As the 1955 season got underway, Tony Rolt drove the revolutionary-looking streamlined B-Type Connaught B1 in its debut race, at the Easter Goodwood meeting for the Glover Trophy. After 8 laps of the 21 lap race, Rolt went out with fuel pump trouble. Don Beauman in Connaught AL9 finished a credible third; Bill Holt finished fifth in Connaught A5 and Michael Young in A8 finished sixth. The Maserati's of Moss and Salvadori dominated the race and, when Moss went out on lap 12, Salvadori won easily after recovering from a spin early in the race.

In the BRDC International Trophy race at Silverstone, the Maserati 250F's ultimately smothered the competition with the Maserati's of Collins, Salvadori, Price Bira and Andre Simon finishing 1, 2, 3 and 4. However, the new Connaught B-Type streamliner B2, driven by Jack Fairman, set fastest lap and at one point Fairman and Ken McAlpine in the Connaught streamliner B1 were running together in third and fourth positions until retiring, so the day was a promising one. And in fifth place was Connaught A3, the consistent finisher, driven by John Riseley-Prichard.

Just a week before the biggest race of the British racing season, the British Grand Prix, tragedy struck a Connaught privateer. On July, at the Leinster Trophy race in Wicklow, Don Beauman, who had tirelessly campaigned the Connaught AL9 owned by Sir Jeremy Boles during 1954 and early 1955, crashed fatally in a sportscar race.

Yhe British Grand Prix was held for the first time at Aintree, near Liverpool, and it was to be Connaughts only Championship Grand Prix outing of the 1955 season in the new B-Types. Archival color films of this race shows that an impressive collection of Ferrari's, Maserati's, Vanwalls, Gordini's and a Cooper-Bristol had entered in the race. The Mercedes team - which had only 35 days earlier been devastated by the disastrous crash at LeMans - was nevertheless in rare form that weekend at Aintree. Four non-streamlined Mercedes-Benz W196 cars were entered for Moss, Fangio, Kling and Taruffi and, in the end, the four cars finished just that way: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Amongst such machinery, the B-Type Connaughts of Ken McAlpine (B1), Tony Rolt/Peter Walker (B4) and Leslie Marr (B3) were seriously outclassed but impressively turned out as they sat in the paddock. The Connaught transporters that brought the cars to the track captured the style of the team. The transporters looked to be converted London buses, painted British Racing Green instead of red, and in the space on the bus where the designation sign would usually be posted - "Piccadilly Circus", "Penny Lane", "Victoria Station" - was the word "Connaught" in bright red letters.

Another stylish detail was to be added to the flanks of the Connaughts in 1955. In late 1954, the Royal College of Heralds gave its approval to Connaughts to use the emblem of a winged lion and henceforth this was displayed on the scuttle of the works cars. Mr. McAlpine had a simpler explanation, "Ferrari had its prancing horse, he had our winged griffon!"

Leslie Marr's Connaught B3 sported the experimental full-body streamliner bodywork that covered the wheels, with a large stabilizer dorsal fin and faring behind the driver's head, the front of the bonnet featuring the NACA air scoop with two other scoops near the scuttle. The streamliner B-Type looked a bit like a misshapen D-Type Jaguar ("the D-Type followed us" Mr. McAlpine reminds me with a twinkle in his eye). The other Connaught streamliner, B2, was also supposed to be in the race and driven by Jack Fairman but ended up not starting the race. Connaught B4 was a conventional open wheel body style at the insistence of Rob Walker. Another unique streamliner in the race was the rear-engined Cooper-Bristol "Bobtail Special", driven by Jack Brabham in his first Grand Prix, in which was to finish 13th. As Mr. McAlpine's comments indicate, the streamliner looked exotic but did not live up to its looks. And to make matters worse, the two-piece body was fragile and also took longer to remove than the traditional bonnet so time was wasted getting access to the engine.

Returning to the Aintree race, the Mercedes foursome went straight to the front of the 1955 British Grand Prix, with Moss and Fangio trading places in the Silver Arrows to amuse the fans and Behra in a Maserati 250F (Chassis No. 2516) giving chase. Down in 16th place in the opening lap was Tony Rolt in No. 36 Connaught B4, the highest placed British car in a race which included 8 Maserati's and 3 Ferrari's as well as the 4-car Mercedes-Benz team. As it turned out, Rolt's laying in wait behind all the red cars in the early stages of the race turned out to be the high point of the race for Connaught as none of the Connaughts were to finish the race.

