The 1960 World Sportscar Championship was the eighth FIA World Sportscar Championship. It was contested over a five race series commencing 31 January 1960 and ending 26 June 1960.

The championship was won by Ferrari.

Championship summary

The 1000 km Buenos Aires returned to the calendar at the expense of the RAC Tourist Trophy, which formed part of the inaugural FIA GT Cup.

Ferrari won the championship with its 250 TR 59/60 (pictured) & Dino 246 models
Winning Porsche 718 RS 60 at the Targa Florio on 8 May 1960, driven by Jo Bonnier. Photo: Louis Klemantaski.

The championship still comprised five qualifying rounds. They were the 1000 km Buenos Aires the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Targa Florio, the Nürburgring 1000 km, with the 24 Hours of Le Mans being the final round.[1]

With reigning champion, Aston Martin works cars not returning to defend their title, this left the door wide open for Scuderia Ferrari to reclaim the title. This wasn’t to be plain sailing as the nearest rivals turned out to be the smaller Porsches. The Italian manufacturer started stronger with Phil Hill and Cliff Allison taking the spoils in Argentina.[2] Next was the annual trip to Florida, for the 12 Hours of Sebring, however the factory Ferrari and Porsche were not present because of the rule change by the FIA, allowing the organisers to permit use of only certain brands of fuel,[3] As a result, the race was between privateers with works-backed drivers, with Porsche coming out on top.[2] The mid-way point of the championship, saw the cars return to Europe for the Targa Florio. The twisty mountains roads of Sicily favoured the more agile car, like the Porsche which duly took the victory.[2]

The championship then into moved into West Germany, the annual trip to the Nürburgring Nordschleife. To the surprise of everyone, the spoils went to an American team, Camoradi/USA Racing Team, whose Maserati was driven by Stirling Moss and Dan Gurney. This result meant, going into the final round, the only way Ferrari could stop Porsche winning the title was to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and that was exactly what they did.[2]

Schedule

Round Date Event Circuit or Location Winning drivers Winning team Winning car Results
1 January 31 Argentina 1000 km Buenos Aires Autódromo Municipal-Avenida Paz United States Phil Hill
United Kingdom Cliff Allison		 Italy Scuderia Ferrari Italy Ferrari 250 TR 59/60 Results
2 March 26 United States Sebring International Grand Prix of Endurance for the Amoco Trophy Sebring International Raceway West Germany Hans Herrmann
Belgium Olivier Gendebien		 Sweden Joakim Bonnier West Germany Porsche 718 RS 60 Results
3 May 8 Italy 44° Targa Florio Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie Sweden Jo Bonnier
West Germany Hans Herrmann		 West Germany Porsche KG West Germany Porsche 718 RS 60 Results
4 May 22 West Germany VI. Internationales ADAC 1000 Kilometer Rennen Nürburgring United Kingdom Stirling Moss
United States Dan Gurney		 United States Camoradi / USA Racing Team Italy Maserati Tipo 61 Results
5 June 25-26 France 24 Heures du Mans Circuit de la Sarthe Belgium Olivier Gendebien
Belgium Paul Frère		 Italy Scuderia Ferrari Italy Ferrari 250 TR 59/60 Results

Points system

  • Championship points were awarded to manufacturers for the first six places in each race in the order of 8-6-4-3-2-1.
  • Manufacturers were awarded points only for their highest finishing car with no points awarded for positions filled by additional cars.
  • Only the best three results out of the five races could be retained by each manufacturer.
  • Points earned but not counted towards the championship totals are listed within brackets in the table below.

Championship standings

Pos Manufacturer Argentina BUE United States SEB Italy TGA West Germany NÜR France LMS Total
1† Italy Ferrari 8 (4) 6 (4) 8 22 (30)
2 Germany Porsche (4) 8 8 6 22 (26)
3 Italy Maserati 3 8 11
4 United Kingdom Aston Martin 4 4

† - Ferrari and Porsche finished equal first on net points but Ferrari was awarded the championship based on gross points scored.[4]

The cars

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

References

  1. ↑ "World Sportscar Championship - Championships - Racing Sports Cars". Archived from the original on 2016-07-08. Retrieved 2016-07-03.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "1960 World Sportscar Championship". Teamdan.com. Archived from the original on 1 October 2018. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
  3. ↑ "Sebring 12 Hours 1960 - Racing Sports Cars". Racingsportscars.com. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
  4. ↑ Janos Wimpffen, Time and Two Seats, 1999, Motorsport Research Group, page 330
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