On this day in... 1958

The circuit was the venue for the prestigious Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy – an endurance event that had run since 1905 on the Isle of Man, at Ards, Donington Park and Dundrod – and it marked the finale of the 1958 World Sportscar Championship. 

The series had featured fierce competition between Ferrari and Aston Martin, although the British marque’s DBR1/300 prototypes had not contested every round. The Italian machines won three on the trot at the start of the year – in Buenos Aires, Sebring and at the Targa Florio – while Aston bounced back at the Nürburgring to vanquish a quartet of Testa Rossas. With all three DBR1s retiring in the blue-riband Le Mans 24 Hours, and Ferrari winning again, Aston was desperate to put on a good show in its home race. 

The British Racing Green machines made the perfect start by locking out the top three spots on the grid. Stirling Moss, who’d anchored the Nürburgring-winning car with first-timer Jack Brabham, secured pole, this time sharing the #7 with his friend and Vanwall F1 team-mate Tony Brooks. 

Moss converted pole into an immediate lead after the Le Mans-style dash to the cars at the start, his Aston controlling proceedings thereafter in a drama-free four-hour race to lead home the #9 of Roy Salvadori/Jack Brabham and the #8 of Carroll Shelby/Stuart Lewis-Evans in a formation finish that cemented the British racers’ superiority. 

RAC Tourist Trophy, 1958

1. Stirling Moss (GB)/Tony Brooks (GB) – Aston Martin DBR1/300, 148 laps

2. Roy Salvadori (GB)/Jack Brabham (AUS) – Aston Martin DBR1/300, 148 laps

3. Carroll Shelby (USA)/Stuart Lewis-Evans (GB) – Aston Martin DBR1/300, 148 laps

4. Jean Behra (F)/Edgar Barth (D) – Porsche 718 RSK, 144 laps

5. Masten Gregory (USA)/Innes Ireland (GB) – Jaguar D-type, 143 laps

6. Duncan Hamilton (GB)/Peter Blond (GB) – Jaguar D-type, 142 laps

Photography courtesy of LAT Images