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 expenses of the RAC Tourist Trophy, which formed part of the inaugural FIA GT Cup.

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 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.^[4] 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.^[5]

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 could stop Porsche winning the title was to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and that was exactly what they did.^[6]

Season results

Results

Date	Round	Event	Circuit or Location	Winning driver	Winning team	Winning car	Results
31/01	Rd. 1	1000 km Buenos Aires	Autódromo Municipal-Avenida Paz	Phil Hill Cliff Allison	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 250 TR 59/60	Results
26/03	Rd. 2	Sebring International Grand Prix of Endurance for the Amoco Trophy	Sebring International Raceway	Hans Herrmann Olivier Gendebien	Joakim Bonnier	Porsche 718 RS 60	Results
08/05	Rd. 3	44° Targa Florio	Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie	Jo Bonnier Hans Herrmann	Porsche KG	Porsche 718 RS 60	Results
22/05	Rd. 4	VI. Internationales ADAC 1000 Kilometer Rennen	Nürburgring	Stirling Moss Dan Gurney	Camoradi / USA Racing Team	Maserati Tipo 61	Results
25-26/06	Rd. 5	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.

• Ferrari 250 TR 59/60 & Ferrari Dino 246 S
• Porsche 718 RS 60
• Maserati Tipo 61
• Aston Martin DBR1/300

References

External links

• 1960 World Sportscar Championship race results, www.classicscars.com
• 1960 World Sportscar Championship points table, www.classicscars.com