The RAC Tourist Trophy was once Britain’s greatest motor race

It begins on the Isle of Man

The original race was first run as the International Tourist Trophy on the 52.125-mile Highroads Course, which utilised closed public roads around the Isle of Man, a location chosen due to motor racing being banned on English roads.

It took place on 14^th September 1905, and featured 58 entrants, of which 42 started. It was pitched as a race for production touring cars. Among the regulations were requirements for chassis weight of between 590 and 730kg, wheelbase of at least 2.3 metres and even a pre-requisite fuel economy limit of 4.5 litres per 25 miles, although this was reduced to 22.5 miles due to conditions on the day.

John Napier was the winner of the first Tourist Trophy, driving an 18 horsepower Arrol-Johnston. He completed the 208.5-mile race distance in 6:09:04.6, at an average speed of 33.9mph.

A 20 horsepower Rolls-Royce entered by Charles Rolls himself took second place. It was the most powerful car in a field that included entrants from Rover, Swift, Argyll, Peugeot, Ryknield and a Napier entered by S.F. Edge.

The Tourist Trophy remained on the Isle of Man for the following three years, using shortened and reprofiled versions of the original highlands course and becoming a race for Grand Prix cars in 1908 before serving a first hiatus from 1909-1913.

It returned twice more either side of World War I in 1914 and 1922, the latter won by a Sunbeam built specifically to compete in the TT, which was by now a 302-mile race for 1.5-litre voiturettes around the Isle of Man Mountain Course.

The RAC Tourist Trophy became a race for sportscars when it returned in 1928, and moved to a new venue, the Ards Circuit in Northern Ireland, another street circuit which regularly lured crowds of more than 250,000. It was by now one of the biggest motorsport events in the world, and began to entice great drivers, the likes of Rudolf Caracciola and Tazio Nuvolari, who both won the TT driving machinery of global prestige. Nuvolari became the first driver to win the race more than once in 1933 at the wheel of an MG Magnette K3.

Two events at Donington Park preceded a 12-year layoff after the outbreak of World War II, but the RAC TT would be one of the first major motorsport events to return at the new Dundrod Circuit in 1950. Once again this was a course made up of public roads, this was a high-speed 7.416-mile rollercoaster through the Ulster countryside where drivers would regularly be lapping at an average speed of almost 100mph.

The post-war era begins

The first post-war Tourist Trophy was won by a 21-year-old named Stirling Moss. At the wheel of a Jaguar XK120, he was the class of the field as he claimed his first major sportscar victory, and the first of a record seven RAC TT wins. He repeated the feat a year later in a Jaguar C-Type before the race was officially made a round of the World Sportscar Championship in 1953.

Dundrod remained the venue for what had grown to become the most prestigious race on British soil aside from the British Grand Prix. The winning entrant of this 111-lap handicap race received £500 in prize money, and in 1953 that was awarded to the Aston Martin DB3S of Peter Collins and Pat Griffith, who completed the distance in 9:37:12.106. Moss won the 5.0-litre class alongside Peter Walker in a Jaguar C-Type, and Tony Gaze, the man who inspired the creation of the Goodwood Motor Circuit, finished fourth at the wheel of his Aston Martin DB3.

During this period, the RAC TT featured two concurrent races for two different prizes. It was run as a handicap race according to engine capacity, and the largest 5.0-litre-engined Lancias were given a four-lap, 5:11.7 second handicap, while the smallest 750cc sportscars had a 27-lap headstart. The target distance for the handicap event was 94 laps, which would signal the end of the race, but the race on the road would also yield a result for the award of World Championship points.

Mike Hawthorn and Maurice Trintignant took overall honours in a Ferrari 750 Monza, as Ferrari claimed its first RAC TT victory, although the Tourist Trophy itself was awarded to the handicap winners Paul Armagnac and Gérard Laureau, who finished 21^st overall.

That 1954 running was perhaps the most star-studded to date, with many of the world’s leading drivers taking part. Alongside the two winners, the grid featured Juan Manuel Fangio, Alberto Ascari, Pierro Taruffi, Moss, Reg Parnell, José Froilán González and Roy Salvadori.

Moss won again on the RAC TT’s 50^th anniversary in 1955. He led home a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR one-two-three in what was the first World Sportscar Championship race since the tragic events of that year’s Le Mans 24 Hours. This race also got off to a bad start, as Jim Mayers and William Smith were both killed in an accident on the opening lap. A third driver, Richard Manwaring, also died in a crash on lap 35, but the race continued for the likes of Moss, Fangio, Wolfgang von Trips, Hawthorn and Carroll Shelby.

Such was the anticipation of an epic duel between Mercedes and Jaguar that the crowds were undeterred by the tragedies of the day. Hawthorn had looked set to take a remarkable victory for Jaguar in his D-Type, but his engine seized barely three laps from the end which allowed the Mercedes trio to claim the spoils.

This would, however, be the last time the RAC Tourist Trophy was held at Dundrod. The cars had become too quick, and the high-speed roads were no longer deemed suitable, and attempts to adjust the race in order to continue racing there proved unsuccessful. The race was again sidelined for two years, before making a triumphant return at Goodwood in 1958.

