Dundrod 1955

One of the outstanding drives of that 1955 Tourist Trophy Race was by Peter Collins who's Aston Martin DB3.S was left at the start due to a seized starter motor, the mechanics having to lift the bonnet and by- pass the solonoid to get the engine started. A furious Collins then set off after the other 48 cars and after what must have been an astonishing first lap climbed to 14th position!. Presumably the cars he overtook would have included 'that' Mercedes?. By lap 31 Collins had overtaken Fangio into third position before handing the car over to Tony Brooks who only completed a couple of laps before the Aston's engine finally cried enough. Perhaps if you were angry and determined enough, overtaking at Dundrod wasnt such a problem. Getting back to the controversial 300SL, I recall that contemporary race reports commented on its drivers inexperience and most people drew their own conclusions about the events which led to the crash.

A study of the lap times in practice shows that de Barry's fastest lap was 6.11 secs, a 750cc DB Panhard lapped in 6.09 secs!

The cars involved in the accident recorded ; Smith, Connaught 5.12 secs, Macklin Austin Healey,
5.04 secs. Mayers, Cooper 5.42 secs.

Clearly the cars behind de Barry were all a lot faster than the Mercedes, and would have caught him fairly easily.

The results show de Barry was disqualified for 'poor driving' on lap 39 0f 84.

Eric, Pete lapped in 4.55 secs.

Mike's Fastest lap in the race was 4.42 secs.

Corrected post.

Originally posted by Bauble
A study of the lap times in the race shows that de Barry's fastest lap was 6.11 secs, a 750cc DB Panhard lapped in 6.09 secs!

The cars involved in the accident only recorded one lap; Smith, Connaught 5.12 secs, Macklin Austin Healey,
5.04 secs. Mayers, Cooper 5.42 secs.

Clearly the cars behind de Barry were all a lot faster than the Mercedes, and would have caught him fairly easily.

The results show de Barry was disqualified for 'poor driving' on lap 39 0f 84.

Eric, Pete lapped in 4.55 secs. Mike's Fastest lap was 4.42 secs.

Indeed, but then Mike had a D Type!...Even so, Peter's fastest lap was actually 4.45 on lap 30 on which he passed Von Trips 300SLR....The Aston was timed at 142.1 mph through the flying kilkometre compared to 148.5 for Mike's D Type and 147.7 for the winning 300SLR of Moss and Fitch.

Sorry Old Chap,
No intention to under estimate Peter who was as good as anybody at his best, if he and Mike had taken racing as seriously as Stirling, they could both have had even more illustrious careers. Like most of the 'top men' in those days they were equally at home in sports cars and single seaters, it is difficult to imagine some of today's 'aces' driving without seat belts, fire proof suits and asbestos underwear around Dundrod in a flimsy sports racer.

Surely, though the DB3 should have been pretty well suited to the circuit, perhaps more than a D-Type?

For me the 1955 TT at Dundrod was one of the all time great races.

One should not forget Desmond Titterington shared the D Type with Hawthorn and set many of the quickest laps especially in the wet conditions. Local opinion in the timekeeper's box was if Desmond had stayed in the car the Jaguar would have won. Both Ugolini and Neubauer were well impressed by young Desmond. But are we getting away from the original thread I wonder?
SS

Quite correct. Desmond was quicker and we talked a lot about that race. He told me he had tried to persuade Lofty England to let him out in the car as he honestly felt that Mike was still suffering from the trauma of the Le Mans disaster and was not at his best. Desmond was certainly a well under-rated driver.

Originally posted by Bauble
For me the 1955 TT at Dundrod was one of the all time great races.

It warms the cockles of my heart to see this: I have wondered for some time if I am the only person in this forum remotely interested in the Dundrod TTs, and if I was simply boring fellow members every time I mentioned them!

Peter Sainty has kindly let me have copies of the UAC bulletins and press cuttings that he gathered while preparing his memoire on Bill Smith (which little booklet, available for download at www.lulu.com for no more than the price of a small glass of the house red in a modest restaurant, I thoroughly recommend to anyone interested in British sports car racing of the fifties) and these provide clues to answers to many questions here discussed.

I and others asked if de Barry ever accepted responsibility for causing the accident and Doug tells us that he was drummed out of the Brownies in the manner with which such things were dealt in those days. That he was aware that he was being blamed appears indisputable from one of Peter’s newspaper cuttings that records de Barry at the time made strenuous efforts to ‘clear his name’.

