1956 Australian Grand Prix


The 1956 Australian Grand Prix was a motor race for Formula Libre cars held at Albert Park Street Circuit, in Victoria, Australia on 2 December 1956. The race, which had 22 starters, was held over 80 laps of the five kilometre circuit, the longest of all the Australian Grands Prix at 402 kilometres. It attracted a crowd of over 120,000 spectators.
The race was the twenty first Australian Grand Prix and the second to be held on a street circuit situated around the Albert Park Lake, the current location of the race. It had been moved to the end of the year, and the rotational system which shifted the race from state to state was suspended to allow the AGP to capitalise on the publicity generated around the 1956 Olympic Games which were being held in Melbourne. With the presence of the works Officine Alfieri Maserati racing team, bringing with them Stirling Moss, Jean Behra and a fleet of 250F, and fellow European based racers Ken Wharton, Peter Whitehead and Reg Parnell, the race became the most important motor racing event held in Australia's history to that point.
Moss and Behra dominated the two-week festival which began the previous weekend with the Australian Tourist Trophy sports car race in which the duo placed first and second, each driving a Maserati 300S. In the Grand Prix the two were again dominant, but Moss was a class above Behra coming close to lapping his team mate. The two Scuderia Ambrosiana entered Ferraris of Peter Whitehead and Reg Parnell were not a serious threat but Whitehead did have the measure of the local drivers with the 1938 Australian Grand Prix winner finishing two laps clear of the first of the Australians, Maserati 250F driver Reg Hunt. Parnell finished sixth, behind another domestic Maserati 250F driven by Stan Jones. Both finished on the same lap as Hunt, while Lex Davison's older sports car engined Ferrari 625 was another two laps distant. Doug Whiteford’s Talbot-Lago was the first non-Italian car home in eighth place. With defending champion Jack Brabham absent the best of the Cooper sourced machinery was Len Lukey's much modified Cooper-Bristol in ninth. Wharton's European-based Maserati 250F failed to reach the finishing line.
Moss’s fastest lap of 1:52.2 was a new lap record for the Albert Park Circuit.

Classification

PosNo.DriverCarEntrantLapsTime
17 Stirling MossMaserati 250F / Maserati 2.5LOfficine Alfieri Maserati802h 36m 15.4s
21 Jean BehraMaserati 250F / Maserati 2.5LOfficine Alfieri Maserati802h 38m 27.4s
33 Peter WhiteheadFerrari 555 F1 / Ferrari 3.4LScuderia Ambrosiana79
45 Reg HuntMaserati 250F / Maserati 2.5LReg Hunt Motors P/L78
58 Stan JonesMaserati 250F / Maserati 2.5LStan Jones Motors P/L77
62 Reg ParnellFerrari 555 F1 / Ferrari 3.4LScuderia Ambrosiana77
79 Lex DavisonFerrari 625 F1 / Ferrari 3.0LEcurie Australie75
811 Doug WhitefordTalbot-Lago T26C / Talbot-Lago 4.5LD Whiteford72
925 Len LukeyCooper T23 / Bristol 2.0LRH Hunt Motors P/L70
1019 Julian BarrettAlta GP-2 / Alta S/C 1.5LJ St Q Barrett70
1118 Tom ClarkHWM / Alta 2.0LTE Clark66
1223 Jack MyersCooper T20 / Holden 2.4LJ Myers66
Ret6 Kevin NealMaserati A6GCM / Maserati 2.5LReg Hunt Motors P/L68
Ret20 Bill WillcoxAlta / Alta 2.0LW Wilcox39
Ret26 Bill CraigAlta / Holden 2.4LWJ Craig26
Ret24 Alec MildrenCooper T20 / Bristol 2.0LAG Mildren21
Ret4 Ken WhartonMaserati 250F / Maserati 2.5LEcurie Du Puy19
Ret16 Ted GrayTornado II / Ford 4.5LLJ Abrahams15
Ret22 Reg SmithCooper T40 / Bristol 2.0LSmith's Radio P/L13
Ret28 Harry McLaughlinFord V8 Special 4.3LH McLaughlan6
Ret17 Tom HawkesCooper T23 / Holden 2.3LTV Hawkes5
Ret12 Owen BaileyTalbot-Lago T26C / Talbot-Lago 4.5LO Bailey0