1960 United States Grand Prix

The 1960 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on November 20, 1960, at Riverside International Raceway in Riverside, California. It was race 10 of 10 in the 1960 World Championship of Drivers and race 9 of 9 in the 1960 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers.

1960 United States Grand Prix
Race 10 of 10 in the 1960 Formula One season
Race details
Date November 20, 1960
Official name III Grand Prix of the U.S.
Location Riverside International Raceway
Riverside, California
Course Permanent road course
Course length 5.271 km (3.275 miles)
Distance 75 laps, 395.325 km (245.643 miles)
Weather Temperatures up to 24.4 °C (75.9 °F);
Wind speeds up to 18.33 km/h (11.39 mph)[1]
Pole position
Driver Lotus-Climax
Time 1:54.4
Fastest lap
Driver Australia Jack Brabham Cooper-Climax
Time 1:56.3 on lap 71
Podium
First Lotus-Climax
Second Lotus-Climax
Third Cooper-Climax
Lap leaders

Summary

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For whatever reason (unfamiliarity of the fans with open-wheeled cars and European drivers; media disapproval of Eastern promoters; lack of an ongoing championship battle), promoter Alec Ulmann had no more success drumming up support for the 1960 United States Grand Prix at Riverside International Raceway in California than he had the year before in Sebring, Florida.

Set in the desert near the Box Spring Mountain complex east of Los Angeles, the Riverside track featured a particularly demanding uphill esses section, just past the start-finish line. Riverside resident and local hero Dan Gurney headed the field as the natural favorite of the crowd, which numbered only about 25,000. Jack Brabham, who had already clinched his second consecutive World Championship a few weeks prior in Portugal, was back with teammate Bruce McLaren in the factory Cooper-Climaxes. Team Lotus had cars for Jim Clark, Innes Ireland and John Surtees, while Rob Walker entered a Scottish blue Lotus for Stirling Moss. BRM had three mid-engined P48s for Jo Bonnier, Graham Hill and Gurney.

With the Championship chase over, Enzo Ferrari decided to keep his cars at home, believing his time and money would be better spent preparing for the new 1.5-liter Formula for 1961. The team's drivers, Phil Hill and Wolfgang von Trips, however, were allowed to enter the race with other teams. Hill particularly wanted to protect his third-place position in the Championship behind Cooper teammates Brabham and McLaren.

Moss won the pole battle, well ahead of Brabham and Gurney, who completed the front row. Phil Hill was astonished at the "incredible" difference in handling between the year-old, rear-engined green and red Cooper he was given for the race and the Monza winning Dino Ferrari he had been driving all season, but he managed to put it only thirteenth on the grid.

On his way to the track in nearly perfect weather on Sunday morning, race promoter Ulmann realized that, indeed, he had bitten the hand that might have fed him. Following the rousing success of the Los Angeles Times-sponsored Sports Car Grand Prix that summer, where a crowd of 70,000 packed RIR, Ulmann said plainly that a genuine Formula One Grand Prix would surely do even better, since the Times race wasn't really a Grand Prix at all!

Ulmann's words angered Times publisher Otis Chandler, and only Ulmann was surprised when the biggest daily paper in Los Angeles and most of the local media completely ignored the event.

The small crowd of Riverside veterans who were on hand for the race, however, were stunned by the spectacle of the F1 cars. As Brabham took the early lead into Turn One, ahead of Gurney and Moss, the Riverside radio and PA announcer could only call their names and utter, "Wow." The Coopers of Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien stalled on the grid, but were restarted and got under way. On lap 4, Surtees spun his Lotus in front of teammate Jim Clark, putting himself out, and causing the nosecone from his car to be used to replace the now-shattered one on Clark's.

Still leading, Brabham paid the price for over-reacting to last year's sputtering last lap at Sebring. Not wanting to run out of fuel again, he had overfilled his tanks, and excess fuel was spilling and being ignited by the heat of his exhaust. Two stops failed to find the source of the problem, or to assuage Brabham's concern over the noises and flames erupting from the back of the car.

The Australian's troubles left Moss well in front, and when Gurney's BRM blew a core plug, Moss' teammate Bonnier took second, ahead of Ireland, Graham Hill and Texan Jim Hall, driving his first Grand Prix. Just before halfway through the 75-lap race, Graham Hill retired with a broken gearbox, and Bonnier began to drop back when a broken valve spring caused a misfire. Brabham had been charging up through the field since his pit stops, however, and eventually finished a battling fourth, behind teammate McLaren. Phil Hill ran fifth in the unfamiliar Cooper until a spin dropped him behind Bonnier, who got his ailing BRM home for two points.

Moss won the last race of the two-and-a-half liter era going away, and grabbed third in the Championship for the second year in a row. It was his fourteenth victory under the outgoing regulations, one less than five-time World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio.