‘It is a lie to say that I was blocking the road – I left the road clear’ he is quoted as saying. ‘When I heard the allegation that I might have caused the crash I was so furious that I immediately went to the stars of the race to get their opinions.’

The report then quotes from four ‘certificates’ signed by, respectively, Moss, Fangio, Hawthorn and Kling. Moss is quoted as declaring: ‘I would like to say that… I passed Baron de Barry quite a few times and in each case he did not baulk me in any way.’ Fangio and Hawthorn are quoted as signing similarly worded (suspiciously similarly worded?) ‘certificates’. Kling goes further: ‘Baron de Barry… always drove in the most correct manner.’

One might wonder why three of the best (if not the three best) drivers in the world would lend their names to such an enterprise. Presumably, as Doug suggests, it was the ethos of the time: a united outward face in the interests of the sport and a belief that if there was dirty linen to be washed it were better washed in private. In the context of the race and the crash the Daily Express quoted Moss as saying there was an unanswerable case for eliminating inexperienced drivers, but without naming names. ‘I would rather race wheel-to-wheel with Fangio or Hawthorn than try to pass some of the drivers who were on the course.’ This of course was a common complaint from top drivers not only about the TT but many other such races of the time, Le Mans and the Mille Miglia not the least. This thread has noted how easy it was for more or less anyone with a sporty car to get an International Competition licence.

Elsewhere in the press, the crash prompted some fairly predictable – and wildly opposing – reactions. Several reports praised the organisers for instituting spectator-free restricted areas, including the area where the crash occurred; clear evidence not only of the legacy of Le Mans (barely three months earlier) but tacit acceptance that in motor races cars crashed. The Daily Sketch, on the other hand, opined: ‘It should have been enough to sicken the most shallow or morbid-minded spectator… The man who drives a racing car in conditions of competition on ordinary roads is taking a bigger risk than the men of the bomb disposal squads during the war. The risk is inexcusable.’ The ready reference to ‘the war’ is telling, is it not?

The three deaths always now seem to dominate every historian’s view of the race, perhaps unsurprisingly given their long-term outcome. I have always felt that the UAC, ‘old farts’ that they may well have been, what are called in another sport ‘the blazerati’, have been somewhat unjustly pilloried (I have even read somewhere that it was, quite simply, ‘their fault’) as being responsible for the accident, both through the starting line-up order and for admitting de Barry. But is it not the case that there was no real precedent, for a race such as this, for any other method of ordering the starting line-up? No one here has offered an example of contemporary organisers doing it differently, and some have pointed out the reasons for persevering with such a method. That it led directly to the circumstances – bunched together cars trying to get past each other at racing speeds on narrow roads bounded by unforgiving earth banks complete with stone gate posts – is not in dispute. That the organisers should somehow have known it would lead to an accident and thus changed the starting conventions of the era is, to my mind, confusing the gift of foresight with the wisdom of hindsight.

Similarly with de Barry. We can all see now, plain as a pike-staff, that the man should not have been allowed on circuit. But at the time, before the events of that day, was there evidence to flag-up such a view and action? I suppose the practice times might and could have alerted the organisers that there was an anomaly, though as David McKinney has pointed out de Barry came to Dundrod with evident credentials. Motor Sport later described him as a ‘nonentity in a production car lined up ahead of Moss and Fangio’ – but that, again, was after the event and when the English-centric British motoring press had already got it in, in a big way, for the organisers over their gratuitously insulting behaviour towards Archie Scott-Brown.

I organise and run yacht races for a living and know that there are times when I look at something before a start and think to myself ‘I hope this isn’t going to go to hell in a hand-cart – but it’s too late to change things now’. Mercifully for all concerned the stakes for which I and my competitors play are considerably lower than for those who organised and competed in motor sport in the Fifties, but I can imagine that if anyone in the UAC had looked at de Barry’s practice times and the starting order and begun to put two and two together, that would have been the reaction. Unmercifully for them, Jim Mayers and Bill Smith it did go to hell in a handcart. It might be tempting, now, to say that black flagging de Barry was not merely too little too late but an unequivocal confirmation that they realised they had made a mistake in letting him out there in the first place. If that is the case, at least they did it.

Like all accidents, this one was the end of a chain of linked circumstances of which had any one of them not been present it would not have happened. To label the organisers, or even de Barry, as being solely responsible is to ignore all the other factors that were in play.

