1953 RAC Tourist Trophy

The 1953 RAC Tourist Trophy was a motor race for sports cars, held on 5 September 1953 at the Dundrod Circuit in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was the sixth round of the 1953 World Sportscar Championship, held just six days after the previous round, the 1000km of Nürburgring. The race was the 20th running of the RAC Tourist Trophy.

The race was won by Peter Collins and Pat Griffith, driving an Aston Martin DB3S.

Dundrod Circuit

Report

The race was won by an Aston Martin DB3S, similar to the car pictured

Entry

A total 45 cars were registered for this event, of which only 28 arrived for practice and qualifying. None of the leading works teams made the trip across to Northern Ireland from mainland Europe. However, from England, the two works teams of Jaguar Cars Ltd. and Aston Martin took part. The team from Coventry arrived with three cars, Jaguar C-Types for the all British pairings of Tony Rolt/Duncan Hamilton, Stirling Moss/Peter Walker and Peter Whitehead/Ian Stewart. Aston Martin also brought along three of their DB3S, with Reg Parnell pairing up alongside Eric Thompson. Roy Salvadori/Dennis Poore and Peter Collins/Pat Griffith made up the crew of the other two Astons. Also from England came three works entered Frazer Nash Le Mans Mk IIs and Kieft-Bristols.[1]

Going into this round, Ferrari were leading the Manufacturers Championship by just two points from Jaguar. With no representation in the race, Ferrari would be unable score any points, but due to the nature of the scoring system where only the best four results out of the seven races could be retained by each manufacturer, Jaguar would need to finish at least second to score any points, with only one race remaining in the championship- the Carrera Panamericana in Mexico some 2 12 months away.

Race

Although World Championship points were awarded based on scratch order, this race was run as a handicap race. The race was run over 111 laps, but no cars started from scratch: the largest cars, the Jaguars, had a handicap of 4 laps and 5 minutes, 11.21 seconds. The race would end once any car completed 111 handicap laps.[2]

Conditions of the race were foggy. Despite this, Aston Martin would finish in first and second places, both cars on the same lap. Car number 20, driven by Collins and Griffith took an impressive victory, winning in a time of 9hrs 37:12 mins., averaging a speed of 81.715mph. Second place went to Parnell and Thompson, in their DB3S, just 3:23 minutes behind. The podium was completed by the winner of the two previous Tourist Trophy races held at Dundrod, Moss, aided by his co-driver, Walker, in their Jaguar C-Type.[3][4][5]

Scratch Classification

Class Winners are in Bold text.