Having failed to realize his dream for Formula One in the US a second time, Ulmann nobly used his own money to pay prize and appearance fees. Winner Moss got a check for $7,500, a staggering amount for the time, and while suppliers had to wait a few months for theirs, they received every penny. Happily, the following year would see the United States Grand Prix finally settle into a regular home, with a loyal and appreciative crowd in Watkins Glen, New York. But a Formula One race would eventually return to California. In 1976, the United States Grand Prix West would come to Long Beach, only 60 miles away.

Classification

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Qualifying

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Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap
1 5   Stirling Moss Lotus-Climax 1:54.4
2 2   Jack Brabham Cooper-Climax 1:55.0 +0.6
3 16   Dan Gurney BRM 1:55.2 +0.8
4 15   Jo Bonnier BRM 1:55.6 +1.2
5 12   Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 1:55.6 +1.2
6 11   John Surtees Lotus-Climax 1:56.6 +2.2
7 10   Innes Ireland Lotus-Climax 1:57.0 +2.6
8 7   Olivier Gendebien Cooper-Climax 1:57.2 +2.8
9 6   Tony Brooks Cooper-Climax 1:57.2 +2.8
10 3   Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 1:57.4 +3.0
11 17   Graham Hill BRM 1:57.6 +3.2
12 24   Jim Hall Lotus-Climax 1:58.2 +3.8
13 9   Phil Hill Cooper-Climax 1:58.8 +4.4
14 8   Henry Taylor Cooper-Climax 1:59.0 +4.6
15 14   Roy Salvadori Cooper-Climax 1:59.6 +5.2
16 26   Wolfgang von Trips Cooper-Maserati 2:01.4 +7.0
17 21   Brian Naylor JBW-Maserati 2:02.2 +7.8
18 23   Chuck Daigh Scarab 2:02.6 +8.2
19 18   Maurice Trintignant Cooper-Maserati 2:03.2 +8.8
20 25   Pete Lovely Cooper-Ferrari 2:03.4 +9.0
21 4   Ron Flockhart Cooper-Climax 2:04.4 +10.0
22 20   Robert Drake Maserati 2:05.4 +11.0
23 19   Ian Burgess Cooper-Maserati 2:06.6 +12.2
Source:[2]

Race

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Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 5   Stirling Moss Lotus-Climax 75 2:28:52.2 1 8
2 10   Innes Ireland Lotus-Climax 75 + 38.0 7 6
3 3   Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 75 + 52.0 10 4
4 2   Jack Brabham Cooper-Climax 74 + 1 Lap 2 3
5 15   Jo Bonnier BRM 74 + 1 Lap 4 2
6 9   Phil Hill Cooper-Climax 74 + 1 Lap 13 1
7 24   Jim Hall Lotus-Climax 73 + 1 Lap 12  
8 14   Roy Salvadori Cooper-Climax 73 + 2 Laps 15  
9 26   Wolfgang von Trips Cooper-Maserati 72 + 3 Laps 16  
10 23   Chuck Daigh Scarab 70 + 5 Laps 18  
11 25   Pete Lovely Cooper-Ferrari 69 + 6 Laps 20  
12 7   Olivier Gendebien Cooper-Climax 69 + 6 Laps 8  
13 20   Robert Drake Maserati 68 + 7 Laps 22  
14 8   Henry Taylor Cooper-Climax 68 + 7 Laps 14  
15 18   Maurice Trintignant Cooper-Maserati 66 + 9 Laps 19  
16 12   Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 61 + 14 Laps 5  
Ret 17   Graham Hill BRM 34 Gearbox 11  
Ret 19   Ian Burgess Cooper-Maserati 29 Ignition 23  
Ret 21   Brian Naylor JBW-Maserati 20 Engine 17  
Ret 16   Dan Gurney BRM 18 Blown core plug 3  
Ret 4   Ron Flockhart Cooper-Climax 11 Transmission 21  
Ret 6   Tony Brooks Cooper-Climax 6 Spun Off 9  
Ret 11   John Surtees Lotus-Climax 3 Accident 6  
Source:[3]

Additional information

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This was the Formula One World Championship debut race for American drivers Jim Hall and Bob Drake.

Championship standings after the race

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  • Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 6 results counted towards each Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.

References

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  1. ^ "Weather information for the "1960 United States Grand Prix"". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved June 26, 2013.
  2. ^ "1960 United States GP Qualification". www.chicanef1.com. Retrieved July 30, 2020.
  3. ^ "1960 United States Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on December 22, 2014. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
  4. ^ "United States 1960 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
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  • Nye, Doug (1978). The United States Grand Prix and Grand Prize Races, 1908-1977. B. T. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-1263-1.
  • Dennis Shattuck (February, 1961). "Grand Prix of the U.S.". Road & Track, 78-81.


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1960 Italian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1960 season
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