At the risk of repeating myself, the final outcome was not just the deaths of three more drivers in what was an already very bad year for motor racing, but the death of real road racing for motor cars (pace the Birmingham Grand Prix and other exhibition events since) in the United Kingdom.

My apologies for such a long post: my thanks to anyone who has persevered this far.

A good post, thanks Malcolm. It's too often the easiest way out to blame the "blazeratis" for anything going wrong (in fact, it's standard behaviour amongst racing people, especially fans), but those are the true enthusiasts, cornerstones of the sport. Without "blazeratis", no racing - it's that simple.

Thanks Michael : I can now wear my blazer with pride !!!!!!!!!!!!

Mal,
Don't worry about the length of your post it was all relevant, and well reasoned, summing up the way things were back then. While three the deaths attracted a lot of adverse publicity it is almost certain that if had just been Richard Mainwaring who died it would have passed almost un-noticed in the Dailies, it was only the nature of the Mayers/Smith accident that lent it such notoriety and much bad publicity. To the enthusiast who followed the sport closely it was the tragic end of young Bill Smith that really hit home, that is not to suggest that the deaths of Richard and Jim were any less awful, just that Bill had such promise.
Accidents, fatal or otherwise, were commonplace in the era, and accepted as part of the sport. It did not make one callous, I still recall with great sadness so many of my heroes and remember them in my prayers, but as every entry ticket said 'Motor Racing is Dangerous'.
I was at Le Mans that year and witnessed the Levegh accident, I was in the Tribune Guy Bouriot directly opposite the Jaguar pit, amongst the drivers only the brave Pierre died, if that had been the only fatality it would hardly have caused a stir, but with 55 spectators dead and many injured it became a tradgedy that would reverberate around the world and change the face of the sport for ever. Dundrod 1955 merely added to the clamour for change.

While it is good that driver safety is paramount today, it has changed the nature of the sport for without the element of danger drivers are no longer 'heroes' merely 'superstars'.

One might admire Lewis Hamilton, but one loved Mike Hawthorn.

I do think it is worth mentioning the race was the 22nd R.A.C. International Tourist Trophy Race, promoted by the Ulster Automobile Club. It is important historically to note Earl Howe was one of the Stewards of the meeting and Dean Delamont was a Judge so experience was not in short supply. Gordon Neill who was Clerk of the Course and Secretary of the meeting must have gone through hell with the events of the day and the subsequent inquests. One final thought did de Barry speak or understand English, did he need to? The UAC had actually 3 interpreters listed in the race programme but did not specify which languages they spoke.
As an aside my late mother who was a timekeeper had her race programme signed by Caracciola, have it in front of me.
SS

Malcolm's mention of yacht racing brings to mind the Fastnet Race of 1979 described in this BBC feature. In summary a storm blew up unexpectedly leading to chaos and fifteen deaths. At the time the organising club was heavily criticised but was found not to blame by the enquiry. However they did make safety-related changes and the race is still being run.
At Dundrod the main change necessary, namely to widen the roads, was not possible and the rest we know.

Originally posted by David McKinney

He can't have been too incompetent, at least not in 1951 when, at the wheel of the Scuderia Bavaria Simca-Gordini, he was second in the German 1500 sportscar championship, and won his class in the Coupe du Salon at Montlhéry

David,

Are we sure this is the same man? Some sources quote him as "Baron Eberhard de Barry (German)", not "Vicomte Henri de Barry (French)" which is the description of the Dundrod man. Curious, though, that they are (or were before Henri got promoted to Vicomte) both Barons and perhaps even curiouser that an apparent German has a very French-sounding name!

I wasn't going to mention this but perhaps there is reason to do so now. George Phillips, the 'Autosport' photographer, was at Tornagrough Corner when Richard Mainwaring clipped the bank and rolled his Elva, which then caught fire. George told how initially they could all hear the trapped driver calling "I'm all right, I'm all right, get me out, get me out..." - but fire fighting and attempts to grapple the car and turn it onto its side (which would NOT have taken much doing given the spartan Elva's weight) were all totally ineffective. George - and no doubt others present at the scene - were pretty deeply traumatised by what followed. I have to say I have always been surprised that rugged old George didn't pitch in to help galvanise rescue attempts. But fire fighting in particular was utterly pathetic, even with professional and uniformed firemen on the scene. And another young man died. The sport accepted it at the time. He knew the risks. That was the attitude - and so where's next weekend's race? Even after many years, however, George still remembered the grasping hand...

