1955 World Sportscar Championship

1955 World Sportscar Championship
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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 1954.

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

Mercedes-Benz won the championship with the 300 SLR

Ferrari placed second with the 750 Monza (pictured) and other models

Jaguar placed third with the D-Type

Maserati placed fourth with the A6GCS (pictured) & 300S

Aston Martin placed fifth with the DB3S

The 1955 World Sports Car Championship was contested over a six race series. 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 1000 km Buenos Aires. The Carrera Panamericana was no longer run after 1954, and while the 1000 km Nürburgring was due to run, this was later cancelled following the events at Le Mans. They were replaced with another legendary road race, the Targa Florio. ^[1]

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, 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. ^[2]

This difficult decision would be made a little easier when Moss, and John Fitch drove to victory at the Dundrod Circuit, winning the 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 Targa Florio, would see Moss win again, this time aided by Peter Collins, ensuring the manufacturers title was won by the German marque.

Season results

Race results

Date	Round	Event	Circuit or Location	Winning driver	Winning team	Winning car	Results
23/01	Rd. 1	1000km of Buenos Aires	Autódromo Municipal-Avenida Paz	Enrique Sáenz Valiente José-Maria Ibanez		Ferrari 375 Plus	Results
13/03	Rd. 2	12 Hours of Sebring	Sebring International Raceway	Mike Hawthorn Phil Walters	B. S. Cunningham	Jaguar D-Type	Results
01/05	Rd. 3	Mille Miglia	Brescia-Rome	Stirling Moss Denis Jenkinson	Daimler Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR	Results
11/06 12/06	Rd.4	24 Hours of Le Mans	Circuit de la Sarthe	Mike Hawthorn Ivor Bueb	Jaguar Cars Ltd.	Jaguar D-Type	Results
18/09	Rd. 5	RAC Tourist Trophy	Dundrod	Stirling Moss John Fitch	Daimler Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR	Results
16/10	Rd. 6	Targa Florio	Circuito delle Madonie Piccolo	Stirling Moss Peter Collins	Daimler Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR	Results

Championship standings

Pos	Manufacturer	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Total
1	Mercedes-Benz			8		8	8	24
2	Ferrari	8	6	4		(1)	4	22 (23)
3	Jaguar		8		8			16
4	Maserati	4	4	3		2	(2)	13 (15)
5	Aston Martin				6	3		9
6	Porsche	3			3			6
7	Gordini	2						2
8	Austin-Healey		1					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

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

References

External links

World Sportscar Championship seasons

1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 for Makes 1977 for Makes 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992

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