RAC Tourist Trophy 1955

Lindsay Hairpin of the Dundrod Circuit; the vehicles were approaching the hairpin bend in the picture on the right (left in the direction of travel) and then drove towards Glowbog Crossroads. Richard Mainwaring had a fatal accident there in 1955

Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR

The 22nd RAC Tourist Trophy , also Tourist Trophy, Dundrod , took place on September 18, 1955 on the Dundrod Circuit road around the small town of Dundrod in Northern Ireland and was the fifth round of the sports car world championship of that year.

The race

The race in Dundrod was the first sports car world championship race after the catastrophe at the Le Mans 24-hour race in June, where 84 people were killed after an accident involving Pierre Levegh . The race track in Dundrod was a street course with a length of almost 12 kilometers, on partly narrow paths over a northern Irish hilly landscape. As with many other routes of this type at the time, the safety precautions were extremely poor. There were almost no run-off areas and the route boundaries were mainly nicely trimmed hedges. The whole thing looked more like a racetrack for obstacle races , only with asphalt instead of grass and without obstacles; Outwardly idyllic, but sometimes extremely dangerous for the sports cars with speeds of over 200 km / h.

The fact that three drivers lost their lives in this race was almost forgotten in the reporting after the Le Mans disaster, but in retrospect it is one of the most fatal races in the history of sports car racing. At the beginning of the second lap, eight vehicles were involved in a mass accident. The collision was triggered by an unsuccessful attempt by a professional racing driver to overtake a male driver . The French nobleman Viscount Henry de Barry (nothing is known about a second pilot) drove a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL , which he was obviously not up to. He drove in the fast section near Cochranstown with slow pace in the middle of the road, as Ken Wharton in factory Frazer Nash came when overtaking right into a ditch while to tore the tank. His car and the hedges standing there caught fire immediately. While seven other cars drove into one another behind him, de Barry was able to drive on unmolested. He even drove the race until half-time, but was then disqualified because it turned out that he was driving much too slowly, since most of the vehicles in the race had already covered twice the distance. The reason why Wharton followed de Barry was because of the Le Mans start , where the vehicles were not lined up according to the training times , but according to their cubic capacity. As a result, de Barry's 3-liter Mercedes was way ahead of Wharton's 2-liter Frazer Nash. In addition to Wharton, Bob Berry had an accident in a Jaguar D-Type (why Berry drove so far back in the field after one lap is still unclear. A contemporary photograph shows Berry at the head of the field, looking at Earl Howe in the pit lane threw), Lance Macklin in the Austin-Healey 100S , the German Friedrich Kretschmann ( Porsche 550 Spyder ), Bill Smith ( Connaught AL / SR ), Peter Jopp in the factory - Lotus Mark IX and the two Cooper T39 pilots Jim Russell and Jim Mayers . Smith and Mayers, whose two vehicles burned out completely, died in the inferno. Mayers died in the accident, Smith a little later. Wharton was burned. For Lance Macklin, who was also involved in the Le Mans accident, In Dundrod ended his racing career. He was badly injured and resigned three months later. De Barry, who only found out about the fatal consequences of the pile-up at the finish, resigned immediately, seriously shocked.

The third accident occurred halfway through the race. 35 laps, the team had Robbie MacKenzie-Low and Richard Mainwaring come, when the plant - Elva Mk.I with Mainwaring overturned at the wheel at the section Tornagrough several times. The driver was trapped under the car and died at the scene of the accident. Despite this accumulation of fatal incidents, the race continued unabated, no one thought of an interruption or termination on the part of the organizer. This brought him considerable criticism just hours after the race. Further car races on this course were forbidden a little later by the regional administration for the future; it was the last RAC Tourist Trophy in Dundrod.

The Daimler-Benz AG celebrated the 300SLR a triple victory. In the result lists, the success was shown to be easier than it actually was. The Mercedes factory drivers had to stretch and drive almost constantly to the limit in order to master the strongest competitors. For a long time, the number 1 Jaguar D-Type was in the lead, with Mike Hawthorn and Desmond Titterington replacing each other in the cockpit. The car retired with engine failure with three laps to go. The winning car of Stirling Moss and John Fitch suffered a tire damage at the front, which required an additional pit stop , which Fitch made up for by the end of the race. Chance the two were work - Ferrari 857S that reached only the ranks six and eight.

