Tony Brooks

Quiet, thoughtful, modest, Tony Brooks was all of those things, which is probably why his name isn’t exactly on the tip of everyone’s tongue when reminiscing about post-war motor racing heroes. But this unpretentious young man was the strong, determined driver who lit up fast circuits like Spa and Monza in works Vanwalls and Ferraris, and twice came close to winning the world title.

Born in Dunkinfield, Cheshire, Charles Anthony Stanford Brooks, alias Tony, was a 20-year-old dental student at Manchester University when he started club motor racing in his spare time—first in a Healey and later a Frazer-Nash—but he graduated to the works Aston Martin team in 1955 and surprised the pundits when he and Peter Collins came 3rd in the Goodwood 9 Hours driving a DB3S. After some single-seater placings, Brooks was invited to drive a Connaught in the Syracuse Grand Prix in Sicily. That was a bit of a shock but, rather absentmindedly, he accepted, swatting for his dentistry finals on the journey to the Mediterranean island. The opposition wasn’t quite what Connaught expected, because the Ferraris didn’t compete. There was stiff opposition from Gigi Villoresi, Luigi Musso and Harry Schell in Maserati 250Fs, which their drivers said handled like a dream but were underpowered. Although Tony had never even sat in a Formula One car before that day, he ended up lapping the Sicilian circuit in the Alta-engined Connaught B in competitive times. So competitive that he won the non-championship F1 race by two minutes from Musso, and even set the fastest lap of 104.23 mph. Not bad for a 23-year-old dental student and ex-clubbie.