Trevor Blokdyk – F1 | The “forgotten” drivers of F1

1962 Total Cup, Zwartkopf, 24 November 1962, Cooper 59 Alfa-Romeo, Hoffmann Racing Team. Photo and info from FB

1963 Rand GP – Paul Hawkins #54, David Prophet #4, Trevor Blokdyk #3, Sam Tingle #5 and Clive Puzey #8. Photo and info Tony Kent

1963 – Trevor Blokdyk gets a bit sideways in the Cooper Maserati, as he tries to hang on after being lapped by winner Jim Clark’s Lotus 25 Climax V8 at the South African Grand Prix at East London, today in 1963. An interesting aside, as was typical at the time, known as ‘the mule’ Blokdyk’s Cooper Maserati was one of many cars bought, paid for and imported by hapless South Africans, only for an older car to arrive, rather than the latest models they had thought they had bought! In the case of the Cooper, Gigi Lupini had negotiated and ordered a state of the art independent suspension Cooper T53, only for an obsolete T51 to arrive! Cooper was famous for ‘handling’ his overseas clients in that way, as were Chapman and Brabham, all of whom often never quite delivered what that had promised they would over the years to several local teams, drivers and owners. The Cooper Maserati was a headache from the beginning, christened the mule by John Love, who won with it in ‘61, the car was well developed and some six seconds a lap quicker by the time it raced its third Gand Prix in ’63… Photo and info Michele Lupini

1964 July Mashonaland 100 with John Love #1