by Unknown
kings of the nurburgring ing the British GP at Silverstone. Fortunately, neither driver was seriously hurt, but neither they nor BRM took part in the German GP. So Brooks had to wait another year before he could return to the circuit he had enjoyed so much, but it was worth it. For 1957 Aston Martin produced the DBR1, a beautiful, state-of-the-art racer with a spaceframe chassis, disc brakes and rear mounted five-speed gearbox. With the exception of the gearbox, the Aston was entirely the work of one man, Ted Cutting, and although its 3-litre engine was a redesign of that in the DB3S and produced no more horsepower, Cutting’s chassis was so right that the R1 was immediately much faster than its predecessor. The DBR1 made its European debut at Spa, where Brooks and Roy Salvadori finished first and second. This was most satisfying for the Feltham equipe but Ferrari and Maserati were both taking part in the Mille Miglia that weekend, so there was no real opposition. Two weeks later, however, the big guns all arrived at the Nurburgring, Ferrari with a 4.1-litre, a 3.8-litre and a 3-litre prototype and Maserati with two 4.5-litre cars and a 3-litre. Among the drivers for the former were Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins and for the latter Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss. In the circumstances, nobody gave the Aston Martins a chance - until the first practice session was over. Then it was seen that, in the wet, Tony Brooks was fastest of all, with a time of 10 mins 16.5 secs, ahead of Moss with the Maserati on 10’ 32.5”. This caused a few murmurs up and down the pit lane, but by the time the second - and dry - session had ended, Brooks was the talk of the Eifel. In just four flying laps he had recorded the remarkable time of 9 mins 48.2 secs, a mere 4.6 seconds slower than Juan Fangio in the 4.5-litre Maserati and no fewer than 38 seconds faster than his best time in the DB3S the previous year. As Denis Jenkinson noted in Motor Sport: ‘The whole Aston Martin team were put very severely in their place by the unbelievable Brooks, and no-one was more embarrassed about it than Brooks himself, but he just cannot help being a superb driver and even when he is not trying he is faster than most, so that when he does “have a go” he shakes the very top of the tree, and it will not be long before some of the accepted stars will have to come tumbling down.’ The stars began tumbling sooner than he thought - to be precise at the drop of the starter’s flag at 9 am on Sunday, May 26, 1957. Brooks made a superb getaway and was almost halfway towards the South Turn before anyone else had moved. Anyone else, of course, included the acknowledged master of the run-and-jump start, Stirling Moss, and Mike Hawthorn. Happily for Aston Martin, both these key rivals couldn’t get their cars started for many seconds and Patron David Brown, John Wyer and new Team Manager Reg Parnell watched, hearts pounding, as the illuminated scoreboard showed their Aston number 14 lead the field all the way round that 14.2-mile first lap, before rocketing past the pits, 1.3 seconds ahead of Harry Schell’s 450S Maserati. Tony’s standing lap had taken him just 10 mins 9.4 secs, the same as Olivier Gendebien’s fastest practice lap in the 4.1-litre Ferrari. In third place was Peter Collins in the 335S Ferrari and fourth Roy Salvadori in the second Aston Martin DBR1. Stirling Moss was fifth with the Maserati he was to share with Fangio and then came Masten Gregory in the prototype Ferrari, (which would become the 3-litre Testa Rossa). After five laps the brilliant Brooks was 23 seconds ahead of Schell, who had Collins and Moss behind him. Stirling was making up for lost time and on the next lap passed both Collins and Schell to mount his attack on Brooks. The Aston was giving away some 160 bhp and 25-30 mph to the Maserati and on lap eight the 450S simply overwhelmed the DBR1 on the three-kilometre straight. “That Maser was so fast it wasn’t true!” says Brooks. “So long as it was in the race there was nothing I could do about it - it was in a class of its own, on its own - never mind the fact that it had Moss and Fangio driving it!” But Moss and Fangio were soon out of a job - temporarily -for on lap 10 the leading Maserati shed a rear wheel at Schwalbenschwanz. Moss calmly brought it to a halt and hitched a ride back to the pits, to find that Team Manager Nello Ugolini had already brought in Harry Schell and sent Fangio back into the race in the second 450S instead of Hans Herrmann. Meanwhile, Tony Brooks continued on his merry way, now leading by 1 min 15 secs from Peter Collins/Olivier Gendebien (4.1 Ferrari) and Mike Hawthorn/Maurice Trintignant, (3.8 Ferrari), Mike having recovered superbly from his poor start. On lap 16 Brooks brought the Aston in for fuel, oil and new rear wheels and 1 min 28 seconds later it returned to the fray in the hands of Noel