[4] Cooper won the 1968 Singapore Grand Prix and the 1968 Australian 1½ Litre Championship driving an Elfin 600.

During the 1978 Australian Grand Prix at the fast Sandown Raceway in Melbourne, he suffered a broken leg in a high-speed crash while driving his own Elfin MR8 Formula 5000.

[5] This car made its race début in Cooper's hands at the 1980 Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne's Calder Park Raceway.

However, Elfin were finding out what others had found with ground effect in that it required stronger suspension components to cope with the higher downforce generated in the corners compared to the conventional F5000's with Bowe reportedly receiving a fright during a race at Sandown in 1981 when the front suspension broke on the car.

Early on Anzac Day (25 April) 1982, while working on a customer's car, Cooper died due to a ruptured aortic aneurysm.