OldRacingCars.com

British GP supporting libre race

Silverstone, 18 Jul 1953

ResultsLapsTime/Speed
1 Giuseppe Farina (4.5 F1) 4.5-litre Ferrari 375 Thin Wall Special [375-10] - V12
#11 G A Vandervell
17 30m 50.8s
96.79 mph
2 Juan Manuel Fangio (4.5 F1) 1.5-litre BRM V16 Mk I 'P15' [No 1] - s/c V16
#3 A G B Owen (see note 1)
17 31m 02.0s
3 Ken Wharton (4.5 F1) 1.5-litre BRM V16 Mk I 'P15' [No 2] - s/c V16
#2 A G B Owen (see note 2)
17 31m 34.0s
4 Ron Flockhart (libre) 2-litre ERA D Type [R4D] - s/c 6
#10 (see note 3)
17 32m 08.6s
5 Geoff Richardson (libre) 1.8-litre RRA - ERA s/c 6
#17 (see note 4)
16
6 Graham Whitehead (4.5 F1) 1.5-litre ERA C Type [R8C] - s/c 6
#9 (see note 5)
16
7 Louis Rosier (4.5 F1) 4.5-litre Ferrari 375/51 - V12
#18 Ecurie Rosier
16
8 Horace Gould (F2) 2-litre Cooper-Bristol Mk II 'T23' [CBMk2-11-53] - Bristol 6
#6

9 Jimmy Somervail (F2) 2-litre Cooper-Bristol Mk I 'T20' [CB-3-52] - Bristol 6
#5 Border Reivers

10 Fred Tuck (4.5 F1) 1.5-litre Maserati 4CL [1567] - s/c 4
#16
15
11 Horace Richards (F2) 2-litre HAR ['1'] - Riley 6
#12
13
R Austen Nurse (F2) 2-litre HWM - Alta 4
#14
spin
R Mike Hawthorn (4.5 F1) 2.5-litre Ferrari 500/625 4
#20 Scuderia Ferrari
5
R Bill Aston (F2) 2-litre Aston Butterworth [NB-41] - AJB 4
#1
0
R Jack Fairman (libre) 2-litre Cooper Mk I 'T20' - ERA s/c 6
#7 P D C Walker
0
UNK John Lyons (F2) 2-litre Connaught A [AL9] - Lea-Francis 4
#4 W Knight

UNK Alastair Birrell (4.5 F1) 1.5-litre ERA A Type [R1A] - s/c 6
#8 (see note 6)

DNS Roland Dutt (4.5 F1) 1.5-litre Maserati 4CL [1585] - s/c 4
#15 (see note 7)
Did not start
DNS Peter Walker (libre) 2-litre Cooper Mk I 'T20' - ERA s/c 6
#7
Did not start
DNS Tony Gaze (libre) 3-litre Maserati 8CM [3011] - s/c 8
#19
Did not start
DNS Keith Hall (F2) 2-litre Cooper-Bristol Mk I 'T20' [CB-3-52] - Bristol 6
#5 Border Reivers
Did not start
DNA Mike Hawthorn (4.5 F1) 4.5-litre Ferrari 375 - V12
#20 Scuderia Ferrari
Did not arrive
Qualifying
1 Juan Manuel Fangio (4.5 F1) 1.5-litre BRM V16 Mk I 'P15' [No 1] - BRM s/c V16 1'46
2 Giuseppe Farina (4.5 F1) 4.5-litre Ferrari 375 Thin Wall Special [375-10] - Ferrari V12 1'47
3 Ken Wharton (4.5 F1) 1.5-litre BRM V16 Mk I 'P15' [No 2] - BRM s/c V16 1'48
4 Mike Hawthorn (4.5 F1) 2.5-litre Ferrari 500/625 - Ferrari 4 1'49
5 Ron Flockhart (libre) 2-litre ERA D Type [R4D] - ERA s/c 6 1'53
6 Geoff Richardson (libre) 1.8-litre RRA - ERA s/c 6 1'56
7 Graham Whitehead (4.5 F1) 1.5-litre ERA C Type [R8C] - ERA s/c 6 2'00
8 Horace Gould (F2) 2-litre Cooper-Bristol Mk II 'T23' [CBMk2-11-53] - Bristol 6 2'01
9 Fred Tuck (4.5 F1) 1.5-litre Maserati 4CL [1567] - Maserati s/c 4 2'02
10 Jimmy Somervail (F2) 2-litre Cooper-Bristol Mk I 'T20' [CB-3-52] - Bristol 6 2'03
11 Alastair Birrell (4.5 F1) 1.5-litre ERA A Type [R1A] - ERA s/c 6 2'05
12 Louis Rosier (4.5 F1) 4.5-litre Ferrari 375/51 - Ferrari V12 2'06
13 Bill Aston (F2) 2-litre Aston Butterworth [NB-41] - AJB 4 2'08
14 Horace Richards (F2) 2-litre HAR ['1'] - Riley 6 2'13
15 Austen Nurse (F2) 2-litre HWM - Alta 4 2'20
16 John Lyons (F2) 2-litre Connaught A [AL9] - Lea-Francis 4 2'42
17 Jack Fairman (libre) 2-litre Cooper Mk I 'T20' - ERA s/c 6 2'42

