1953 RAC Tourist Trophy

The 1953 RAC Tourist Trophy was a motor race for sports cars, held on 5 September 1953 at the Dundrod Circuit in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was the sixth round of the 1953 World Sportscar Championship, held just six days after the previous round, the 1000km of Nürburgring. The race was the 20th running of the RAC Tourist Trophy.

The race was won by Peter Collins and Pat Griffith, driving an Aston Martin DB3S.

Dundrod Circuit

Background

The race took place on Saturday 5 September, with Practice taking place on the Thursday and Friday before the race. The race distance was set at 111 laps with two drivers taking part for each entrant, with each driver being required to drive at least a third of the car's eventual distance in the event in order to be classified. The overall winner of the event would receive the Tourist Trophy and £500 (equivalent to £17,634 in 2023). In each class, first place would receive £200 (equivalent to £7,054 in 2023) and second place would receive £100 (equivalent to £3,527 in 2023).^[1][2]

Report

The race was won by an Aston Martin DB3S, similar to the car pictured

Entry

The event's entrants list should have been closed on 15 August, but due to a strike in France, the entry list couldn't be closed until 24 August.^[3] A total of 45 cars were initially registered for the event on 24 August.^[4] However, many teams decided to withdraw their registrations. These included the private Jaguar entrants of J. B. Swift and T. H. Wisdom,^[5] the Porsche's due to recent crashes in races at the weekend before the event.^[6] The Italian Stanguellini cars were withdrawn,^[7] potentially due to a shortage of cars due to recent crashes.^[3] Only 28 entrants arrived for practice and qualifying. None of the leading works teams made the trip across to Northern Ireland from mainland Europe. However, from England, the two works teams of Jaguar Cars Ltd. and Aston Martin took part. 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 IIs and Kieft-Bristols.^[8]

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 four results out of the seven 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

Although World Championship points were awarded based on scratch order, this race was run as a handicap race. The race was run over 111 laps, but no cars started from scratch: the largest cars, the Jaguars, had a handicap of 4 laps and 5 minutes, 11.21 seconds. The race would end once any car completed 111 handicap laps.^[9]

Conditions of the race were foggy. Despite this, Aston Martin would finish in first and second places, both cars on the same lap. Car number 20, driven by Collins and Griffith took an impressive victory, winning in a time of 9hrs 37:12 mins., averaging a speed of 81.715 mph. Second place went to Parnell and Thompson, in their DB3S, just 3:23 minutes behind. The podium was completed by the winner of the two previous Tourist Trophy races held at Dundrod, Moss, aided by his co-driver, Walker, in their Jaguar C-Type.^[10][11][12]

Scratch 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, 103
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	Ecurie 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	M. Pousse[13]	Jeff Sparrowe	Ecurie Jendy Bonnet	Panhard Dyna Junior[14]	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

^{[11][15][14][16]}

• Fastest Lap: Peter Walker, 5:01.000secs (89.213 mph) ^[15]

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

^[10]

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. "Regulations for Tourist Trophy race in Ulster". Larne Times. 9 July 1953. p. 5. Retrieved 25 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
2. UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
3. "Entry list for Dundrod T.T closes to-day". Northern Whig. 24 August 1953. p. 6. Retrieved 25 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
4. "Entries include four teams from continent". Northern Whig. 25 August 1953. p. 6. Retrieved 25 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
5. "French team's plans for the Dundrod T.T.". Belfast Telegraph. 28 August 1953. p. 7. Retrieved 25 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
6. "German cars out of Tourist Trophy race". Belfast Telegraph. 1 September 1953. p. 1. Retrieved 25 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
7. "Stanguellinis out of T.T race". Northern Whig. 3 September 1953. p. 5. Retrieved 25 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
8. "Tourist Trophy 1953 - Entry List". Racing Sports Cars. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
9. Hough, Richard (1957). Tourist Trophy: The History of Britain's Greatest Motor Race. pp. 219–224.
10. "Tourist Trophy 1953". Racing Sports Cars. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
11. "1953 Tourist Trophy". Teamdan.com. 1953-09-05. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
12. "SPAM protection / Ochrana proti SPAMu". Wsrp.ic.cz. Archived from the original on 2014-08-09. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
13. "15-minute wait earns 4th place for Moss". Northern Whig. 7 September 1953. p. 3. Retrieved 25 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
14. "Tourist Trophy 1953 - Race Results - Racing Sports Cars". www.racingsportscars.com. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
15. "SPAM protection / Ochrana proti SPAMu". Wsrp.ic.cz. Archived from the original on 2014-08-09. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
16. "Tourist Trophy". Ultimateracinghistory.com. 1953-09-05. Retrieved 2014-07-22.

World Sportscar Championship
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