Few of the 30,000 spectators, bundled warmly against the biting wind, realized they were to witness the birth of a legend. The British Empire Trophy Race of 1957 took place on a cold but sunny afternoon at the heavily wooded Oulton Park circuit in rural Cheshire. In 1955, one-armed Archie Scott-Brown had taken first in the Lister-Maserati built by Cambridge businessman Brian Lister, and the following year Stirling Moss won in a diminutive Cooper-Climax. But this year it was going to take more than 1500cc to secure the trophy, and Lister had come ready to rumble.
Their piece de resistance outwardly looked like the fast yet fragile Lister-Maserati they had run in the past, but up front was a 3.4-liter, dry-sump Jaguar D-Type engine freshly purchased from the factory and tuned by engine wizard Don Moore. In its debut at a minor Snetterton race the week before, Scott-Brown had set fastest lap, but was let down by clutch problems. This time the formidable trio of Archie, Brian Lister and the Lister-Jaguar were ready for battle. Ranged against them were the might of the Aston Martin team. Debonair Roy Salvadori was piloting the latest works 2.5-liter DBR-1, with Noel Cunningham-Reid in a factory DB3S. Also Aston-mounted were brothers Graham and Peter Whitehead in privately-entered DB3S models. Dick Protheroe was in the prototype Tojiero-Jaguar Mk.II, while LeMans winner Ron Flockhart drove an ex-Duncan Hamilton Jaguar D-Type. Other big iron included an H.W.M. Jaguar, a few D-Types, a Cooper-Jaguar and an ex-Ecurie Ecosse C-Type.
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