The1955 World Sportscar Championship season was the third season ofFIAWorld Sportscar Championship motor racing. It featured a series of six endurance races forsportscars, contested from 23 January to 16 October 1955.
The championship was won byMercedes-Benz, the German manufacturer ending the dominance ofFerrari which had won both of the previousWorld Sportscar Championship titles.
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The 1955 World Sports Car Championship was contested over a six race series. With legendary races such as theMille Miglia and theRAC Tourist Trophy now part of an international race calendar, they were accompanied by the24 Hours of Le Mans and12 Hours of Sebring. The championship started in January, with a trip toArgentina for the1000 km Buenos Aires and ended with an event new to the championship, the legendary road race, theTarga Florio.[1] As a result of theLe Mans disaster, both the1000 km Nürburgring and theCarrera Panamericana were cancelled.[2]
The Championship was open for manufacturers, with works teams such asScuderia Ferrari,Officine Alfieri Maserati,Daimler-Benz andJaguar Cars leading the way, but the majority of the fields were made up of amateur or gentlemen drivers, often up against professional racing drivers with experience inFormula One.
Classes were split betweenclosed cars (GT) and open cars (Sports), with further divisions due to engine displacement. The 1955 season was a very bittersweet one for Daimler-Benz, with theirMercedes-Benz 300 SLRs. After missing the opening two, non-European rounds, which allowed Ferrari to gain a 14-point head start on Mercedes, the German team joined the championship. Aided by an English journalist,Denis Jenkinson,Stirling Moss would romp to victory in theMille Miglia; however, the elation achieved by this English pairing would be quickly subdued at Le Mans a month later, whenPierre Levegh’s 300 SLR would be launched into the air and into the crowd, killing more than 80 spectators. Daimler-Benz would withdraw from the race, and motor sport altogether at the end of the season.[3]
This difficult decision would be made a little easier when Moss, andJohn Fitch drove to victory at theDundrod Circuit, winning the RAC Tourist Trophy. This race was marred by the deaths of three drivers. The victory put Mercedes back in the hunt for the championship. The last race of the season, the Targa Florio, would see Moss win again, this time aided byPeter Collins, ensuring the manufacturers title was won by the German marque.
| Pos | Manufacturer |  BUE |  SEB |  MMI |  LMS |  TTR | TGA | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Mercedes-Benz | 8 | 8 | 8 | 24 | |||
| 2 | Ferrari | 8 | 6 | 4 | (1) | 4 | 22 (23) | |
| 3 | Jaguar | 8 | 8 | 16 | ||||
| 4 | Maserati | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | (2) | 13 (15) | |
| 5 | Aston Martin | 6 | 3 | 9 | ||||
| 6 | Porsche | 3 | 3 | 6 | ||||
| 7 | Gordini | 2 | 2 | |||||
| 8 | Austin-Healey | 1 | 1 |
Note:
The following models contributed to the net championship point scores of their respective manufacturers.
