1962 COOPER T59 FORMULA JUNIOR

CURRENT OWNER CHRIS MERRICK

The Formula Junior Cooper T59 now owned and raced by Chris Merrick is chassis #9 from 1962, and was sold to Curt Lincoln in Finland when new. Lincoln’s daughter Nina married future posthumous F1 world champion Jochen Rindt in 1967.

The Cooper was sold to Lincoln as a complete car less engine, but he immediately installed a Ford powerplant and raced it in 1962 in Finland in exactly the configuration it remains in today, including the Finnishflag colour scheme.

Lincoln owned a lot of Coopers, but kept each one for just a year or two, and after the T59 he bought a Brabham BT6. He won some fairly major races in 1962 and also did some ice racing with the Cooper. Later in ’62, Jochen Rindt bought chassis #6.

The Lincoln T59 went through various hands and suffered a heavy crash in Finland in 1963. There is still evidence of that accident on the chassis. It ran as a Formula 3 car in ’65, mainly in Sweden, and was then laid up for some time before reappearing in the late ’90s with Chris Alford. It was then owned by Dr Hugh Chalmers in Scotland and later by Alan Biggar, who did an excellent job of the restoration in conjunction with Billy Bellinger.

Merrick bought the car in 2014 and raced it back in Sweden the following year where people still remembered it. This summer, Merrick’s plan is to contest the Baltic leg of the Formula Junior Diamond Jubilee World Tour, which is named in memory of Lincoln.