"At the first [world championship] United States Grand Prix, at Sebring in 1959," John Cooper said, "I met Rodger Ward, who had won the Indy 500 that year. He didn't know what road racing was all about, but he was big enough to admit it, and we became great friends. You must, he said, take your car to Indy...
"I'd never even thought about it. As far as I was concerned, Indy was a different world, and we had our hands full trying to win grands prix. With Brabham we won the world championship in '59 and '60, but for '61 there were new rules in Formula 1, and we hadn't a hope of being competitive with Ferrari, so Jack and I decided we didn't have much to lose. Bugger it, we said, let's do it - let's go to Indy and have some fun!"
In 1961 the Monaco Grand Prix clashed not with race day at Indianapolis, but with the first qualifying weekend. "On the Thursday," Cooper said, "Jack ran at Monaco to qualify [pictured above] and then we left immediately for Indy [below] On the Saturday he qualified for the 500, and then it was police escort to the airport in Indianapolis, flight to Chicago on our sponsor's plane, then flight to Nice.