DCN

PS - The duty to refuse entries to the inexperienced, the incapable, the incompetent and the irresponsible remains a consideration for present-day organisers. It is a duty which some choose to ignore - for reasons both good and bad.

The inquest reports (to which Mal referred earlier) gave details of conflicting accounts of Richard Mainwaring's state immediately after the acident: "a witness" (and perhaps this was George?) stated that he heard him call out three times, but a doctor who claimed to be on the scene within 30 secs stated categorically that nothing of the sort occurred, and that the driver died instantly when the car overturned. Perhaps needless to say, the Coroner preferred to accept the testimony of a fellow-medico and brought in a verdict of accidental death (or to be absolutely accurate, instructed the jury to do so!).

Like Doug, I've always been amazed that nobody seemed able to rescue Mainwaring. The films seem to show a number of spectators in the area, and it wouldn't have taken more than one or two to right the car. But perhaps, given that there were still a number of cars hammering down the road, they were held back by the Stewards who feared a complete bloodbath, and remembered the Le Mans spectators. If so, one can't altogether blame them - that really would have had the Press howling for the organisers' heads.

Bernard Cahier was another photograper witness to the Richard Mainwaring accident and he recounts the sad tale - and publishes the photographs - in his biography. According to Bernard he was narrowly missed by the Elva as it lost control and crash down the road from him. One slight point has mystified however. The Cahier photographs suggest the accident happenned on a slight right handed corner, yet clearly Tornagrough was left handed. Perhaps it happenned not at Tonagrough itself but at some point between that corner and the following hairpin?

Just a thought regarding deBarry. It was reasonably common for European aristocracy to have titles in different countries, presumably through intermarriage. He may even have been connected to the Irish de Barry, Barry, Barrymore families. Can't remember the titles now but I think the entrant for the Merc sounded French, that for the Gordini German. (just seen it Scuderia Bavaria)

Regarding the Mainwaring crash, a verdict that he died instantly would presumably have been useful to a lot of people. Particularly to the race organisers if the standard of help available was seen to be inadequate.

Up to a few years ago, when some re-alignment was carried out, Tornagrough was, in effect, a three-part corner.

After the first, left-hand part, a bank stuck out from the right which necessitated a "lean right" (in bike terms) past it, in order to take the correct line for the ensuing long, constant-radius left-hander leading to the straight down to the hairpin.

I have always believed that Mainwaring eased to the right a foot or two early and clipped the protruding bank, which might explain the story told by Bernard Cahier's photos.

This I think would have put him on top of the bank on the left of the road, although I have never seen any photos.

The protrusion from the right has now long gone, and the corner is now a long left-hander, pure and simple (as it were!!)

While browsing through my old scrap book from the early 1950's I came across a cutting from the Daily Express, (1952?) which carried quite a lot of motor racing news in those days and it said;

"........ RAC officials were today still without news of the missing Baron de Barry, the Bavarian driver who had entered in a Gordini Simca. He is now regarded as a non starter."

Having been reading this thread for a while I decided after some some thought to take my copy of the Shell dvd along to show it to my mate John Young. John, of course, was Bill Smith's co driver in the Connaught that fateful weekend. I had taken care to warn J Y of the content but not discussed it in any other way with him prior to viewing.

John said that he had driven the car during damp practise and found the circuit pretty 'hairy'. He believed that Bill Smith as well as being a super young man was destined for great things in motor sport.

It is clear on watching the film that du Barry's Mercedes had a huge crocodile of faster cars and/or drivers behind and John was resolute in his belief that it was this that caused the accident.

Picking up on comments made by others John was given the task of not only organising the collection of the wreckage but passing on the sad news to Bill Smith's parents. He was also told the best thing to do was to join in the post race celebrations and get roaring drunk. As has been said 'different times' indeed.

There are few survivors of this remarkable race, John keeps in regular touch with Noddy and has been extremely close to the man they all call simply 'Salvadori' who, sadly, is pretty poorly these days. Joppy was another member of their group who was in that race and is sadly missed.

Brave men, all.

I revive this thread because I suspect that there may be many who posted on it or who read it with interest who, like me, had until it began little real knowledge of Bill Smith or even what he looked like – and indeed what the Connaught looked like, for I believe this particular car was a one-off and has never, hardly surprisingly, been re-built or re-created.

Peter Sainty kindly sent me this picture, scanned from an old Road & Track, and taken by Bernard Cahier whose son, who now runs the Cahier archive, has kindly given permission to post it here.