A golden era at Goodwood

It was reinstated as the final round of the World Sportscar Championship, but Ferrari had dominated that season, so opted not to make the journey, leaving the door open for Aston Martin to aim for a second victory of the year.

Three works DBR1s lined up on the grid, and stormed to a one-two-three finish four laps ahead of the nearest challenger. It was a fourth overall RAC TT victory for Stirling Moss alongside Tony Brooks, the pair claiming the honour of winning the first ever running of the event at Goodwood.

A full contingent of the world’s greatest sportscars descended on West Sussex a year later however, with the World Sportscar Championship still very much up for grabs heading into the final race. Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martin went head-to-head for the title. It was a thrilling and hugely competitive contest that was punctuated by drama in the pitlane as Roy Salvadori leapt from his smouldering DBR1. The resulting inferno engulfed the Aston Martin pit area, but privateer Graham Whitehead withdrew his car to make space for the works effort.

Moss had been Salvadori’s team-mate before the fire, but he joined the pairing of Carroll Shelby and Jack Fairman, and together they carved out a lead to eventually finish a lap ahead of Porsche and Ferrari. It was a euphoric moment for Aston Martin, as the marque conquered the world for the first time.

The 1959 RAC TT also marked the first occasion that a young Scot by the name of Jim Clark had raced at Goodwood, although he, alongside the likes of Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren and Graham Hill, failed to finish.

Ferrari wins five in a row

By 1960, Stirling Moss had become something of a specialist around the Goodwood Motor Circuit, and he claimed two further victories as the RAC TT became a round of the all-new FIA GT Cup in 1960 and ’61. The Ferrari 250 GT SWB was the class of the field, and Moss drove a Rob Walker entered car to successive triumphs at an average speed of almost 140mph. His victory in 1961, his fourth in as many years and fifth in a row, would prove to be his last appearance in the RAC TT, his accident at Goodwood in the Glover Trophy eight months later brought his remarkable career to an abrupt end in 1962.

So, when the Tourist Trophy returned to the World Sportscar Championship in 1962, the Goodwood spectators would be able to expect a new winner. By then, the Ferrari 250 GTOs were a dominant force, winning every race that season, including a one-two-three finish in the RAC TT with Innes Ireland leading home Graham Hill and Mike Parkes, all finishing with an average speed in excess of 150mph.

Hill made it two in a row for the 250 GTO in 1963, and won again in ’64 to complete the hat-trick for Ferrari in the 3.0-litre V12-engined 330P. That left Ferrari as the final winner in the Goodwood chapter of the RAC TT, as the race moved to Oulton Park for 1965.

During five years in the North of England, the Tourist Trophy formed part of the British Sportscar Championship, the European Touring Car Championship and the World Sportscar Championship. The 1967 F1 World Champion Denny Hulme won on three occasions, first in a Brabham BT8, then twice more in a Lola T70. After a period of flux, the RAC TT finally settled at Silverstone as part of the European Touring Championship, where it stayed from 1970-1988, with a brief interlude for the World Touring Car Championship in 1987.

Touring cars take over

After Ferrari’s dominance in the 1960s, BMW took over the mantle in the ‘70s as the BMW 3.0 CSL claimed a record five RAC TT victories in ’73, ’76, ’77, ’78 and ’79. Among the big names to lift the famous trophy were Jochen Mass, Derek Bell, Tom Walkinshaw, Win Percy and Andy Rouse.

The race’s long residence at Silverstone came to an end in 1988, and after a five-year hiatus the RAC Tourist Trophy was awarded once again, to Paul Radisich, the winner of the 1994 FIA Touring Car World Cup.

It remained at Donington Park for three more years, running as a stand alone race in 1996 and ’97 for competitors in the British Touring Car Championship. Alain Menu won on both occasions to remain the last touring car driver to win the RAC Tourist Trophy.

The RAC TT moves into the 21^st century

From 1998, the trophy returned to sportscars and was awarded to the winner of the British GT Championship on four occasions from 1999-2004. Between 2005 and 2009, it was awarded to the winner of the Silverstone round of the FIA GT Championship, which then evolved into the FIA GT1 World Championship in 2010 and 2011, which for now at least remains the final time the RAC TT name has been given to a race.

The trophy remained a prize, however, awarded to the winner of the 6 Hours of Silverstone, which became a round of the new World Endurance Championship in 2013. It was awarded for the final time in 2019, to Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López, winners of the 4 Hours of Silverstone.

And that, for now, is the story of the RAC Tourist Trophy, a race that arguably reached its pinnacle between 1958 and 1964 when the world’s greatest drivers were competing for World Championship glory at the Goodwood Motor Circuit.

We remember those remarkable races each year at the Goodwood Revival with the RAC TT Celebration, which fittingly has grown to become the world’s most prestigious historic motor race. The race we enjoy in the modern day most closely resembles that of the 1964 running, where Shelby Cobras do battle against Jaguar E-types and more. There is nothing more exhilarating than experiencing an epic grid of ’60s cars building up the revs before the flag drops, as we get to relive the magic of Goodwood’s golden era.

Tickets for the Goodwood Revival are limited! Saturday tickets have sold out, so secure your Friday and Sunday tickets to avoid missing out on the world's best historic motorsport event.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.