Leslie Marr, who stalled on the grid in Connaught B3 and had to be push started had no better luck in the race itself, going out on lap 17 of the 90 lap race in an accident when his brakes failed. On the very next lap the Rolt/Walker Connaught B4 was out with throttle problems, leaving only Ken McAlpine in Connaught B1 still running. But by lap 30, McAlpine too was out, having lost oil pressure due to a broken oil pipe. McAlpine and all the British race fans had one solace however: this 1955 British Grand Prix was the first Grand Prix to be won by Stirling Moss, who finished neck and neck in his Mercedes-Benz W196 with his teammate Juan Manuel Fangio, one tenth of a second behind him. To this day, Moss does not know whether he actually won the race or Fangio gifted it to him.

On July 30th 1955, at the Crystal Palace for the London Trophy race, Jack Fairman in the conventionally-bodied Connaught B4 took fourth place in Heat One and Tony Brooks was right behind him in trusty Connaught A3. On August 13th 1955, at Snetterton for the RedeX Trophy race, Jack Fairman finished sixth in Connaught B1 in a race that was more significant for another British marque, Vanwall, which finished 1, 2.

The Connaughts returned to Aintree on September for the Daily Telegraph Trophy race, a minor 17-lap race that nevertheless managed to attract a formidable group of drivers: Stirling Moss, Roy Salvadori and Horace Gould in Maserati 250F's, and a bevy of Connaughts, B2 being driven by Reg Parnell, Tony Brooks in A3, and John Young in AL10. This time at Aintree, Reg Parnell in B2 (which Jack Fairman had entered but did not start in the British Grand Prix), showed well and took over the lead of the race when Moss in the leading Maserati went out. Unfortunately, with two laps left, Parnell slowed because of a bearing failure and managed only to finish sixth in the B-Type. But Tony Brooks finished fourth in A3 and John Young was fifth in AL10.

On September 24th 1955, at Oulton Park for the Gold Cup, a 54 lap race, Reg Parnell in Connaught B1 (which by now had been rebuilt as an unstreamlined car) finished third behind Moss in a Maserati 250F (Chassis No. 2515) and Mike Hawthorn in the Lancia D50 which finished second. For the Avon Trophy race at Castle Combe, Tony Brooks in Connaught A3 finished fifth and Graham Whitehead finished sixth in A5.

Syracuse: Connaught in the Limelight

Three weeks later, Connaught reached its high-water mark at the non-Championship Syracuse Grand Prix, in Sicily, on October 23, 1955. How and why would an impoverished outfit like Connaught make the trip from Surrey to Sicily for a non-Championship race? The answer is apparently Money, a commodity that, like horsepower, was always in short supply at Connaught.

The Sicilian promoters offered 1,000 pounds per car to entrants as start money to lure the British constructors from the UK to Sicily to take on the works Maserati 250F's. With that inducement, Rodney Clarke sent Tony Brooks, then still a dental student, to the Syracuse race in B1 (no longer with its streamlined body) and Les Leston, an F3 driver, was paired with Brooks and drove B2, still with the fully-streamlined body shell. Brooks and Leston missed practice the first day as the cars were still en route.

The Maserati team was on full display with three Maserati 250F works cars being driven by Luigi Musso (Chassis No. 2501), Luigi Villoresi (Chassis No. 2516) and Harry Schell (Chassis No. 2518) and a fourth works car for Carrol Shelby (Chassis No. 2515) in his first drive at the Grand Prix level. There were also four privateer Maserati 250F's for Horace Gould, Roy Salvadori, Louis Rosier and Luigi Piotti. The Ferrari works team stayed home. Nonetheless, it was a sea of red against the two green Connaughts and a blue Gordini.

Luckily for us, the renowned British motor racing journalist, Denis Jenkinson, did not stay home but took in the Syracuse race as an adjunct to the Targa Florio in Sicily that had just been run. Because it was a non-Championship race, Jenkinson seemed to be the only English journalist present amongst the phalanx of Italian press. Although Tony Brooks was a stranger to most of the Maserati drivers in the Syracuse paddock, Jenkinson had seen him once at Goodwood and described Brooks' skill at the tricky Goodwood chicane:

"[You] could not fail to see an inborn talent and sense of balance and artistry [in Brooks] that made most people look like amateurs, yet he in one long controlled slide, beautifully placed for the chicane which followed and then flicked through the chicane, made it all look very easy. The driving of Brooks was so smooth and effortless, very fast and flowing, the car balanced beautifully at the edge of adhesion."

On the second day of practice the Connaught cars appeared and the advanced looking streamliner attracted some attention because of its sleek lines. But when Brooks began to do a flying lap in the conventionally-bodied Connaught B-Type, heads turned in his direction. The 3.4 mile triangular-shaped Syracuse track was a difficult one, with some challenging curves , walls and a slow hairpin. Lap after lap Brooks brought his times down, gradually improving on the 2 minute nine seconds time that was set in the first day of practice by Musso and Villoresi in their Maserati's. After six or so laps, Brooks was down to the 2 minutes five second zone at 2:05.4, which would have given him pole position. The Maserati 250F's then pulled out all the stops and Villoresi turned in 2:04.7 and Musso came fastest at 2:03.6; the rest of the Maserati runners could not better Brooks' 2:05.4.