Cunningham-Reid, a driver completely unknown to the vast numbers of spectators thronging the circuit. With a mere three seasons of racing and a handful of impressive drives in an HWM to his double-barrelled name, Noel had been signed by Aston Martin for 1957 and had found himself somewhat out of his depth in his first race for the team, the British Empire Trophy at Oulton Park. If the 2.7 miles of Oulton caused him problems, how could he possibly redeem himself at the Nurburgring, with 14.2 miles and 172 corners to master? But redeem himself he did, and in some style. In order to get to grips with the circuit he drove 15 laps in private practice with a Porsche-engined VW. This was just as well, as he had very few practice laps in the Aston, but they were sufficiently impressive for John Wyer and Reg Parnell to take a chance and pair him with Brooks. It turned out to be an inspired decision, for Noel not only kept the lead that Brooks had given him, he increased it and by the time he gave the Aston back, it was four and a half minutes ahead of the Hawthorn/ Trintignant Ferrari. This was a complete reversal of the previous year's scenario, when Brooks had a bored and frustrated Peter Collins as his co-driver and a DB3S that was simply not competitive. Now, Cunningham-Reid proved himself to be a very able and enthusiastic partner and the DBR1 was more than a match for anything at the Ring - other than a 450S Maserati driven by Fangio or Moss. «The DB3S wasn't a bad car for its day,» recalled Brooks in Sportscar Heaven, “but it wasn’t in the same class as the DBR1; the difference between the two was chalk and cheese, really. The DBR1 was without doubt the best-handling car of its time and it might have been made for the Ring because so many of the corners could be drifted and the Aston was so driftable. The sensation of drifting is so sensual it really is quite addictive, which is why I enjoyed the Ring and the Aston so much. “In those days the road from Fuchsrohre on the run down to Adenau Bridge was lined with a tall, solid hedge either side and there was no margin for error, you couldn’t see the exact curvature of the bends that were coming up so you had to memorise them. The hedges were so high it was almost like the Hampton Court Maze going down there and you could gain a lot of time on that section if you had learned it very well because it was completely blind. People tend to go more slowly downhill because they feel less confident than going uphill or on the flat. If you’re going too quickly downhill it’s more difficult to slow if you’ve overcooked it. Psychologically I always felt that I could make up a lot of time on competitors by going for it downhill, because they would be that much more tentative. “The Aston was a fun car to drive at the Ring and you could really throw it about, because the circuit showed off its tremendous road-holding qualities, which enabled us to take on the more powerful Ferraris and Maseratis. If only the R1 had had more power nothing would ever have got near it!” Underpowered it may have been, but nevertheless the Aston Martin was now in a commanding lead. Brooks continued to pull away from the pursuing Ferraris and the 1.5-litre Porsche of Umberto Maglioli/Edgar Barth. The second 450S retired with a split oil tank and it was left to Fangio and Moss to save Maserati’s bacon by taking over the privately-entered 300S of Godia/Gould. But neither they, nor anyone else, could do anything about the remarkable Tony Brooks and the DBR1. Driving immaculately, Brooks simply ran away from the opposition until by lap 33 he was leading the Collins/Gendebien Ferrari by 5 mins 16 secs. He then eased off and completed the 44 laps to win by 4 mins 13.7 secs, recording the first major victory at the Nurburging by a British car and the first by a British driver since Dick Seaman had won the German GP for Mercedes-Benz in 1938. Seaman, it must be said, had victory handed to him on a plate, for team-mate Manfred von Brauchitsch’s car had c
aught fire in the pits when in the lead. However, no such luck had attended Tony Brooks who, with consummate ease, led for 29 of his 31 laps and established himself as King of the Nurburgring. “The Nurburgring is the best circuit in the world,” said Tony at the time. “It provides such variety and contrast that it resembles a true road circuit. You don’t come up to the same stupid corner every minute and a half. The idea - which was the basis of motor racing - was to drive as fast as possible on public roads which, for safety, were closed to the public. Anything else is circus stuff. It’s not motor racing.” A couple of months later, Brooks was back at the Ring for the German GP, but his earlier success was not to be repeated. He had wisely left BRM and joined Stirling Moss at Vanwall for 1957 and although Stirling scored a sensational victory in the British GP at Aintree after taking over Tony’s car (Brooks had