BRSCC British Saloon Car Championship

Yes Sir, I Can Boogie - 1961 index


The 1961 British championship was, after much discussion, for group 2 cars. Fears that an expensive continental car would be needed for the championship were not justified; in fact, only a few guest drives gave any results for non-British cars. Especially Linge in the BMW made quite some impact; less so the cars from the other side of the Atlantic, though Gurney was very fast with the Impala.

The Group 2 field was divided in four classes: 0-1000 cc, 1000-2000 cc (although contemporary reports mentioned a 1600 cc class limit at some races - no worries since 1600 cc cars won the class anyway), 2000-3000 cc with very few entries, and over 3000 cc, the Jaguar domain.


Top championship candidates were John Whitmore with a Mini, Parkes with a Jaguar Mk2, Hutcheson with a Riley and Blydenstein with his old Borgward. The latter two were fighting each other in the same class and Parkes was most unlucky. So the title went to Whitmore, but the talented driver had to cope with good entries in his class too - there were many Mini's racing this year, with impressive speed. Not enough for an overall win yet, but maybe in a few years?

The races:

The cars

Final classification

British Saloon Car Championship

Home