Since the grid in those days was in a three-two-three format, Tony Brooks found himself in his Connaught on the front row next to the two Maserati 250F's that had been doing battle all season long with the Mercedes-Benz W196's, the Lancia D50's and the Ferrari 625. In the end, the promoters who induced Rodney Clarke to send the Connaughts from Surrey certainly got their money's worth. This is how Jenks described the race:

"The 70 lap race was unbelievable for everyone. Brooks made a poor start and the four works Maseratis went off ahead, to the cheers of the crowd. At the end of the first lap Brooks had passed Shelby, on lap 4 he passed Schell, on lap 8 he passed Villoresi and on lap 15 he passed Musso. Apart from the handful of people that knew about Tony Brooks and knew about Connaught there was total disbelief. An unknown English driver in an unknown English car was leading the entire Maserati factory team, to say nothing of the private 250F Maseratis.

"This was Tony's first Grand Prix race in Europe so he was being very careful. After letting Musso back into the lead, he settled down and re-took the lead with no effort and reduced the lap record down to 2:00.2, at which point Musso went by the Maserati pit shaking his head in disbelief and making signs of despair. With a 50 second lead Brooks eased off in the closing laps and won the race at an average speed of nearly 100 mph. He looked almost embarrassed when he had to face the plaudits of the organizers and the crowd, for they appreciated a winner no matter what he drove or where he came from." The British Racing Drivers' Club Bulletin, Vol. 9, No. 5 (September/October 1988)

In the end, Brooks in Connaught B1 led Musso by 51 seconds while Villoresi was two laps down. Les Leston's streamliner, Connaught B2, finished in 9th place after a spin and three pit stops for spark plug changes. For Jenks, part of the fun was listening to the din in the press room after the race as his Italian, French, German and Swiss colleagues tried to explain over the primitive long distance phone lines to their editors how an unknown driver, driving an unknown British car with an unpronounceable name defeated the mighty Maserati team!

Meanwhile, out at parc ferme, the Italian scrutineers were out in force, and in the darkened pit lane, Mike Oliver, Connaught's engine man, was about to have his finest hour:

"In one of the pit-lane garages the scrutineer had demanded that the Connaught cylinder head be removed. They measured the bore and stroke of the Alta engine. The works Maserati team gathered round. "93.5 by 99mm" announced the scrutineer. A pause, and then "2470cc capacity". Formula One rules stated a maximum of 2500cc. There was an uneasy silence and everyone drifted away, except the Connaught team members and the handful of English people who all smiled happily and went off for a wash and brush up before the prize giving. It was quite a party for that handful of people from Great Britain."

This win by Brooks in his Connaught was a sensation in the UK because it was the first time an all-British team had won a European Grand Prix in 31 years, since Sir Henry Seagrave won the race at San Sebastian in Spain in his Sunbeam in 1924. Henceforth, the slipper-bodied B-Type driven by Brooks in the race was known as the "Syracuse" body style and B1 was the "Syracuse Connaught". At Brands Hatch on Boxing Day, 1955, the Syracuse Connaught B1 won again, this time being driven by Archie Scott-Brown.

It was bitterly ironic to the fortunes of Connaught that in the same month - September 1955 - just as the team had finally reached its apogee in the Syracuse race, Mr. McAlpine, its longstanding benefactor had proposed to his wife, and had determined to give up driving race cars and financing Connaught. Nonetheless, McAlpine was no curmudgeon and gave Clarke literally years to find alternative investors to keep Connaught afloat.

1956: Connaught Reaches The Podium At Long Last

In the 1956 season, Connaught also had its successes to show those potential investors, often with Archie Scott-Brown at the wheel. At Goodwood for the Glover Trophy, Scott-Brown led the race after passing Hawthorn's BRM Type 25 and held his own against Moss in the fuel-injected Maserati 250F (Chassis No. 2522) until the Connaught broke. Back in Sicily, the Connaught team was not as lucky as it had been 7 months earlier; Desmond Titterington in B1 and Piero Scotti's new B6 both retired from the race as the Lancia-Ferrari's of Fangio, Moss and Collins made it a Ferrari sweep. Piero Scotti, a Sicilian mineral water manufacturer, had been so impressed with Brooks's victory that he had ordered a car for himself, B6, which, as we shall see, would turn out to be a chassis with an interesting history.

The Aintree 200 was held in April,and Archie Scott-Brown was on pole in B2 and led the 67-lap race until a piston broke. It was becoming painfully apparent as the races wore on that the B-Type Connaughts reliability was not up to Archie Scott-Brown's speed in the car.

