Sir Stirling Moss 1929 - 2020
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FRESSINGFIELD OILY RAG CLUB A Tribute To Sir Stirling Moss 1929 - 2020 May 2020 FORC - For Motor Sport Enthusiasts Cover Painting 'Monaco Maestro' by Andrew Kitson Once more we are indebted to Andrew, this time for our Stirling Moss Tribute cover picture. The 1961 Monaco Grand Prix was the first race under the new 1.5 litre Formula 1 engine capacity rules. The British based teams had allowed themselves to fall behind Ferrari in engine development, the Prancing Horse fielding a team of 'Shark Nose' Ferrari 156's for Phil Hill, Richie Ginther and Wolfgang Von Tripps. Moss had taken pole position in Rob Walker's Lotus 18 Climax ahead of Ginther's Ferrari and Jim Clark in a works Lotus. Moss' triumph in Monaco in 1961, his third, is remembered as one of the greatest and most competitive drives of all time – it was also Lotus maiden F1 World Championship Grand Prix win. Andrew's picture sums up the final moments of the race with Moss leading Ginther, the margin 3.6 seconds, after 2 Hours 45 minutes of racing. Many thanks to FORC member Leigh Trevail for the use of this painting. The View From The Editorial Desk When news broke on Easter Sunday of the passing of Sir Stirling Moss a great many of you no doubt reflected for a moment about what this meant to you. So much has been written and broadcast about the man that he can truthfully be described, seriously, as a legend in his own lifetime. Stirling's death naturally triggered a great outpouring, the media replaying the well recorded events in a long full life. It occurred to me however that many FORC members would have their own memories whether from a chance meeting with Stirling or simply watching from a distance over the years. Your response to our invitation to share your experiences of Stirling turned out to span over seventy years. Thank you. Best wishes Steve Wyatt Memories Of Stirling Moss By John Furlong I first attended a motor race meeting at Brands Hatch on 17th September 1950. I can be specific about the date because we were regaled over the PA by John Bolster with a lusty baritone chorus of “21 today” in honour of Stirling who was fresh from recent success at Silverstone though not in the money on this day. His and Reg Parnell’s faces were soon to become familiar in Shell adverts on the back of London buses. So also was his pale green and cream XK120 coupé (I think with wire wheels) street parked by Charing Cross near his office and his fast food outlet which popularised the word ‘beefburger’, ‘ham’ being deemed inappropriate. By this time he was already spreading his talents across Formula II and sportscars while continuing to put on a good show in the highly competitive Formula III and this continued until he got into the 250F Maserati in 1955. Jim Russell burst into the big time by winning the Daily Telegraph Trophy at Brands Hatch in August 1954, beating hot favourite Moss into second place. This didn’t suit Ken Gregory, Secretary of the Meeting and Stirling’s manager, who had planned a bit of a PR scoop so, unusually, Moss received a borrowed laurel wreath and shared the lap of honour with Jim. Jim later told of a sequel to this: with 500 on trailer he was gonged for speeding at the Blackwall Tunnel and when asked the then standard question “Who do you think you are? Stirling Moss?” replied “No, I’ve just beaten him!” whereupon he was congratulated and wished a safe ….. but slower ….. trip home. Fast forward to 2011 when the now Sir Stirling came to meet the people at the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds. I had taken along his biography and was standing patiently in the queue for signing. Suddenly the queue surged forward and there am I with the book in one hand and a hot dog in the other. An attractive lady helper, seeing my plight as I approached the presence, took charge of the hot dog, I got my autograph and in a brief chat I asked if he could join us at Snetterton the following weekend. He called to the bearer of my hot dog “what are we doing at the weekend, Susie?” ….. aka Lady Moss! Stirling in the Beart Cooper 500 F3 Brands Hatch August 1954 The end of an era By David Duffy I was lucky enough to meet Sir Stirling and have breakfast with him in the competitors' tent at the Goodwood Revival in 2002. At that time, I owned one of the two Connaught Sports Racing Cars, chassis ALSR11 – and had entered