Results

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	driver	vehicle	Round
1	S 3.0	10	Daimler-Benz AG	Stirling Moss John Fitch	Mercedes-Benz 300SLR	84
2	S 3.0	9	Daimler-Benz AG	Juan Manuel Fangio Karl Kling	Mercedes-Benz 300SLR	83
3	S 3.0	11	Daimler-Benz AG	Wolfgang von Trips André Simon	Mercedes-Benz 300SLR	82
4th	S 3.0	18th	Aston Martin Ltd.	Peter Walker Dennis Poore	Aston Martin DB3S	81
5	S 3.0	15th	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Luigi Musso Franco Bordoni-Bisleri	Maserati 300S	79
6th	S 3.0	4th	Scuderia Ferrari	Eugenio Castellotti Piero Taruffi	Ferrari 857S	79
7th	S 3.0	17th	Aston Martin Ltd.	Reg Parnell Roy Salvadori	Aston Martin DB3S	79
8th	S 3.0	5	Scuderia Ferrari	Umberto Maglioli Maurice Trintignant	Ferrari 857S	79
9	S 1.5	28	Fritz Huschke from Hanstein	Carroll Shelby Masten Gregory	Porsche 550 Spyder	75
10	S 1.1	41	Cooper Cars Co.	Mike MacDowel Ivor Bueb	Cooper T39	74
11	S 1.1	46	Lotus Cars Ltd.	Colin Chapman Cliff Allison	Lotus Mark IX	74
12	S 1.5	29	Porsche KG	Helmet Glöckler Wolfgang Seidel	Porsche 550 Spyder	74
13	S 3.0	7th	Equipe Nationale Belge	Jacques Swaters Johnny Claes	Ferrari 750 Monza	73
14th	S 3.0	19th	Raymond Flower	Raymond Flower Mike Llewellyn	Austin-Healey 100S	71
15th	S 1.1	47	Dick Steed	Dick Steed Peter Scott-Russell	Lotus Mark IX	71
16	S 1.5	30th	Porsche KG	Richard von Frankenberg Herbert Linge	Porsche 550 Spyder	70
17th	S 750	50	Ecurie Jeudy-Bonnet	Paul Armagnac Gérard Laureau	DB HBR	70
18th	S 2.0	56	André Loëns	André Loëns Joakim Bonnier	Maserati A6GCS	69
19th	S 750	49	Ecurie Jeudy-Bonnet	Louis Cornet Claude Storez	DB HBR	69
20th	S 1.5	35	MG Car Co.	Jack Fairman Peter Wilson	MG EX182	69
21st	S 2.0	23	Jasper Johnstone	Wilbert Todd Ian Titterington	Triumph TR2	68
22nd	S 2.0	21st	Bob Dickson	Bob Dickson Ken Richardson	Triumph TR2 Prototype	67
23	S 2.0	26th	John Maurice Tew	John Maurice Tew Joe Kelly	Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica	66
24	S 750	51	Ecurie Jeudy-Bonnet	Robert Mougin Guillaume Mercader	DB HBR	66
25th	S 1.5	27	Kieft Cars Ltd.	John Fisher Ronnie Adams	Kieft	66
26th	S 1.5	37	Kieft Cars Ltd.	Berwyn Baxter Max Trimble	Kieft	66
27	S 1.5	38	Lotus Cars Ltd.	John Coombs Ian Burgess	Lotus Mark VIII	55
Disqualified
28	S 3.0	12	Ecurie Côte d'Azure	Henri de Barry	Mercedes-Benz 300 SL	39
Failed
29	S 5.0	1	Jaguar Cars Ltd.	Mike Hawthorn Desmond Titterington	Jaguar D-Type	81
30th	S 3.0	14th	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Jean Behra Luigi Musso	Maserati 300S	63
31	S 1.1	48	Automobiles Frazer Nash Ltd.	Cecil Vard Ken Rudd	DKW 3 = 6	52
32	S 2.0	22nd	Jasper Johnstone	Brian McCaldin Charles Eyre Maunsell	Triumph TR2	48
33	S 5.0	3	Peter Whitehead	Peter Whitehead Graham Whitehead	Cooper T38	43
34	S 3.0	16	Aston Martin Ltd.	Peter Collins Tony Brooks	Aston Martin DB3S	43
35	S 1.1	44	Kieft Cars Ltd.	Otway Plunkett Alan Rippon	Kieft	38
36	S 1.1	45	Elva	Robbie MacKenzie-Low Richard Mainwaring	Elva Mk.I	34
37	S 2.0	24	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Luigi Bellucci Cecil Vard	Maserati A6GCS	31
38	S 750	55	Automobili Stanguellini	René-Philippe Faure Philippe Duval	Stanguellini 750 Sport	29
39	S 1.5	34	MG Car Co.	Ron Flockhart Johnny Lockett	MG EX182	23
40	S 750	54	Pierre Chancel	Pierre Chancel Robert Chancel	Panhard X88	22nd
41	S 1.5	36	MG Car Co.	Ted Lund Dickie Stoop	MG EX182	8th
42	S 5.0	2	Jack Broadhead	Bob Berry Ninian Sanderson	Jaguar D-Type	1
43	S 3.0	20th	John Dalton	Lance Macklin John Dalton	Austin-Healey 100S	1
44	S 2.0	25th	Automobiles Frazer Nash Ltd.	Ken Wharton Cecil Vard	Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica Mk.II	1
45	S 1.5	31	Raymond Flower	Friedrich Kretschmann Ernie McMillen Raymond Flower	Porsche 550 Spyder	1
46	S 1.5	39	Connaught	Bill Smith John Young	Connaught AL / SR	1
47	S 1.5	40	Lotus Cars Ltd.	Peter Jopp Mike Anthony	Lotus Mark IX	1
48	S 1.1	42	Cooper Cars Co.	Jim Russell Dennis Taylor	Cooper T39	1
49	S 1.1	43	O'Shea Racing	Jim Mayer's Jack Brabham	Cooper T39	1
Not started
50	S 3.0	6th	Scuderia Ferrari	Olivier Gendebien Masten Gregory	Ferrari 750 Monza	1
51	S 3.0	8th	Ecurie Bullfrog	Jean Lucas Alfonso de Portago	Ferrari 750 Monza	2
52	S 3.0	T	Aston Martin Ltd.	Tony Brooks	Aston Martin DB3S	3
53	S 5.0	T	Jaguar Cars Ltd.	Mike Hawthorn	Jaguar D-Type	4th
54	S 1.5	T	MG Car Co.	Dickie Stoop	MG EX182	5
55	S 3.0	1T	Daimler-Benz AG	Juan Manuel Fangio Karl Kling Stirling Moss Wolfgang von Trips	Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR	6th
56	S 3.0	2T	Daimler-Benz AG	Stirling Moss	Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR	7th