On May 5th 1956, at Silverstone for the BRDC International Trophy, where nine, count 'em, Connaughts entered the race, Scott-Brown took B2 to second place behind Moss's new Vanwall. For once, it was the Lancia-Ferrari's that went out early when their clutches let go, allowing Scott-Brown's B2 to inherit second place and Desmond Titterington in B7 to finish third, the Connaughts holding together in this less than full-length race.

Connaught B6 was entered in its first Championship Grand Prix of the 1956 season at Spa, by Piero Scotti. Scotti retired from the Belgian Grand Prix after 10 laps of the 36 lap race due to oil pressure problems. B6 was one of the newest Connaughts but when the appropriate installment payments failed to be made by Scotti, Rodney Clarke was forced to repossess the car. Back at Aintree for the Aintree 100, Scott-Brown was again on form in B7, taking pole and dominating the race until going out on lap 8 of 34 lap race. Salvadori in Connaught A3 finished a creditable fourth and Bill Holt in A5 and Dick Gibson in A4 finished fifth and sixth, respectively.

Scott-Brown's Connaught B7, Titterington's B2 and Jack Fairman's B5, were all entered for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone but for the first time in years, Ken McAlpine was not driving at the British Grand Prix: "when I stopped I stopped and had no involvement at all." For all of his success in the Connaught in the non-Championship races, Archie Scott-Brown somehow was not as competitive in the Grand Prix setting and then lost a wheel due to axle problems. Titterington broke a connecting rod on lap 74 of the 101 lap race, putting him out. Only Jack Fairman in B5 finished in one piece and placed fourth, 2 laps down to Fangio and de Portago/Collins in their Lancia-Ferrari D50's and one lap down to Jean Behra in his Maserati 250F (Chassis No. 2521). Nevertheless, since Fairman had only qualified in 21st place, his finish in the points in a Grand Prix race amongst such quality competition had to be considered a fine day's work.

Italian promoters still remembered fondly the 1955 Syracuse victory of Tony Brooks in Sicily and offered Rodney Clarke sufficient inducement to venture forth once again from Surrey to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix, where Jack Fairman ran B5, Les Leston ran B1 and Ron Flockhart ran B7, which sported chrome exhaust pipes and chrome alloy wheels. B7 was usually Scott-Brown's car, but Flockhart was driving it instead because the Milan Auto Club refused to approve Archie Scott-Brown as physically able to race due to his physical impairment - a withered right arm - that did not seem to slow him down in England but was off-putting to the Italians. Les Leston's sheared torsion bar put him out of the race on lap 5 of the 50 lap race, but Flockhart, who had qualified almost dead last in 23rd place did amazingly well and finished a close third in B7, in what would have been Scott-Brown's car, the only Championship Grand Prix podium finish for Connaught.

This 1956 Italian Grand Prix is a famous race for a variety of reasons. As was often the case during the mid-1950's, Moss and Fangio were vying for the Championship and the Italian Grand Prix was the last race of the season. Moss was in the lead in his specially-built, lowline, offset Maserati 250F (Chassis No. 2525) but Fangio and the Lancia-Ferrari's were in a shambles. Most of the Lancia-Ferrari's were having tire-related trouble with the Engelbert tires Enzo Ferrari was contracted to use, with de Portago's tires bursting and damaging the suspension and Musso and Castellotti dueling with each other and ruining their tires after only 4 laps.

Ultimately, Castellotti's tire burst on the Monza banking and the incident damaged his car. Fangio then had a steering arm break and pitted, assuming when he pitted that the 1956 World Championship race was now over for him. But then Fangio's teammate, Peter Collins, offered Fangio his car, and by finishing second in a shared ride, Fangio had enough points to be declared World Champion for the fourth time. What made this act of altruism by Collins truly amazing was that at the point when he turned over his car to Fangio, Collins himself was in contention for the World Championship and might very well have won it himself but for this ultimate act of sportsmanship.

With all of these comings and goings, the Connaughts finally were able to capitalize on the misfortunes of others and score an impressive team finish - Flockhart in third in B7 and Fairman finishing fifth in B5 - in a world class Grand Prix full of serious competitors. It was a remarkably courageous run for Flockhart since he must have had the underpowered Alta engine at its limit on the bumpy Monza banking at 130 mph trying to keep up with the Ferrari's and Maserati's.

On October 14th 1956, a short 15 lap race was held at Brands Hatch that turned out to be a Connaught-fest and Archie Scott-Brown, back in the B7, finished first and set fastest lap. In a glimpse of things to come, however, Stuart Lewis-Evans took pole and finished a close second in Connaught B5 in his first Formula One race, and Les Leston in the ex-Scotti B6 and Jack Fairman in B1 finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Next Week: The Curtain Comes Down