1959 World Sportscar Championship

The 1959 World Sportscar Championship was the seventh FIA World Sportscar Championship. It was a series for sportscars that ran in many worldwide endurance events. It ran from 21 March 1959 to 5 September 1959, and comprised five races, following the 1000 km Buenos Aires being removed from the calendar, although the race did return in 1960.

1959 World Sportscar Championship
Previous: 1958 Next: 1960

The championship was won by Aston Martin.

Season
Aston Martin won the championship with its DBR1/300 model (similar to the 1957 DBR1 pictured above)
Ferrari placed second with the 250 TR (pictured) and 250 GT models
Porsche placed third with its 718 RSK
Maserati placed fourth with its Maserati A6GCS

The championship comprised five qualifying rounds; the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Targa Florio run over 1000 km, the Nürburgring 1000 km, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the RAC Tourist Trophy run over 6 hours.[1]

At the Sebring 12 Hours in Florida, the Scuderia Ferrari scored a 1-2 with Porsche filling the next three places. Aston Martin sent a single DBR1, as a favour to the organisers, in the hands of Salvadori and Shelby but it retired early in the race. Porsche dominated the Targa Florio [2] winning with the little Porsche 718 RSK whilst 2-3-4 places were filled by other Porsche models. Meanwhile, the works Ferraris all retired. Aston Martin missed the event as back in England, David Brown of Aston Martin had initially ruled against a World Championship challenge, on financial grounds. But, Stirling Moss wangled one DBR1/300 works car to win the Nürburgring 1000 km,[3] with Jack Fairman beating the Hill/Gendebien Ferrari by over 40 seconds with the best placed Porsche in fourth. At Le Mans, the Astons of Roy Salvadori/Carroll Shelby and Maurice Trintignant/Paul Frère finished one-two!.[4] The works Ferrari Testa Rossas all retired as did the works Porsches leaving privately entered Ferrari 250GTs to complete the minor placings. So David Brown’s company simply had to field a full three-car team in what had become the title-deciding race, the RAC Tourist Trophy. Despite setting fire to their race leading car during a schedule refuelling stop, the sister car of Shelby/Fairman/Moss took victory and saw Aston Martin become the first British manufacturer ever to win the FIA World Sportscar Championship.[5]

Season results

Results
Date Round Event Circuit or Location Winning driver Winning team Winning car Results
1 March 3 12-Hour Florida International Grand Prix of Endurance for the Amoco Trophy Sebring International Raceway Dan Gurney
Chuck Daigh
Phil Hill
Olivier Gendebien		 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 250 TR 59 Results
2 May 24 43° Targa Florio Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie Edgar Barth
Wolfgang Seidel		 Porsche KG Porsche 718 RSK Results
3 June 7 ADAC 1000 Kilometre Rennen Nürburgring Nürburgring Stirling Moss
Jack Fairman		 David Brown Aston Martin DBR1/300 Results
4 June 20-21 24 Heures du Mans Circuit de la Sarthe Roy Salvadori
Carroll Shelby		 David Brown Aston Martin DBR1/300 Results
5 September 9 News of the World sponsor the 24th R.A.C. Tourist Trophy Goodwood Circuit Carroll Shelby
Jack Fairman
Stirling Moss		 David Brown Aston Martin DBR1/300 Results

Championship

Note:

  • Championship points were awarded for the first six places in each race in the order of 8-6-4-3-2-1.[6]
  • Manufacturers were awarded points only for their highest finishing car with no points awarded for positions filled by additional cars.[6]
    •
  • Only the best 3 results out of the 5 races could be retained by each manufacturer.[7] Points earned but not counted towards the championship totals are listed within brackets in the table below.
Pos Manufacturer Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Rd 5 Total
1 Aston Martin 8 8 8 24
2† Ferrari 8 6 4 (4) 18 (22)
3† Porsche 4 8 (3) 6 18 (21)
4 Maserati 2 2
5= Alfa Romeo 1 1
5= Lola 1 1

† - Ferrari declared second due to having the same number of wins, one, and second places, one, as Porsche but 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.

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References
  1. www.racingsportscars.com
  2. www.targaflorio.info
  3. Stirling Moss, “Stirling Moss: All My Races" (Haynes Publishing, ISBN 978-1 84425 700 3, 2009)
  4. Carroll Shelby Looks Back at 1959 Le Mans Victory, June 12, 2009, sportscardigest.com
  5. Peter Swinger, “Motor Racing Circuits in England" (Ian Allan Publishing, ISBN 978 0 7110 3104 3, 2005)
  6. Peter Higham, The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing, 1995, page 260
  7. Peter Higham, The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing, 1995, page 267
  8. www.classicscars.com Retrieved 6 April 2018
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