¹ Accident during training ² not started ³ training car ⁴ training car ⁵ training car ⁶ training car ⁷ training car

Only in the entry list

Here you will find teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the race but did not take part for a variety of reasons.

Item	class	No.	team	driver	chassis
57	S 1.1		Watling-Greenwood / Barthel	Roy Watling-Greenwood Dennis Barthel	Cooper T39
58	S 2.0		Brian Lister	Bob Gerard	Lister
59	S 5.0		Tojeiro	Horace Gould	Tojeiro
60	S 3.0		Gerard Crombac	Gerard Crombac	Ferrari 750 Monza
61	S 3.0			Tony Gaze	Aston Martin DB3S
62	S 1.5	32	Monkey stable	AM Mallock Charles Eyre Maunsell	Porsche 550 Spyder
63	S 1.5	33	Osca	Giulio Cabianca	Osca MT4
64	S 750	52	Franco-Brittanique	Billy Leeper Dick Lovell-Butt Albert Barbey	Panhard X88
65	S 750	53	Franco-Brittanique	Georges Trouis Jeff Sparrowe	DB HBR

Class winner

class	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
S 5.0	no participant in the finish
S 3.0	Stirling Moss	John Fitch	Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR	Overall victory
S 2.0	André Loëns	Joakim Bonnier	Maserati A6GCS	Rank 18
S 1.5	Carroll Shelby	Masts Gregory	Porsche 550 Spyder	Rank 9
S 1.1	Mike MacDowel	Ivor Bueb	Cooper T39	Rank 11
S 750	Paul Armagnac	Gérard Laureau	DB HBR	Rank 17

Racing data

• Registered: 65
• Started: 40
• Valued: 27
• Race classes: 6
• Spectator: unknown
• Race day weather: warm, rain in the second half of the race
• Route length: 11.935 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 7:03: 11,000 hours
• Total laps of the winning team: 84
• Total distance of the winning team: 1002.518 km
• Winner's average: 142.139 km / h
• Pole position: none
• Fastest race lap: Mike Hawthorn - Jaguar D-Type (# 1) - 4: 42,000 = 152.358 km / h
• Racing series: 5th round of the 1955 World Sports Car Championship

literature

• Alain Bienvenu: Endurance. 50 ans d'histoire. Volume 1: 1953-1964. Éditions ETAI, Boulogne-Billancourt 2004, ISBN 2-7268-9327-9 .
• Peter Higham: The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing. A complete Reference from Formula 1 to Touring Car. Guinness Publishing Ltd., London 1995, ISBN 0-85112-642-1 .

Web links

• Results and data for racing sports cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ On the deaths of Bill Smith and Jim Mayers
2. ↑ On the death of Richard Mainwaring

Previous race of the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1955

Sports car world championship

Succession race Targa Florio 1955