car; in front of Cottle is #25 Rex Flowers’ Gemini Mk3A; in front of Flowers is #41 Palmer Lotus 20; to the right of Palmer is #23 Bob Eade Maserati 250F; behind and slightly left of Eade is #26 Hec Green in his RA5 Vanguard – photo Autosport magazine 23 Feb 62 page 272.
After the start of the 1962 Waimate 50 – #18 Tony Shelly Cooper T45 Climax leads Jim Palmer Lotus 20B Ford with Pat Hoare Ferrari 256 Dino V12 trailing them; on the left is #23 Bob Eade Maserati 250F followed by #25 Rex Flowers Gemini Mk3A Ford FJ, and to his right, #52 Bill Thomasen Cooper T51 Climax. At the rear of the photo is #43 Ross Greenville Lotus 18 Ford FJ – photo Waimate 50 book page 18
The 1962 Waimate 50 race – After the official qualifying session, Rex was in grid position 10 of the 11 cars that started the race. He made a good start to be up to 5th into the first corner, as shown in the photograph above. Scott Thomson’s 1981 booklet ‘The Racing Years 1959-1966: The History of the Waimate 50’ reported: ‘The 1962 Grid was rather short of cars. A rain-swept Dunedin meeting the week before was partly responsible. Bill Thomasen’s crew had done a good job in straightening his 2 litre Cooper T51 Climax [after the accident with Chris Amon’s Maserati 250F] and returning it to the dark blue it had worn in Deny Hulme’s hands the previous season. But Chris Amon’s ex-Gilbert Maserati 250F had been too badly damaged in the same incident. And Mansel, 1960 Waimate winner, holder of the record time for the Waimate ‘50’, lay fatally injured in a Dunedin ward.
Many people had tipped Hoare to win. Nobody grudged Pat his new found stardom so late in life. It had been Hoare’s diplomacy that had persuaded the government of the day to alter the law to permit road closure for motor sports some ten years earlier. Nor was he worried by the rain which threatened again but in fact stayed away. …. Warm up brought problems too. Stanton scratched with a gearbox problem [a cracked gearbox casing] on the grid. Doug Lawrence, happy from at last defeating Cottle’s sister Lola in the sports car race, found a sinister oil leak and scratched as well.
So it was Tony Shelly who took the lead in his red 2-litre Cooper and held it from Jim Palmer….. Hoare was third, playing the waiting game. Thomasen, Histed and Flowers (Lola and Gemini Juniors), Cottle, and Hec Green in the R.A 5 going great guns. Shelly spun on the corner before the hairpin. Only Cottle, who had made a brief pitstop and Greenville were behind him when he restarted.
Palmer now held a lead of almost 10 seconds and Hoare really began to fly. The Ferrari was timed at 115 mph on the straight and bit by bit began to edge closer to the green and yellow leader. On lap 10 Green faltered after a really good run with his ingenious special in 5th place, and Shelly moved up to fifth at Eade’s expense. Thomasen faded out in the ex-Yeoman Credit/Hulme Cooper on lap 18, so Shelly, who passed Histed on this lap, was now third. Further progress was forestalled by the speed of the leaders. The gap was down to around five seconds between Palmer and Hoare.
But this was 1962 and the days of the classic front engined car [as in Hoare’s Ferrari] were over. George Palmer held out the signal to his son, and the gap closed no more. Somewhere between laps 30 and 40, Pat Hoare, winner at Dunedin and Renwick, settled for second place and a points win in the Gold Star competition for champion New Zealand driver.
Further back there was another honourable defeat. Histed’s motor went on to full retard and hands raised in frustration, he motored slowly through the last lap to be pipped by Cottle at the post. Eade Greenville and a much delayed Blackburn completed the finishers”.
Waimate 10th February 1962 – #41 Jim Palmer Lotus 20 Ford leads #19 Pat Hoare Ferrari, # 52 Bill Thomasen Cooper T51 Climax, # 25 Rex Flowers Gemini, #20 John Histed Lola Mk2 (behind Thomasen), #23 Bob Eade Maserati 250F,with #46 Bob Blackburn Maserati 4CLT in the red car at rear – photo unknown in Jim Barclay Collection.
Rex said he did not finish (DNF) the race as he retired at Church Corner on lap 6 when running in 5th position due to collapsed front suspension. Rex later said the suspension components on the Gemini were made for smooth tracks in England and were not really robust enough for the relatively rough New Zealand circuits; after his first season of racing the Gemini he said he needed to ‘beef-up’ some of the suspension including the attachment where the two lower rear wishbones met at the lower rear central point of the chassis.
Waimate 10th February 1962 – #25 Rex Flowers retires the Gemini and Church Corner with broken front suspension. In the rear is #46 Bob Blackburn Maserati 4CLT – photo unknown in Jim Barclay Collection
Results of the Waimate 50 race held over 50 laps in overcast conditions were:
1st 41 Jim Palmer Lotus 20B-Ford 1475cc 50 laps 1 hr 2min 19.1 sec
2nd 19 Pat Hoare Ferrari 256 Dino V12 2953cc 50 laps 1 hr 2min 24.1 sec
3rd 18 Tony Shelly Cooper T45 Climax 1960cc 49 laps & Fastest lap 1m 11.6sec
4th 57 Barry Cottle Lola Mk1 Climax 1220cc 48 laps
5th 20 John Histed Lola Mk2 Ford 997cc 48 laps
6th 23 Bob Eade Maserati 250F 2508 2493cc 47 laps
7th 43 Ross Greenville Lotus 18 Ford 998cc FJ 40 laps
8th 46 Bob Blackburn Maserati 4CLT 1492cc s/c 31 laps
52 Bill Thomasen Cooper T51 Climax 2200cc DNF 18 laps
26 Hec Green RA5 Vanguard 2100cc DNF 10 laps – engine
25 Rex Flowers Gemini Mk3A Ford 996cc FJ DNF 6 laps – collapsed front suspension
27 Maurie Stanton Stanton-Corvette 4600cc DNS – cracked gearbox housing
44 Doug Lawrence Lola Climax 1460cc DNS – oil leak
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