Pos No Class Driver Entrant Chassis Laps Reason Out
1st 20 S3.0 Peter Collins Pat Griffith Aston Martin Aston Martin DB3S 9hr 37:12, 106
2nd 18 S3.0 Reg Parnell Eric Thompson Aston Martin Aston Martin DB3S 9hr 40:35, 106
3rd 7 S5.0 Stirling Moss Peter Walker Jaguar Cars Ltd. Jaguar C-Type 9hr 37:39, 103
4th 22 S3.0 Tony Gaze Graham Whitehead Graham Whitehead Aston Martin DB3 102
5th 21 S3.0 Bob Dickson Desmond Titterington Bob Dickson Aston Martin DB3 101
6th 25 S2.0 Ken Wharton C. Ernie Robb Frazer Nash Ltd. Frazer Nash Le Mans MK II 101
7th 12 S5.0 Joe Kelly Jack Fairman Joe Kelly Jaguar C-Type 98
8th 27 S2.0 Bob Gerard David Clarke Frazer Nash Ltd. Frazer Nash Le Mans 95
9th 36 S1.5 Pierce Cahill Redmond Gallagher Redmond Gallagher Gordini T15S 86
10th 40 S1.5 Peter Jackson Peter Lane Peter Jackson Lester-MG T51 86
11th 28 S2.0 Rodney F. Peacock Gerry Ruddock Roy Peacock Fraser Nash Le Mans 82
12th 44 S1.5 Raymond Flower George Phillips Gregor Grant MG TD 81
13th 35 S1.5 Peter Reece Gil Tyrer Peter Reece Singer SM1500 81
14th 49 S750 Georges Trouis Alfred Hitchings Ecuire Jendy Bonnet D.B. HBR Panhard 74
DNF 33 S2.0 C. P. Hazelhurst P. H. Thompson Kieft Cars Kieft-Bristol 62 Accident
DNF 50 S750 ”Pousse” Jeff Sparrowe Ecuire Jendy Bonnet D.B. HBR Panhard 59 DNF
DNF 8 S5.0 Peter Whitehead Ian Stewart Jaguar Cars Ltd. Jaguar C-Type 51 Gearbox
DNF 34 S2.0 Ian Burgess Austen Nurse Kieft Cars Kieft-Bristol 46 DNF
DNF 32 S2.0 John Fitch Peter Wilson Frazer Nash Ltd. Fraser Nash Le Mans Replica Mk II 44 Lost Wheel
DNF 30 S2.0 Lawrence Mitchell Peter Scott-Russell Lawrence Mitchell Fraser Nash High Speed 42 Accident
DNF 19 S3.0 Roy Salvadori Dennis Poore Aston Martin Aston Martin DB3S 33 Accident
DNF 43 S1.5 Brian McCaldin Charles Manusell Brian McCaldin MG TD 29 Bearings
DNF 41 S1.5 Ted Lund William Robinson Ted Lund Jowett Jupiter 15 Suspension
DNF 32 S2.0 David J. Calvert Richard Green Kieft Cars Kieft-Bristol 10 Accident
DNF 6 S5.0 Tony Rolt Duncan Hamilton Jaguar Cars Ltd. Jaguar C-Type 5 Gearbox
DNF 39 S1.5 Horace Gould I.D. Lewis Horace Gould Cooper-MG T21 2 Steering
DNF 14 S5.0 John Manussis Gerry Dunham Ecurie Kenya Jaguar C-Type 1 Accident
DNS 17 S5.0 George Abecassis Lance Macklin H W Motors HWM-Jaguar 108 Axel shaft

[4][6][7][8]

Class Winners

Class Winners
Class C – Sports 5000 7 Jaguar C-Type Moss / Walker
Class D - Sports 3000 20 Aston Martin DB3S Collins / Griffith
Class E – Sports 2000 25 Frazer Nash Le Mans Mk II Wharton / Robb
Class F – Sports 1500 36 Gordini T15S Cahill / Gallagher
Class H – Sports 750 49 D.B. HBR Panhard Trouis / Hitchings

[3]

Standings after the race

Pos Championship Points
1 Ferrari 26 (27)
2 Jaguar 24 (28)
3 Aston Martin 16
4 Cunningham 12
5 Alfa Romeo 6
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included in this set of standings.

Championship points were awarded for the first six places in each race in the order of 8-6-4-3-2-1. Manufacturers were only awarded points for their highest finishing car with no points awarded for positions filled by additional cars. Only the best 4 results out of the 7 races could be retained by each manufacturer. Points earned but not counted towards the championship totals are listed within brackets in the above table.

References

  1. "Tourist Trophy 1953 - Entry List". Racing Sports Cars. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  2. Hough, Richard (1957). Tourist Trophy: The History of Britain's Greatest Motor Race. pp. 219–224.
  3. "Tourist Trophy 1953". Racing Sports Cars. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  4. "1953 Tourist Trophy". Teamdan.com. 1953-09-05. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  5. "SPAM protection / Ochrana proti SPAMu". Wsrp.ic.cz. Archived from the original on 2014-08-09. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  6. "SPAM protection / Ochrana proti SPAMu". Wsrp.ic.cz. Archived from the original on 2014-08-09. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  7. "Tourist Trophy 1953 - Race Results - Racing Sports Cars". www.racingsportscars.com. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
  8. "Tourist Trophy". Ultimateracinghistory.com. 1953-09-05. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
World Sportscar Championship
Previous race:
1000km of Nürburgring
1953 season Next race:
1953 Carrera Panamericana
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