Ninian Sanderson

Ninian Sanderson climbed into the victorious Jaguar D-Type at Le Mans in 1956

Ninian Sanderson (born May 14, 1925 in Glasgow , † October 1, 1985 ) was a British racing driver .

Career

Ninian Sanderson, a Glasgow car dealer, started motorsport in the early 1950s. Initially active in Formula 3 , he came to sports car racing via hillclimbing . He became a works driver at Ecurie Ecosse and celebrated his greatest success in motorsport with overall victory in the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1956. His teammate in the Jaguar D-Type of the Ecurie Ecosse was his Scottish compatriot Ron Flockhart . In 1957 he finished second at Le Mans, this time Jack Lawrence was his partner.

Sanderson, who died of cancer in 1985, was known and notorious for his jokes. He once stuffed a fireworks into the exhaust of Flockhart's D-Type Jaguar when it was about to leave the Aintree pit lane for a qualifying lap. The fireworks exploded with a loud bang, Flockhart jumped out of the car and behind the pit wall there was laughter from Sanderson and the mechanics.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1955	Standard Triumph Motor Company Ltd.	Triumph TR2	Robert Dickson	Rank 14
1956	Ecurie Ecosse	Jaguar D-Type	Ron Flockhart	Overall victory
1957	Ecurie Ecosse	Jaguar D-Type	John Lawrence	Rank 2
1958	Ecurie Ecosse	Jaguar D-Type	Jack Lawrence	failure	overheated cylinder
1959	Standard triumph	Triumph TR3S	Claude Dubois	failure	Engine failure
1960	Standard triumph	Triumph TR4S	Peter Bolton	not classified
1961	Ecurie Ecosse	Austin Healey Sebring Sprite	Alan McKay	failure	accident
1962	TVR Cars	TVR Grantura	Peter Bolton	failure	defective cooler
1963	AC Cars Ltd.	AC Cobra 289 Coupé	Peter Bolton	Rank 7 and class win

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1958	Ecurie Ecosse	Jaguar D-Type	Ivor Bueb	failure	Valve damage

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd
1953	Ecurie Ecosse	Jaguar XK 120	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
							10
1954	Ecurie Ecosse	Jaguar C-Type	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
			4th
1955	Standard Motor Company Jack Broadhead	Triumph TR2 Jaguar D-Type	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
						14th	DNF
1956	Ecurie Ecosse	Jaguar D-Type	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	KRI
							DNF
1957	Ecurie Ecosse	Jaguar D-Type	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	LEM	KRI	CAR
			4th			16	2	11
1958	Ecurie Ecosse	Jaguar D-Type	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
				DNF		DNF	DNF
1959	Standard Motor Company	Triumph TR3	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
						DNF
1960	Standard Motor Company	Triumph TR4	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM
							DNF
1961	Ecurie Ecosse	Austin-Healey Sprite	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	PES
						DNF
1962	TVR	TVR Grantura	DAY	SEB	SEB	MAY	TAR	BER	ONLY	LEM	TAV	CCA	RTT	ONLY	BRI	BRI	PAR
										DNF
1963	AC Cars	AC Cobra	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
												7th

Web links

Commons : Ninian Sanderson  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Ninian Sanderson at Racing Sports Cars