1959 World Sportscar Championship

1959 World Sportscar Championship season
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The 1959 World Sportscar Championship season was the seventh season of the FIA World Sportscar Championship. It was a series for sportscars that ran in many worldwide endurance events. It ran from 21 March 1959 to 5 September 1959, and comprised five races, following the 1000 km Buenos Aires being removed from the calendar, although the race did return in 1960.

Season

a later version of this DBR1 won the championship for Aston Martin.

The championship still comprised five qualifying rounds, but what rounds they were; the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Targa Florio, the Nürburgring 1000 km, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the RAC Tourist Trophy.^[1]

In Florida, the Scuderia Ferrari won at Sebring, while the little Porsche 718 RSK dominated the Targa Florio.^[2] Back in England, David Brown of Aston Martin had initially ruled against a World Championship challenge, on financial grounds. But, Stirling Moss wangled one DBR1/300 works car to win the Nürburgring 1000 km,^[3] with Jack Fairman. At Le Mans, the Astons of Roy Salvadori/Carroll Shelby and Maurice Trintignant/Paul Frère finished one-two! ^[4] So David Brown’s company simply had to field a full three-car team in what had become the title-deciding race, the RAC Tourist Trophy, which despite setting fire to their race leading car during a schedule refuelling stop, the sister car of Shelby/Fairman/Moss took victory and saw Aston Martin become the first British manufacturer even to win the FIA World Sportscar Championship.^[5]

Season results

Results

Date	Round	Event	Circuit or Location	Winning driver	Winning team	Winning car	Results
21/03	Rd. 1	12-Hour Florida International Grand Prix of Endurance for the Amoco Trophy	Sebring International Raceway	Dan Gurney Chuck Daigh Phil Hill Olivier Gendebien	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 250 TR 59	Results
24/05	Rd. 2	43° Targa Florio	Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie	Edgar Barth Wolfgang Seidel	Porsche KG	Porsche 718 RSK	Results
07/06	Rd.3	ADAC 1000 Kilometre Rennen Nürburgring	Nürburgring	Stirling Moss Jack Fairman	David Brown	Aston Martin DBR1/300	Results
20-21/06	Rd.4	24 Heures du Mans	Circuit de la Sarthe	Roy Salvadori Carroll Shelby	David Brown Racing Dept.	Aston Martin DBR1/300	Results
05/09	Rd.5	News of the World sponsor the 24th R.A.C. Tourist Trophy	Goodwood Circuit	Carroll Shelby Jack Fairman Stirling Moss	David Brown	Aston Martin DBR1/300	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	Aston Martin			8	8	8	24
2^†	Ferrari	8		6	4	(4)	18 (22)
3^†	Porsche	4	8	(3)		6	18 (21)
4	Maserati		2				2
5=	Alfa Romeo		1				1
5=	Lola					1	1

† - Ferrari declared second due to having the same number of wins, one, and second places, one, as Porsche but 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

↑ http://www.racingsportscars.com/championship/World%20Championship.html
↑ http://www.targaflorio.info/43.htm
↑ Stirling Moss, “Stirling Moss: All My Races" (Haynes Publishing, ISBN 978-1 84425 700 3, 2009)
↑ http://www.sportscardigest.com/carroll-shelby-looks-back-at-1959-le-mans-victory/
↑ Peter Swinger, “Motor Racing Circuits in England" (Ian Allan Publishing, ISBN 978 0 7110 3104 3, 2005)

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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