1962 Cooper-BMC Type 59 Formula Junior Racing Single-Seater

The Ex-Timmy Mayer, Peter Revson Rev-Em Racing Team
1962 Cooper-BMC Type 59 Formula Junior Racing Single-Seater
Chassis no. FJ-7-62
1,095cc BMC-XSP Inline 4-Cylinder Engine
Single, Twin-Choke Weber Carburetor
5-Speed Citroen-ERSA Gearbox with Reverse
Spaceframe Chassis Construction
4-Wheel Disc Brakes

*Well known car in Formula Junior circles
*Superb and highly competitive Junior
*Compelling, winning, star-driver period history
*Beautifully prepared example
*Eligible for all manner of international events

THE MOTORCAR OFFERED

Two of America's finest open-wheeler road racing drivers of the 1960s/70s are represented, celebrated or commemorated by this most attractive Formula Junior Cooper. One of them was rated contemporarily as a potential superstar on the verge of great world-class success. The other was indeed a superstar who lived long enough to fulfil such promise.

Timmy Mayer was from a wealthy family living in Dalton Pennsylvania. He and his older brother Teddy became enthusiastic racing fans. They shared their enthusiasm with Peter Revson, whose father Martin had been a founding partner with his brother Charles of Revlon Cosmetics, before leaving that company in 1958 to become Chairman of Del Laboratories. As similarly well-heeled and aspiring young SCCA road racers - who had met while students at Cornell University - they joined forces with another young driver, Bill Smith Jr, to create the Rev-Em Racing Team. They equipped themselves with three of the latest Cooper-BMC Type 59 Formula Junior cars to campaign in US events through 1962.

The Mayer brothers did not quite have to face the same challenges to their sporting ambitions that Peter Revson encountered. His family was opposed to him racing, and he had to fund his own activities through personal savings and education funds. But on track both Peter and Timmy showed innate talent - combined with burning ambition to progress onto the International stage.

With their FJ Coopers they both succeeded. Timmy Mayer won the Governor's Cup FJ race at Marlboro, Md, that April, beating Mark Donohue. He and Peter finished 1-2 at Cumberland, Md, in May. Timmy won again at Bridgehampton, Long Island, in June, a week before team-mate 'Revvie' won the Player's '200' FJ race at Mosport in Canada. The following weekend then saw Timmy win at Elkhart Lake, and in August he won the Wisconsin Junior GP at Meadowdale.

In September at Meadowdale Mayer, Smith and Revson dominated the Thompson, Ct, race - finishing 1-2-3 in the matching Coopers, and so their one season progressed. In the Puerto Rico GP at Caguas on November 11, 1962, Timmy Mayer, Bill Smith and Peter Revson finished 1-2-3 yet again.

For 1963 'Revvie' then threw his remaining funds into taking an FJ Cooper around Europe hoping to break through into Formula 2 and ultimately Formula 1 racing. Timmy Mayer was offered a drive with the major British-based Tyrrell Racing Organization to drive quasi-works FJ Coopers in that same European season. He showed great promise and would have taken the No 2 works Cooper F1 drive for 1964 as team-mate to Bruce McLaren. Brother Teddy became Bruce's business partner in founding their own McLaren racing team, initially to contest the Tasman Championship races in January-March 1964. Timmy continue to show immense promise, only to crash fatally during practice for the final Tasman round at Longford, Tasmania.

Peter Revson would race his own Formula 1 Lotus-BRM 24 during 1964 but failed to secure a factory drive so he turned to sports and endurance racing in which he slowly matured, and eventually made his mark. Into the 1970s he became a McLaren works team star in Indianapolis, CanAm and ultimately Formula 1 and he won both the Canadian and British Grands Prix. For 1974 he moved to the UOP Shadow team, but during a test run before the South African GP at Kyalami, his car suffered a component failure, smashed into a trackside barrier and this late-developing but immensely handsome and celebrated American star driver was killed.

In that 1962 Puerto Rican GP at Caguas, the Rev-Em Racing team Cooper chassis Nos 'FJ-7-62' and 'FJ-8-62' were probably those driven to victory by Timmy Mayer, and third place by Peter Revson. Subsequently, as affirmed by Formula Junior Register principal Duncan Rabagliati, frontal damage to 'FJ-7-62' and rear-end damage to 'FJ-8-62' saw the latter identity being sacrificed as the chassis were cut in half and amalgamated, back-to-back. Today 'FJ-7-62' as offered here comprises the original rear half of this chassis frame to which has been grafted the front half of 'FJ-8-62' - plus BMC engine plus Citroen-ERSA gearbox.

The reassembled car is well-known within American Vintage racing and Formula Junior circles, and as a fitting tribute to Rev-Em Racing and to its two illustrious, talented, highly successful - but ill-fated - star drivers, we recommend it as warranting the most serious consideration. This really is, on many levels, a highly significant Formula Junior race car.