it for that Revival meeting. That gave me the opportunity to talk about the car with Stirling. He had raced it at Oulton Park in August 1955 for Peter Bell, winning his class. He was interested to see his photo in Doug Nye's book My Cars, My Career. I came away with the impression that he had probably forgotten that he had ever driven the car (which is confirmed in the book!!) But he signed the photo in my book. He was completely approachable and open to chatting. A memory to savour. Above and below. Stirling Moss, Connaught ALSR11, Oulton Park, August 1955. Memories of a hero by Judy Portway One of my first memories of Stirling was in 1955 when the Telegraph published a small photograph of the winning car in the Mille Miglia, in the centre of the front page; such an achievement. It was on the table where l was meant to be having a lesson from a cramming teacher to pass an exam and l could not concentrate on the lesson. Then living in Cheshire we always went to the Gold Cup at Oulton Park and cheered on No 7. Years later, in the 1970s, l sat next to Jenks at dinner in the Radnorshire Arms during a VSCC Prestigne weekend, and somewhat uncharacteristically, when l mentioned my hero worship of Moss he opened up about the race and gave me a personal account. I have never forgotten it. Nic and I went to the Australian GP, in Melbourne, in about 1995. There was a parade of local vintage cars and l think Moss drove a Bugatti. l was introduced to him in the paddock by Gavin Sandford Morgan and we had quite a long conversation, but l was so star struck that l can't remember any of it! I met him again at a Brooklands dinner and at a Goodwood Revival some years ago l gave Lionel Webber a photo of him to see if he could get it signed. True to form Lionel came back with it duly signed. When l did the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the 90's, in the 1914 TT Humber, in random practice l found myself going up the hill a few cars after him. At the top l got out and found him still sitting in 722 as he had a bad back and didn't want to move much; l offered to get him a drink which he declined, so we had quite a long chat then....Surreal, especially as he was in that immortal car. Last week we found a film of the 1955 Belgium G.P. on You tube. The crowd were as memorable as Fangio and Moss, one man pouring a tumbler of chianti and dogs on the track! Picture courtesy Vernon Clarke In a Mercedes Benz 300SLR at the Goodwood Festival of Speed To read Dennis Jenkinson's comprehensive account of the 1955 Mille Miglia go to https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/ , click on Archives then 1950s and look for June 1955. MEMORIES OF STIRLING MOSS By Jules Greenway Having joined the BBC in 1963 as a Trainee Cameraman at Television Centre, I was lucky enough, in 1968, to work on the drama “Mille Miglia.” Written by Athol Fugard it told the story of the 1955 race famously won by Moss and Denis Jenkinson. I was hugely excited to be working on this production (as were the other petrol heads on the crew!), not least because the nice chaps from the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart brought over the winning car, which to my mind was far more of a star than the mere actors, and I got to sit in it! They were not so pleased when, during the rehearsal of the scene depicting Moss and Jenks stopping to change a wheel due to a puncture, Michael Bryant, playing Moss, leant on the bodywork just rear of the door and caused a fist sized dent in the very thin lightweight aluminium! The play was part of the Theatre 625 strand taking three days to rehearse and record and we were delighted when on day two Moss & Jenks visited the studio to be reunited with “722” and introduced to the Production Team. Sadly when the play was transmitted they were none too impressed with the way they were portrayed which was a shame given the effort which went into it! Years later in 2005 I was pleased to meet Sir Stirling again, being introduced by Phil Porter who reminded him of our previous encounter, and he autographed my copy of the book “722” which I treasure to this day. Stirling signs Jules' copy of '722' Silverstone 5th May 1956 Norman Reynolds Seeing the wonderful title page picture from 'The British Racing Hero – From Moss to Mansell’, (written by Derick Allsop, published by Stanley Paul), I thought it would make an excellent enlargement for the barn above my Healey 3000.