Le Mans, as ever, was very much on the radar for Aston with a further improvement of the pure-bred DBR1 that had first raced in 1957. The French enduro remained the holy grail for David Brown, but the owner of the Newport Pagnell marque since 1947 also had arguably bigger fish to fry. The sportscar manufacturer was finally focussing on its Formula 1 programme with the DBR4 design that that been up and running since early '57.
Le Mans, a race in which Aston had had a perpetual presence since 1931, was the only round of the WSC that the marque intended to contest. But the programme gradually expanded over the course of the season.
The promise of start money had helped team manager Reg Parnell persuade John Wyer, the marque's long-time racing boss and now its general manager as well, to enter a car at the Sebring 12 Hours championship opener in March. Stirling Moss was then instrumental in the decision to attend the Nürburgring 1,000Km in June, reckoning that the improved DBR1/300 would give him a decent shot of repeating his '58 victory with Jack Brabham.
And then after finally securing Le Mans glory with Shelby and Roy Salvadori, Aston found itself only two points behind Ferrari in the WSC manufacturer's standings. And Goodwood, the final round, was a track on which the DBR1 had excelled the previous year...
Sebring didn't go well for Aston, though Salvadori did lead initially. Shortly after Shelby took over, the gear stick parted company with the rest of the car. Legend has it that the American carried the errant lever back to the pits and threatened to hit Parnell over the head with it.