1955 World Sportscar Championship season

1955 World Sportscar Championship

1954

1956

The 1955 World Sportscar Championship season was the third season of FIA World Sportscar Championship motor racing. It featured a series of six endurance races for sportscars, contested from 23 January to 16 October 1955.

The championship was won by Mercedes-Benz, the German manufacturer ending the dominance of Ferrari which had won both of the previous World Sportscar Championship titles.

Season summary

The 1955 World Sports Car Championship was eventually contested over a six race series, even though seven were planned, of which two were cancelled. With legendary races such as the Mille Miglia and the RAC Tourist Trophy now part of an international race calendar, they were accompanied by the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 12 Hours of Sebring. The championship started in January, with a trip to Argentina for the 1955 1000 km Buenos Aires and ended with an event new to the championship, the legendary road race, the 1955 Targa Florio.^[1] As a result of the Le Mans disaster, both the 1000 km Nürburgring and the Carrera Panamericana were cancelled.^[2] The Nürburgring hosted a 500km race anyway, limited to 1500cc cars. Many Porsche 550 were entered, and even two East German EMW R3/55, with Edgar Barth among the drivers.

The Championship was open for manufacturers, with works teams such as Scuderia Ferrari, Officine Alfieri Maserati, Daimler-Benz and Jaguar Cars leading the way, but the majority of the fields were made up of amateur or gentlemen drivers, often up against professional racing drivers with experience in Formula One.

Classes were split between closed cars (GT) and open cars (Sports), with further divisions due to engine displacement. The 1955 season was a very bittersweet one for Daimler-Benz, with their Mercedes-Benz 300 SLRs. After missing the opening two, non-European rounds, which allowed Ferrari to gain a 14-point head start on Mercedes, the German team joined the championship. Aided by an English journalist, Denis Jenkinson, Stirling Moss would romp to victory in the Mille Miglia; however, the elation achieved by this English pairing and additional non-championship 1-2 win at the Nürburgring Eifelrennen would be quickly subdued at Le Mans a month later, when Pierre Levegh’s 300 SLR would be launched into the air and into the crowd, killing more than 80 spectators. Daimler-Benz would withdraw from the race, and motor sport altogether at the end of the season.^[3]

This difficult decision would be made a little easier when Moss, and John Fitch headed a 1-2-3 Mercedes victory at the Dundrod Circuit and the 1955 RAC Tourist Trophy. This race was marred by the deaths of three drivers. The victory put Mercedes back in the hunt for the championship. The last race of the season, the 1955 Targa Florio, would see Moss's car win again ahead of Fangio's, this time aided by Peter Collins, ensuring the manufacturers title (which was not yet awarded in F1) was won by the German marque.

Season results

Race results

Date	Rd.	Event	Circuit / Location	Winning drivers	Winning team	Winning car	Results
23/01	1	1000km Buenos Aires	Autódromo Mun. Avenida Paz	E. S. Valiente J.-M. Ibanez	—	Ferrari 375 Plus	Results
13/03	2	12 Hours of Sebring	Sebring Raceway	Mike Hawthorn Phil Walters	B. S. Cunningham	Jaguar D-Type	Results
01/05	3	Mille Miglia	Brescia - Rome - Brescia	Stirling Moss D. Jenkinson	Daimler Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR	Results
11/06 12/06	4	24 Hours of Le Mans	Circuit des 24h	Mike Hawthorn Ivor Bueb	Jaguar Cars Ltd.	Jaguar D-Type	Results
~~28/08~~	5	~~1000km~~ 500km	Nürburgring	Jean Behra	Officine A. Maserati	Maserati 150S	non-WC 1500cc^[4]
18/09	5	Tourist Trophy	Dundrod	Stirling Moss John Fitch	Daimler Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR	Results
16/10	6	Targa Florio	Circuito Picc. delle Madonie	Stirling Moss Peter Collins	Daimler Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR	Results
~~Dec.~~	7	~~Carrera Panamericana~~	~~in Mexico~~	—	—	—	canc.^[5]

Championship standings

Pos	Manufacturer	BUE	SEB	MMI	LMS	TTR	TGA	Total
1	Mercedes-Benz			1⁸	Ret	1⁸	1⁸	24
2	Ferrari	1⁸	2⁶	3⁴	Ret	6⁽¹⁾	3⁴	22
3	Jaguar		1⁸		1⁸	Ret		16
4	Maserati	3⁴	3⁴	4³	Ret	5²	5⁽²⁾	13
5	Aston Martin			Ret	2⁶	4³		9
6	Porsche	4³	8	8	4³	12		6
7	Gordini	5²						2
8	Austin-Healey		6¹	12	Ret			1

Note:

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 4 results out of the 6 races could be retained by each manufacturer. Points earned but not counted towards the championship totals are listed within brackets in the accompanying table.

The cars

Ferrari placed second with the 375 Plus (pictured) and other models
Maserati placed fourth with the A6GCS (pictured) & 300S
Aston Martin placed fifth with the DB3S

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

References

"World Sportscar Championship - Championships - Racing Sports Cars".
Posthumus, Cyril (1961). World Sports Car Championship.
"1955 Targa Florio: Two Brits Run Wild over the Sicilian Countryside".
https://www.racingsportscars.com/results/Nurburgring-1955-08-28.html
The 1955 Carrera, scheduled for that December, never happened. One reason was economics: the costs of keeping the roads in condition for racing, of manning the long circuit with organizers and police, and of providing prize money. Also, the original purpose of the race, to prove the highway suitable for family cars, was fulfilled. And the race hindered about a week of commercial traffic. Then there were the deaths. Twenty-seven spectators and participants had died in the five Carreras. The Le Mans disaster in June 1955, when more than 80 were killed, was added proof that the ever-growing speed of competition cars was out-racing the condition of their circuits. - https://museum.revsinstitute.org/news/carrera-panamericana/