A Formula 1 race being won by Stirling Moss in 1961 was nothing unusual. But what has firmly positioned the Oulton Park Gold Cup of that year into motor sport history is the car in which he took victory: the four-wheel-drive Ferguson-Climax. It remains the only F1 race ever to be won by a total-traction machine.
Motor Sport editor Bill Boddy was on hand to witness this historic event, and was pleased to note: “Oulton Park is such a pleasant place, with such tolerant officials, that a visit there is always welcome and now M1 and improved roads are open it is within three and a half hours or so of London.” Well, good luck getting there so quickly via the M1 in 2026…
WB’s journey even entailed a stop-off, “swapping the Herald for a Singer Vogue outside Coventry and proceeding to the circuit with the photographer”. But he was disappointed upon arrival to find that Porsche had scratched from the entry, “so that the only thing International about the meeting was the presence of Masten Gregory [UDT Lotus], Wolfgang Seidel [Lotus] and the Frenchman Bernard Collomb [Cooper].”
Still, the attractions of Cheshire went some way towards making up for this: “Friday had been a golden autumnal day, with Oulton looking its very best, and after a walk along Chester’s ancient wall at midnight we retired to bed in a very ‘horsey’ hotel, looking forward to sunshine and falling leaves on the morrow.”
The Ferguson P99 arrived with a bang in F1, then quickly became a racing footnote – Motor Sport takes it to the track in our November 2023 edition
With rain falling during the race, Moss moved in front on the sixth lap after Jim Clark (Lotus) and Graham Hill (BRM) had made the early running. Before long the “race settled down to damp dullness”, with Boddy observing of the Ferguson, “with its unique transmission it could out-brake every other car on the circuit and was quite immune from trouble”.
Even as the track dried, Moss stretched his advantage and led home the Coopers of Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren. Boddy praised “Ferguson Developments, Major Tony Rolt, Claude Hill, Jack Fairman and the other people who have perfected this new GP car in such a short time”.
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