It is quite remarkable – a very clear shot of Bill Smith, and the car. I wonder what might have been the occasion? Was it, perhaps, taken on a practice day, with the cars waiting to be released? If on race day, how come they are arranged as they are? That is the DKW that Bill was originally slated to drive alongside the Connaught (as Peter asks, ‘coincidence, or deliberate’). That looks like Bueb’s Cooper behind the Connaught, and a DB3s behind that. What is the curious car parked diagonally behind the DKW: it’s odd-shape front wing suggests Mainwaring’s Elva. Is that Mainwaring wearing the Hawthornesque helmet and visor?

And why were the cars lined-up in such a fashion? I do not recall any sort of warm-up lap (a 7.2 mile warm-up lap!). Some of the cars appear to be at their pit, parked as for as Le Mans start. Others, such as those in the foreground, are clearly not. The stand appears fairly empty, which might suggest a practice day – but the pit front area is positively crowded.

Many thanks to the Cahier Archive for permission to post the fascinating picture.

Edited by Mal9444, 05 May 2009 - 16:28.

How like the aerodynamic F.1 car that Connaught looks!

And (OT, but relevant to the NACA duct thread) further clear proof that Connaught were using NACA ducts before Costin on the Vanwall.

I hope to submit some photographs taken from the de Barry pit at Dundrod 1955

I revive this thread because I suspect that there may be many who posted on it or who read it with interest who, like me, had until it began little real knowledge of Bill Smith or even what he looked like – and indeed what the Connaught looked like, for I believe this particular car was a one-off and has never, hardly surprisingly, been re-built or re-created.

Peter Sainty kindly sent me this picture, scanned from an old Road & Track, and taken by Bernard Cahier whose son, who now runs the Cahier archive, has kindly given permission to post it here.



It is quite remarkable – a very clear shot of Bill Smith, and the car. I wonder what might have been the occasion? Was it, perhaps, taken on a practice day, with the cars waiting to be released? If on race day, how come they are arranged as they are? That is the DKW that Bill was originally slated to drive alongside the Connaught (as Peter asks, ‘coincidence, or deliberate’). That looks like Bueb’s Cooper behind the Connaught, and a DB3s behind that. What is the curious car parked diagonally behind the DKW: it’s odd-shape front wing suggests Mainwaring’s Elva. Is that Mainwaring wearing the Hawthornesque helmet and visor?

And why were the cars lined-up in such a fashion? I do not recall any sort of warm-up lap (a 7.2 mile warm-up lap!). Some of the cars appear to be at their pit, parked as for as Le Mans start. Others, such as those in the foreground, are clearly not. The stand appears fairly empty, which might suggest a practice day – but the pit front area is positively crowded.

Many thanks to the Cahier Archive for permission to post the fascinating picture.

Looks to me as though it was taken on race day morning, some cars lined up for the start, others being shuffled around for various reasons. Will be interesting to see if Detritus can come up with more info. on deBarry.

My pictures were scanned and uploaded to fotopic today.

I would welcome any comments or discussion.

Link below.

click here

I love the improvised number plate on the Glockler/Seidel Porsche. Original fell off or did they fancy doing some impromptu public road testing and realized their weight saving efforts had gone too far?

I love the improvised number plate on the Glockler/Seidel Porsche. Original fell off or did they fancy doing some impromptu public road testing and realized their weight saving efforts had gone too far?

Does anyone have any more information on this car? I ask because sometime ago I bought a 1/43rd scale of what may have been this Porsche, but numbered for a different race. I did not think the car had been at Dundrod - so, for my little Dundrod collection, carefully stripped off the decals and paint (including the dark - I beieve red - flashes on the rear wings), re-painted and re-numbered it (to 30) to represent von Frankenberg's Porsche (and accepting that the rear wings of the latter were not so finned). Now it looks as if I could have saved myself quite a lot of bother. The car was at Dundrod anyway!

IIRC correctly it was called a Porshce Pan-America?

Evocative pictures, all - thanks.

My pictures were scanned and uploaded to fotopic today.

I would welcome any comments or discussion.

Link below.

click here

Thanks very much detritus. Even though I was around in 1955 this is all like fantasy to me. Your photos help prove it isn't.

