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No doubt about it, when the flag dropped for the 1959 New Zealand Grand Prix, the starter was seeing off
the most glamorous, star-studded field that had ever been assembled for the event to date.
It included the best driver in the world by common consent, Stirling Moss, who shot through the 150 miles
at fantastic speed, smashing every previous record in the very warm 2015cc Rob Walker Cooper-Climax, and several other
ranking drivers, including Brabham, the winner of the year before, up-and-coming Bruce McLaren (they were to
follow Moss home in a Cooper benefit), Ron Flockhart in the latest BRM, Harry Schell, Carroll Shelby,
Joakim Bonnier - and New Zealand's Ross Jensen in yet another Maserati.
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"...signed up everyone in sight, including the eventual world champion, Mike Hawthorn..."
This astonishing field, which would have graced the front ranks of the grid in any major Grand Prix, had
been assembled largely through the barnstorming tour by the NZIGP's livewire secretary Frank ("Buzz") Perkins, who
had taken off the previous July, followed the circuits of Europe, and signed up everyone in sight,
including the eventual world champion, Mike Hawthorn, whose grim tenacity won him the 1958 crown in
the face of the greater brilliance of Moss.
However, after winning the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Hawthorn, who had provisionally been signed up by Perkins
to come to New Zealand, decided that if he won the championship at Casablanca, he would retire from grand prix racing.
"...the contract dropped in fragments into the wastepaper basket"
The two men met in a hotel, discussed the position, and in view of Hawthorn's almost certain crown,
agreed to tear the contract up. It dropped in fragments into the wastepaper basket.
Hawthorn won his championship and retired from racing. The New Zealand Grand Prix was run on January 10,
and on January 19 Hawthorn met his death when his Jaguar, traveling at over 80 mph, skidded on a greasy main
highway south of London.
Had he come to New Zealand he might still have been alive.
This is reproduced from http://www.sergent.com.au/1959.html
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