been injured when he crashed his Aston Martin at Le Mans and was not back to full strength at Aintree) the team was under no illusions when it arrived at the Ring. This was Vanwall’s first visit to the circuit and their spring rates and damper settings were completely awry. The result was that the cars were all at sea on the Ring’s rollercoaster and Moss could only finish fifth and Brooks ninth. Tony was so shaken up in the Vanwall that he was physically sick during the race and afterwards announced that it was easily the most uncomfortable ride he had ever had in a racing car. However, nobody was interested in Vanwall’s woes, as they had witnessed one of the greatest drives of all time by Juan Manuel Fangio in his 25OF Maserati. He had driven the race of his life to catch and pass the Ferraris of Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins, when they appeared to have an unassailable lead (See Ringmeister 5 - Juan Manuel Fangio). Aston Martin arrived at the Ring in May, 1958 with the entire Vanwall team in their line-up, Brooks having been joined by Stirling Moss and Stuart Lewis-Evans. Three DBR1s were entered on this occasion, to be driven by Moss/Jack Brabham, Brooks/Lewis-Evans and Roy Salvadori/Carroll Shelby. Their chances of success were shortened on the very first lap, when Roy Salvadori came to a halt at the Karussell, unable to find any gears. Things then went from bad to worse, for the next time round Brooks spun to a halt on the approach to the Karussell - for no good reason that he could establish. A blow-back from the exhaust pipes (which exited under the driver’s door) set fire to the paintwork momentarily, but this was quickly put out by a man who, as if by magic, appeared from the shrubbery with a fire extinguisher! Brooks rejoined the race, but the incident had dropped him from third to 14th place. By dint of some very fast driving, Tony regained seven places in the next two laps and by the time he handed over to Lewis-Evans on the 15th lap he had fought his way back to fourth. Unfortunately, Lewis-Evans was not fully fit (he was suffering from stomach ulcers) and although he managed to hold position, he was losing time and eventually came in one lap early. Brooks then set off after the third place Ferrari of Taffy von Trips. He was catching it, too, but his brilliant recovery was undone with just three laps to go when he was elbowed off the road. “I was in the long left-hander after Flugplatz leading to the sharp right-hander at Aremberg. There was a Peugeot saloon on the left,” Brooks recalled years later, with a shudder of disbelief, “leaving me plenty of room to go by but, as I approached to overtake he started moving over. I was too committed to brake and drop back as I was doing about 5,000 rpm in fifth - 130 or even 140 mph - so I had no option but to brake and allow him to push me into the ditch. The Aston was undamaged, but the ditch was so deep I couldn’t get it out.” Happily for Aston Martin, Stirling Moss won the race, ably backed up by Jack Brabham, but for Brooks it was a big disappointment after his victory the year before. Two months later, however, Tony was back on the winner’s rostrum, after what he regards as his finest drive at the Nurburgring and, indeed, of his entire career. When the teams assembled for the 1958 German GP (now shortened from the original 22 laps to 15) Ferrari had good reason to feel confident. Their nemesis of the previous year, Juan Manuel Fangio, had recently retired; Officine Maserati had also left the scene, due to financial troubles and although the Vanwalls had won the Dutch GP (Moss) and the Belgian (Brooks), Ferrari had then won the French (Hawthorn) and the British (Collins). Scuderia Ferrari had vast experience of the Nurburgring over a period of eight years, whereas the Vanwalls had failed dismally on their only previous appearance the year before. However, this time the green cars from Acton were really on song and, after practice, the race looked set to be a straight battle between the Ferraris of Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins and the Vanwalls of Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks, for both Hawthorn and Brooks had broken Fangio’s scintillating lap record - 9 mins 17.4 secs - of the year before with 9’ 14” and 9’ 15” respectively. The front row of the grid was completed by Moss (9’ 19.1”) and Collins (9’ 21.9”). Moss and Brooks leapt into the lead from the start, but Tony was quickly overtaken by both the Ferraris. He had not been allowed to practice with his Vanwall on full tanks and, finding that it handled like a pig, he dropped back from the leading trio. Which soon became a duo, for Stirling’s car came to a halt on lap four when the magneto failed. This left Hawthorn and Collins cheerfully swapping the lead all round the circuit, to the delight of the spectators, with Brooks in third place 32 seconds behind the playful Ferraris.