Does anyone have any more information on this car? I ask because sometime ago I bought a 1/43rd scale of what may have been this Porsche, but numbered for a different race. I did not think the car had been at Dundrod - so, for my little Dundrod collection, carefully stripped off the decals and paint (including the dark - I beieve red - flashes on the rear wings), re-painted and re-numbered it (to 30) to represent von Frankenberg's Porsche (and accepting that the rear wings of the latter were not so finned). Now it looks as if I could have saved myself quite a lot of bother. The car was at Dundrod anyway!

IIRC correctly it was called a Porshce Pan-America?

Evocative pictures, all - thanks.

Each works Porsche entrant had different coloured flashes on the rear wings and from memory the colours were red green and blue respectively. All were good solid shades which could be discerned at reasonable distance and the red was fairly near to pillar box red but not just so bright.

I hope this helps.

Each works Porsche entrant had different coloured flashes on the rear wings and from memory the colours were red green and blue respectively. All were good solid shades which could be discerned at reasonable distance and the red was fairly near to pillar box red but not just so bright.

I hope this helps.

Thanks. At the risk of appearing (even more of) an anorak: I don't suppose you would know (or know of a way I could find out) which driver pairing had which colour?

Clearly I should not have cleaned off the flashes: I was misled by the b/w footage in the Shell/ BP film. Von Frackenberg's car (no 30) appears in that to have been plain silver all over.

May I repeat that some 26 minutes of outstanding colour movie footage from the race is available in Motorfilms Quarterly, Volume 12.

See here:

http://www.motorfilm...deos.php?id=106

DCN

May I repeat that some 26 minutes of outstanding colour movie footage from the race is available in Motorfilms Quarterly, Volume 12.

See here:

http://www.motorfilm...deos.php?id=106

DCN

I have just watched my copy of the above and will try to sort the colours per car thing.
One thing that i did notice was that a works Porsche appeared to be without coloured rear flashes.
Study continues!

May I repeat that some 26 minutes of outstanding colour movie footage from the race is available in Motorfilms Quarterly, Volume 12.

See here:

http://www.motorfilm...deos.php?id=106

DCN

And wonderful footage it is too. I loaned my copy to a pal a while back and he's still got it, otherwise I too would be now reviewing it. No names, no pack drill...

However, IIRC, that footage (and have I mentioned the brilliant commentary?) does not show coloured flashes on the Porches that feature.

Came across this interesting footage while searching for something else. Revive the post solely to entertain any others who, like me, are suckers for any moving images from this era and of these cars. Some fairly glaring liberties with the chronology have been taken in the editing of the footage (Hawthorn in the pits after about two laps, the rear bodywork of the Moss 300slr immaculately restored just in time for the finish) - but even so: nice pics. The 'it's-all-in-a-day's-work' attitude to the deaths of three drivers, remarked earlier in this thread, is starkly evident.

http://www.britishpa...rd.php?id=39722

In order to correct a persistent error:

The correct spelling is not Mainwaring but Manwaring.

Richard Laurence Manwaring, called "Dick", was born on 24 September 1930 in Maidstone, Kent.

He was exactly one week shy of his 25th birthday when he crashed fatally.

I have just finished reading Jack Barlow's book on Lance Macklin. It is quickly clear that Barlow knows nothing of motor racing and there are numerous errors in it (eg the 1948 Brighton Int. Hillclimb was, according to Barlow, held "on the main road between Brighton and the small town of Lewes" which must have been a surprise to the Southdown bus drivers!)

 

So, I wondered if this statement is true, as I don't recall hearing it before.

"He [de Barry] furiously set about trying to clear his name, quickly getting signed statements from Hawthorn, Moss and Mercedes driver Karl Kling  to the effect that they hadn't seen anything wrong with his driving. Everyone knew better however. In all likelihood the statements were less about defending De Barry's driving skill and more about the drivers maintaining a united front, as they had at Le Mans"

I stumbled upon this rather old posting, to which I contributed, but notice that I did not explain a moot point regarding Count du Barry and his Mercedes Benz being lined so far up line  for the  Le Mans Start when he was so inexperienced

 

For the sake of historical record the reason was simple :  the cars were lined up in order of cubic capacity and not by practice times .

 

Also I knew Bill Smith very well and just before the TT he had signed a contract not only to race for Ecurie Ecosse in their D type Jaguars for 1956 but also Lofty England had signed him for the Jaguar line up for 1956. Bill was very modest and not only raced an Ecurie Ecosse D type Jaguar at Crimond circuit in Aberdeenshire in 1955 but his father had bought one of the Ex-Ecurie Ecosse C type Jaguars that Bill had raced at Dundrod in the Ulster Trophy race in 1955. .