In 2004, Stock Car Racing's Golden Jubilee Year, a list of the All-Time Top 50 Drivers was compiled by Keith Barber. He and stock car statistician, Malcolm Aylott, devised a formula that awarded points for finishing positions in the National Points and World Championships and thus recognised consistency year on year. That 2004 table was updated by Keith in the May 2011 edition of Stock Car Magazine. The names of the top 10 drivers in both the original and updated lists will have come as no surprise to long standing fans as most of them would hve been able to name the drivers without any statistics.

In compiling racing CVs for drivers featured on this website, I use total Final wins along with success in what I believe to be the five stock car major championships: World, British, European, All Season National Grading Points and since 2002 the National Points Championship (The annual shoot-out). Using this information, I was interested to discover who the most successful F1 drivers were from 1954 to 2011 and I came up with the points system set out below:

World Championship and All Season National Grading Championship 1954 - 2011

1st) 15+1, 2nd) 13, 3rd) 11, 4th) 9, 5th) 7, 6th) 5, 7th) 4, 8th) 3,

9th) 2, 10th) 1

British Championship 1956 - 2011

1st) 8+1, 2nd) 6, 3rd) 4

European Championship 1977 - 2011

1st) 5+1, 2nd) 3, 3rd) 1

National Points Championship (The Shoot-Out) 2002 - 2011

1st) 10+1, 2nd) 8, 3rd) 6

Final Wins 1954 - 2011

1 point for each win

The higher reward for the World and All Season Grading Championships reflects the season long nature of these competitions and the lower number of points awarded for the British and European Championships acknowledges the one-off nature of these races. The National Points Championship is over several meetings and the points awarded take account of this fact.

Although the silver roof is now the province of The Shoot-Out victor and no monetary or visual reward is made to the All Season National Grading Points winner, I still see this as a significant achievement and the entire grading list is a reflection of the success and consistency of individual drivers.

No set of statistics is perfect especially when trying to compare different eras but overall, if a fair and consistent approach is applied a reasonably accurate measure of success will emerge.

These statistics were for my own information but I thought other stock car fans would find the result of interest.

MOST SUCCESSFUL F1 DRIVERS BASED ON THE FIVE STOCK CAR MAJOR CHAMPIONSHIPS AND TOTAL FINAL VICTORIES 1954 - 2011

 

Points of Interest:

The result differs very little from the lists published in Stock Car Magazine.

Drivers in the top 30 represent all six decades of the sport.

2 Paul Harrison has edged out 212 Frankie Wainman Snr to make it into the top 6.

515 Frankie Wainman Jnr is very close to toppling the late, great Stu Smith Snr from top spot.

Of the current drivers 259 Paul Hines and 55 Craig Finnikin are closing in on 422 Nigel Whorton's 30th place and 380 Steven Cayzer, 16 Matt Newson, 4 Dan Johnson, 107 Lee Robinson, 84 Tom Harris and 22 Will Yarrow are all outside the top 50 but steadily climbing the charts each season.

The Top Six Drivers

Below are models of cars for the top six most successful drivers in the major championships and including Final victories from 1954 to 2011:

1st) 1 Stu Smith Snr - 2nd) 515 Frankie Wainman Jnr -

3rd) 53 John Lund

4th) 391 Andy Smith - 5th) 2 Paul Harrison - 6th) 33 Peter Falding

 

Also pictured below are the 2011 Major Championship winners represented by Ed Creations diecast models with StoxSigns stickers:

2 Paul Harrison (World & British Champion) - 55 Craig Finnikin (National Series Champion) - 150 Mick Sworder (European Champion) - 84 Tom Harris (All Season National Grading Points Champion)