The Ulster Tourist Trophy at Dundrod circuit was the first round of the 1955 World Sportscar Championship held after the 24 Hour of Le Mans, the ill-starred race during which more than 80 spectators died after Pierre Levegh 's Mercedes-Benz left the track. The immediate impact of the tragedy was a wholesale cancellation of Continental races and rallies: amongst races to be abandoned were the 1000 Km of the Nürburgring and subsequently the Carrera Panamericana road race, both of them elegible for the championship. The next event on the list, the Ulster Tourist Trophy, organized by Ulster A.C. on the 7.42-mile (11.934-kilometer) circuit of Dundrod, assumed major importance, drawing entries from works Mercedes-Benz, Maserati, Ferrari, Jaguar and Aston Martin factory teams. Once again a great race resulted but yet again in the black 1955 season, it was to be marred by tragedy.
During the second lap, while Moss, Hawthorn, Fangio and Behra leading the pack away, an ominous pall of smoke rose over Cochranstown, with seven cars involved in a fiery pile-up. In trying to pass on the right at the bottom of Deer's Leap, the inexperienced French amateur racer Vicecomte Henri de Barry's pale blue Mercedes-Benz 300SL #12, Jim Mayers in the Cooper T39-Climax #43 struck a massive stone gatepost, his car disintegrating and the fuel exploding. Friedrich Kretschmann's Porsche 550 Spyder #31 and Bill Smith's Connaught AL/SR #39 immediately behind, were involved, as was Ken Wharton's works Frazer Nash MkII #35 and Jim Russell's Cooper T39-Climax #42.
Lance Macklin in his Healey 100S #20 also crashed, trying to avoid the pile-up. Mayers was killed instantly and Smith died shortly after the accident, both their cars being burnt out. Wharton was dragged injured from the remains of his car which also caught fire. Macklin, having been innocently involved within three months in the tragedies at both Le Mans and Dundrod, decided to quit racing for good, as well as did Vicecomte Henri de Barry.
Later in that same race, during 35th lap, Richard Manwaring also suffered a fatal accident, when the works Elva Mk1-Climax #45, that he shared with Robbie MacKenzie-Low, hit a bank, was flung in the air and overturned at Tornagrough bend, tearing upside down for 75 yards along the road. The car caught fire and burning oil and petrol held off rescuers for several minutes, with the driver still trapped underneath. Finally they dragged him clear and Manwaring was rushed to a local hospital, in the village of Crumlin, County Antrim, where he was pronounced dead.
Richard Laurence Manwaring was 24 years old. He was exactly one week shy of his 25th birthday when he crashed fatally. A resident of Sedlescombe, Sussex, England, at the time of his death, he was survived by his parents, Edward and Vera Minnie (née Tassell) Manwaring; his brother, Robin and his sister, Jennifer.
R.I.P
