1953 World Sportscar Championship

1953 World Sportscar Championship season
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The 1953 World Sportscar Championship season was the first season of FIA World Sportscar Championship motor racing. It featured the 1953 World Sports Car Championship ^[1] which was a seven race ^[1] international series for sports cars that ran from 8 March to 23 November 1953. The championship was won by Ferrari.^[1]

Season

Ferrari won the championship with its 340 MM (pictured) and 375 MM models

The 1953 World Sports Car Championship was contested over a seven race series. Now legendary and shockingly dangerous races such as the Mille Miglia and the Carrera Panamericana were part of an international race calendar, accompanied by the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 24 Hours of Spa, with the inaugural race being the 12 Hours of Sebring in the United States.

The Championship was for manufactures, and works teams such as Scuderia Ferrari, Lancia, Aston Martin and Jaguar lead the way, but the majority of the fields were made up of amateur or gentlemen drivers, often up against professional racing drivers with experience in Formula One. Sometimes, even the Drivers World Champion joined in.

Classes were split between closed cars (GT) and open cars (Sports), with further divisions due to engine displacement. Scuderia Ferrari were a dominant force in 1953, winning three races, a result of Enzo Ferrari’s determination to bring prestige to his marque.

Season results

Results

Round	Date	Event	Circuit or Location	Winning driver	Winning team	Winning car	Results
1	08/03	12 Hours of Sebring	Sebring International Raceway	Phil Walters John Fitch	Briggs Cunningham	Cunningham-Chrysler C4-R	Results
2	26/04	Mille Miglia	Brescia-Rome	Giannino Marzotto Marco Crosara	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 340 MM	Results
3	13/06 14/06	24 Hours of Le Mans	Circuit de la Sarthe	Tony Rolt Duncan Hamilton	Jaguar Cars Ltd.	Jaguar C-Type	Results
4	25/07 26/07	24 Hours de Spa	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps	Giuseppe Farina Mike Hawthorn	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375 MM	Results
5	30/08	ADAC 1000km Nürburgring	Nürburgring	Alberto Ascari Giuseppe Farina	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375 MM	Results
6	05/09	RAC Tourist Trophy	Dundrod	Peter Collins Pat Griffith	Aston Martin Ltd.	Aston Martin DB3S	Results
7	19/11 23/11	Carrera Panamericana	Tuxtla Gutiérrez-Ciudad Juárez	Juan Manuel Fangio Gino Bronzoni	Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D24	Results

Championship

Jaguar placed second with its C-Type

Aston Martin placed third with its DB3 (pictured) and DB3S models

Cunningham placed equal fourth with its C4-R (pictured) and C5-R models

Pos.	Manufacturer	Seb	MM	LM	Spa	Nur	TT	CP	Total
1	Ferrari	(1)	8	(2)	8	8		3	27 (30)
2	Jaguar	4		8	6	6	(4)		24 (28)
3	Aston Martin	6	2				8		16
4=	Lancia		4					8	12
4=	Cunningham	8		4					12
6	Alfa Romeo		6						6
7	Borgward					4			4
8=	D.B.				3				3
8=	Porsche					3			3
10=	O.S.C.A.	2							2
10=	Veritas					2			2
10=	Talbot							2	2
13=	Maserati		1						1
13=	Gordini			1					1
13=	Frazer Nash						1		1

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.

The cars

The following models contributed to the net championship point scores of their respective manufacturers.

References

1 2 3 World Sports Car Championship (Makes), 1974 FIA Yearbook of Automobile Sport, Grey section, page 122

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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