Grand Prix champ but no F1 crown
CONSIDERED one of the best British drivers to have never won a Formula One title, six-time Grand Prix winner Tony Brooks was a third-year dental student prepping for his finals when he secured his first competitive race in 1955.
Brooks had only steered a Formula Two Connaught a few times before triumphing in the non-championship Gran Premio di Siracusa, after stepping in as a last-minute replacement for the British team.
He practised the track on a scooter and his unexpected victory earned him the moniker of the “racing dentist”. When he retired at the age of 29 in 1961, Brooks was more successful than every other driver bar Argentina’s Juan Manuel Fangio, Italian Alberto Ascari and Britain’s Stirling Moss.
Brooks bagged 10 podiums from 38 starts and 75 career points, and became runner-up at the world championship in 1959 with Ferrari.
Although not the favourite, he had a chance of winning in his final race at Sebring until team-mate Wolfgang von Trips hit him on the first lap. Brooks won the 1957 British Grand Prix with Vanwall, in a car he shared with Moss, and claimed victories for Ferrari in France and Germany in 1959. He was twice a runner-up in Monaco.
Moss, along with three-time world champion Jack Brabham, who won the 1959 championship, extolled Brooks’ ability in an era of frequent fatalities.
“Brooks was a tremendous driver, the greatest – if he’ll forgive me – ‘unknown’ racing driver there’s ever been,” Moss once said.
Charles Anthony Standish Brooks was born in Dukinfield, Cheshire, the son of dentist, Charles, and his wife Irene, who both liked fast cars. Educated at Mount St Mary’s College in Derbyshire, he intended to follow his father into dentistry by studying
at Manchester University. He began club racing in 1952 and drove a Frazer Nash and Healey.
Modest about his achievements and with a quiet temperament, Brooks happily eschewed fame and boozy nights out to remain focused on the racetrack.
He had two crashes early on in his career – at Silverstone and Le
Mans – he attributed both to a compromise over safety, something that the Catholic and family man vowed to never do again.
He came third in his final race at the 1961 US Grand Prix, and later opened a petrol station business.
He was married to Pina and they had children Caroline, David, Michèle, Julia and Stephanie.