In 1956, Paul O’Shea won the US Sports Car Championship for the second time in a row driving the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL touring sports car. The photo was taken in the 1955 season, in which he competed already driving the W 198
In 1956, Paul O’Shea won the US Sports Car Championship for the second time in a row driving the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL touring sports car. The photo was taken in the 1955 season, in which he competed already driving the W 198
Mercedes

When Mercedes-Benz Dominated SCCA Racing in the 1950s

Avatar photoSports Car Digest

Racing driver Paul O’Shea won his second title as the U.S. sports car champion in the 1956 season driving a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing. When the season ended on 28 December 1956, he was champion in the category “D Production” and had scored the most points in the National Sports Car Championship of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). He went on to defend his title again the following year, this time driving a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLS, the racing version of the 300 SL Roadster.

On 23 January 1957, the New York Times reported that Paul O’Shea was awarded the title of “National Sports Car Champion” for the second year running. This was also a triumph for Mercedes-Benz, because since 1955 the racing driver born in 1928 had been competing with works support in the 300 SL production sports car (W 198). The championship title was informally awarded by the news media. The SCCA only honoured the champions in the individual categories. In 1956, O’Shea won the racing class D of the production vehicles.

Tags
Avatar photo
Sports Car Digest
Sports Car Digest is composed of writers and photographers from around the world, all focused upon providing authoritative content and commentary and stunning images to our audience of historic car enthusiasts. Many of our contributors choose to be anonymous, so we use this author account to share their stories and amazing photography.
Related
Members only$29 / year

Keep going. This is where it gets good.

Sports Car Digest Membership is for people who'd rather spend an hour with one chassis number than skim ten headlines. The rest of this story — and every other one like it — is a few seconds away.

  • 5,000+ members-only stories

    Concours, auctions, race history, driven classics and the full archive.

  • No ads. None.

    The whole site reads like a magazine, on every device.

  • The market, every week

    Auction results and classic-car values from the people who were there.

  • 30% off the shop

    Every Sports Car Digest shirt and piece of merch, all year.

Join Sports Car Digest — Keep Reading

$29 a year. Cancel anytime, no hoops.
Already a member? Sign in

BY CAR PEOPLE, NOT A NAMELESS MEDIA COMPANY. Your membership keeps a small independent team of historians, photojournalists and racing drivers doing this.

Join — Keep Reading $29/yr