1953 RAC Tourist Trophy

The 1953 RAC Tourist Trophy took place on 5 September, on the Dundrod, (County Antrim, Northern Ireland). It was also the sixth round of the F.I.A. World Sports Car Championship, held just six days after the previous round, 1000km of Nürburgring.

Report

Entry

A grand total 45 racing cars were registered for this event, of which only 28 arrived for practice and qualifying. Sadly none of the leading works team made the trip across to Northern Ireland from mainland Europe. However from England, the two work teams of Jaguar Cars Ltd. and Aston Martin. The team from Coventry arrived with three cars, Jaguar C-Types for the all British pairings of Tony Rolt/Duncan Hamilton, Stirling Moss/Peter Walker and Peter Whitehead/Ian Stewart. Aston Martin also brought along three of their DB3S, with Reg Parnell pairing up alongside Eric Thompson. Roy Salvadori/Dennis Poore and Peter Collins/Pat Griffith made up the crew of the other two Astons. Also from England came three works entered Frazer Nash Le Mans Mk II’s and Kieft-Bristols.^[1]

Going into this round, Ferrari were leading the Manufacturers Championship by just two points from Jaguar. With no representation in the race, Ferrari would be unable score any points, but due to the nature of the scoring system where only the best 4 results out of the 7 races could be retained by each manufacturer, Jaguar would need to finish at least second to score any points, with only one race remaining in the championship- the Carrera Panamericana in Mexico some 2 1/2 months away.

Race

The race was held over 106 laps of the 7.416 miles Dundrod Circuit, giving a distance of 823.166 miles. To make matter worse, the race was held in foggy conditions. Despite this, Aston Martin would finish in first and second places, both cars on the same lap. Car number 20, driven by Peter Collins and Pat Griffith took an impressive victory, winning in a time of 9hrs 37:12 mins., averaging a speed of 81.715mph. Second place went to Reg Parnell and Eric Thompson, in their DB3S, just 3:23 minutes behind. The podium was complete by the winner of the two previous Tourist Trophy races held Dundrod, Stirling Moss, aided by his co-driver, Peter Walker, in their Jaguar C-Type.^[2][3][4]

Official Classification

Class Winners are in Bold text.

Pos	No	Class	Driver		Entrant	Chassis	Laps	Reason Out
1st	20	S3.0	Peter Collins	Pat Griffith	Aston Martin	Aston Martin DB3S	9hr 37:12, 106
2nd	18	S3.0	Reg Parnell	Eric Thompson	Aston Martin	Aston Martin DB3S	9hr 40:35, 106
3rd	7	S5.0	Stirling Moss	Peter Walker	Jaguar Cars Ltd.	Jaguar C-Type	9hr 37:39, 106
4th	22	S3.0	Tony Gaze	Graham Whitehead	Graham Whitehead	Aston Martin DB3	102
5th	21	S3.0	Bob Dickson	Desmond Titterington	Bob Dickson	Aston Martin DB3	101
6th	25	S2.0	Ken Wharton	C. Ernie Robb	Frazer Nash Ltd.	Frazer Nash Le Mans MK II	101
7th	12	S5.0	Joe Kelly	Jack Fairman	Joe Kelly	Jaguar C-Type	98
8th	27	S2.0	Bob Gerard	David Clarke	Frazer Nash Ltd.	Frazer Nash Le Mans	95
9th	36	S1.5	Pierce Cahill	Redmond Gallagher	Redmond Gallagher	Gordini T15S	86
10th	40	S1.5	Peter Jackson	Peter Lane	Peter Jackson	Lester-MG T51	86
11th	28	S2.0	Rodney F. Peacock	Gerry Ruddock	Roy Peacock	Fraser Nash Le Mans	82
12th	44	S1.5	Raymond Flower	George Phillips	Gregor Grant	MG TD	81
13th	35	S1.5	Peter Reece	Gil Tyrer	Peter Reece	Singer SM1500	81
14th	49	S750	Georges Trouis	Alfred Hitchings	Ecuire Jendy Bonnet	D.B. HBR Panhard	74
DNF	33	S2.0	C. P. Hazelhurst	P. H. Thompson	Kieft Cars	Kieft-Bristol	62	Accident
DNF	50	S750	”Pousse”	Jeff Sparrowe	Ecuire Jendy Bonnet	D.B. HBR Panhard	59	DNF
DNF	8	S5.0	Peter Whitehead	Ian Stewart	Jaguar Cars Ltd.	Jaguar C-Type	51	Gearbox
DNF	34	S2.0	Ian Burgess	Austen Nurse	Kieft Cars	Kieft-Bristol	46	DNF
DNF	32	S2.0	John Fitch	Peter Wilson	Frazer Nash Ltd.	Fraser Nash Le Mans Replica Mk II	44	Lost Wheel
DNF	30	S2.0	Lawrence Mitchell	Peter Scott-Russell	Lawrence Mitchell	Fraser Nash High Speed	42	Accident
DNF	19	S3.0	Roy Salvadori	Dennis Poore	Aston Martin	Aston Martin DB3S	33	Accident
DNF	43	S1.5	Brian McCaldin	Charles Manusell	Brian McCaldin	MG TD	29	Bearings
DNF	41	S1.5	Ted Lund	William Robinson	Ted Lund	Jowett Jupiter	15	Suspension
DNF	32	S2.0	David J. Calvert	Richard Green	Kieft Cars	Kieft-Bristol	10	Accident
DNF	6	S5.0	Tony Rolt	Duncan Hamilton	Jaguar Cars Ltd.	Jaguar C-Type	5	Gearbox
DNF	39	S1.5	Horace Gould	I.D. Lewis	Horace Gould	Cooper-MG T21	2	Steering
DNF	14	S5.0	John Manussis	Gerry Dunham	Ecurie Kenya	Jaguar C-Type	1	Accident
DNS	17	S5.0	George Abecassis	Lance Macklin	H W Motors	HWM-Jaguar 108		Axel shaft

^[3][5][6][7]

• Fastest Lap: Peter Walker, 5:01.000secs (89.213 mph) ^[5]

Class Winners

Class	Winners
Class C – Sports 5000	7	Jaguar C-Type	Moss / Walker
Class D - Sports 3000	20	Aston Martin DB3S	Collins / Griffith
Class E – Sports 2000	25	Frazer Nash Le Mans Mk II	Wharton / Robb
Class F – Sports 1500	36	Gordini T15S	Cahill / Gallagher
Class H – Sports 750	49	D.B. HBR Panhard	Trouis / Hitchings

^[2]

Standings after the race

Pos	Championship	Points
1	Ferrari	26 (27)
2	Jaguar	24 (28)
3	Aston Martin	16
4	Cunningham	12
5	Alfa Romeo	6

• 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 only awarded points for their highest finishing car with no points awarded for positions filled by additional cars. Only the best 4 results out of the 7 races could be retained by each manufacturer. Points earned but not counted towards the championship totals are listed within brackets in the above table.

References

1. "Tourist Trophy 1953 - Entry List". Racing Sports Cars. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
2. "Tourist Trophy 1953". Racing Sports Cars. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
3. "1953 Tourist Trophy". Teamdan.com. 1953-09-05. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
4. "SPAM protection / Ochrana proti SPAMu". Wsrp.ic.cz. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
5. "SPAM protection / Ochrana proti SPAMu". Wsrp.ic.cz. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
6. http://www.racingsportscars.com/results/Dundrod-1953-05-09-2299.html
7. "Tourist Trophy". Ultimateracinghistory.com. 1953-09-05. Retrieved 2014-07-22.