Notes on the cars:

  1. BRM V16 Mk I 'P15' [No 1] (Juan Manuel Fangio): Raced by Ray Sommer 1950, Reg Parnell 1950-53, Fangio 1952-53 and Gonzalez 1952. Retired after the 1953 season but retained by Owen Organisation as an exhibition car. Bought by Dan Marguiles for a Greek consortium at Christie's Motorfair auction in October 1981. Subsquently sold to the National Motor Museum Trust. Retained 2007.
  2. BRM V16 Mk I 'P15' [No 2] (Ken Wharton): Raced by Peter Walker 1950-51, Ken Wharton 1952-54, Gonzalez 1952-53, Moss and Reg Parnell 1952 and by Ron Flockhart once in 1954. Damaged during Wharton's win at Glover Trophy, Goodwood Apr 1954, stripped and scrapped.
  3. ERA D Type [R4D] (Ron Flockhart): The sole D-Type, built in 1938 using mechanical parts from R4C and raced by factory drivers Mays and Dobson 1938-39. Sold to Mays when he left the team and raced by him until 1950. Then via Ron Flockhart, Ken Wharton and a chain of other owners into historic racing in 1966. Via further UK and Indian owners to Mac Hulbert in 2001.
  4. RRA (Geoff Richardson): Built by Geoff Richardson using mechanical parts of an ex-works Riley raced before the war by Percy Maclure, in a new Richardson-built frame. Raced initially with the engine from the White Riley, and sometimes therefore called the ERA-Riley. Richardson continued to race the car, mainly in small English events, until 1955, replacing the engine with a 2.5 Riley in 1954 and a 2.0 Alta in 1955. The car was then dismantled but reassembled by Keith Knight, still with Alta engine, in 1965. Retained by Knight into this century.
  5. ERA C Type [R8C] (Graham Whitehead): Built in 1938 using mechanical parts from R8B and raced by Earl Howe 1938 and until a crash in the 1939 International Trophy. Then to Reg Parnell for 1946, Cuth Harrison from 1947 to 1951, Brian Shawe-Taylor 1951 and 1952; then a chain of other owners until acquired in 1977 by Bruce Spollon. Rebuilt to correct C-type specs and raced from 1981 to 2003.
  6. ERA A Type [R1A] (Alastair Birrell): The original 1934 prototype, this car was driven by Mays, Cook, Seaman and others before the war. Later to John Heath (HW Motors) 1946, Reg Parnell's team 1947, David Hampshire 1948-51 and then to Alistair Birrell and Ron Flockhart in Scotland in 1952. Into historic racing when it was owned by Sandy Murray from 1959 to 1982 and frequently raced by Tony Merrick. Then through a further chain of owners until acquired by Dean Butler in 2005.
  7. Maserati 4CL [1585] (Roland Dutt): Delivered on 30 Apr 1947 to Enrico Plate's team and driven by a variety of drivers from 1947 to 1949, including Emmanuel de Graffenried. Sold to Joe Fry for 1950, but passed after Fry's death in July 1950 to Duncan Hamilton and Philip Fotheringham-Parker who campaigned it in British races until then of the F1 formula in 1951. Campaigned widely in UK historic racing events by several British owners until passing to the current owner, Oliver Maierhofer (Germany) On display at Tubingen Motor Museum in 2007.

Sources

Note that the identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' published results.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can help in any way with our research.