1960 World Sportscar Championship

The 1960 World Sportscar Championship season was the eighth season of the FIA World Sportscar Championship. It was a series for sportscars that ran in many worldwide endurance events. It ran from 31 January 1960 to 26 June 1960, and comprised five races. The 1000 km Buenos Aires returned to the calendar at the expense of the RAC Tourist Trophy, which formed part of the inaugural FIA GT Cup.

1960 World Sportscar Championship
Previous: 1959 Next: 1961

Season
Ferrari 250 TR 59/60 being raced in the 1998 Goodwood Revival.

The championship still comprised five qualifying rounds, but what rounds they were; the 1000 km Buenos Aires the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Targa Florio, the Nürburgring 1000 km, with the 24 Hours of Le Mans being the final round.[1]

With reigning champion, Aston Martin works cars not returning to defend their title, this left the door wide open for Scuderia Ferrari to reclaim the title. This wasn’t to be plain sailing as the nearest rivals turned out to be the smaller Porsches. The Italian manufacturer started stronger with Phil Hill and Cliff Allison taking the spoils in Argentina.[2] Next was the annual trip to Florida, for the 12 Hours of Sebring, however the factory Ferrari and Porsche were not present because of the rule change by the FIA, allowing the organisers to permit use of only certain brands of fuel,[3] As a result, the race was between privateers with works-backed drivers, with Porsche coming out on top.[2] The mid-way point of the championship, saw the cars return to Europe for the Targa Florio. The twisty mountains roads of Sicily favoured the more agile car, like the Porsche which duly took the victory.[2]

The championship then into moved into West Germany, the annual trip to the Nürburgring Nordschleife. To the surprise of everyone, the spoils went to an American team, Camoradi/USA Racing Team, whose Maserati was driven by Stirling Moss and Dan Gurney. This result meant, going into the final round, the only way Ferrari could stop Porsche winning the title was to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and that was exactly what they did.[2]

Season results

Results
Round Date Event Circuit or Location Winning driver Winning team Winning car Results
1 January 31 1000 km Buenos Aires Autódromo Municipal-Avenida Paz Phil Hill
Cliff Allison		 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 250 TR 59/60 Results
2 March 26 Sebring International Grand Prix of Endurance for the Amoco Trophy Sebring International Raceway Hans Herrmann
Olivier Gendebien		 Joakim Bonnier Porsche 718 RS 60 Results
3 May 8 44° Targa Florio Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie Jo Bonnier
Hans Herrmann		 Porsche KG Porsche 718 RS 60 Results
4 May 22 VI. Internationales ADAC 1000 Kilometer Rennen Nürburgring Stirling Moss
Dan Gurney		 Camoradi / USA Racing Team Maserati Tipo 61 Results
5 June 25-26 24 Heures du Mans Circuit de la Sarthe Olivier Gendebien
Paul Frère		 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 250 TR 59/60 Results

Championship

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 awarded points only for their highest finishing car with no points awarded for positions filled by additional cars.
    •
  • Only the best 3 results out of the 5 races could be retained by each manufacturer. Points earned but not counted towards the championship totals are listed within brackets in the above table.
Pos Manufacturer Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Rd 5 Total
1† Ferrari 8 (4) 6 (4) 8 22 (30)
2 Porsche (4) 8 8 6 22 (26)
3 Maserati 3 8 11
4 Aston Martin 4 4

† - Ferrari declared the champion from tie breaker of more points having two 3rd-place finishes to Porsche's one.

The cars

The following models contributed to the net championship point scores of their respective manufacturers.

References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-07-08. Retrieved 2016-07-03.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. "1960 World Sportscar Championship". Teamdan.com. Archived from the original on 1 October 2018. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
  3. "Sebring 12 Hours 1960 - Racing Sports Cars". Racingsportscars.com. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
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