F1 Legend Sir Stirling Moss headed to Lime Rock Park
This year’s 30th running of the Lime Rock Park Historic Festival presented by Jaguar will honor the incredible career of racing legend Sir Stirling Moss with the 82-year-old Brit on-site to witness some of the cars he made famous still competing today.
To celebrate the attendance of one of only two racing drivers knighted by the Queen, many of the famous machines that Moss drove throughout his career will be on-track from August 31 to September 3 including Vanwalls, Coopers, Maseratis, Jaguars and BMWs.
The British ace is no stranger to the Lime Rock Historic Festival, having competed here in a Maserati 250F in 1989. He also previously competed here in 1985 in a Sports Car Club of America endurance event aboard a Porsche, co-driving with Innes Ireland.
Having finally retired from active competition just last year, Moss will be on hand to see more than 300 historic racers doing battle in 10 different classes at the unique Lime Rock event over the Labor Day weekend.
Not only will fans get the chance to see a huge variety of historic cars from pre-war racers to 1970s Formula 1 machinery on track Saturday and Monday, the event also incorporates a 17-mile race car parade through all the local towns that ends in a street fair in Falls Village. Of course, the "Sunday in the Park Concours & Gathering of the Marques" extravaganza - Lime Rock’s entire 1.5 miles circuit is lined with splendid vehicles - is sandwiched by the Saturday and Monday vintage competition.
We caught up with Sir Stirling late last week via telephone and had a chance to ask him some questions before he arrives in Connecticut...
STIRLING MOSS Q&A
Q: HOW MUCH DO YOU ENJOY GETTING THE CHANCE TO COME TO EVENTS LIKE THE LIME ROCK HISTORIC FESTIVAL PRESENTED BY JAGUAR?
“When I first retired from Formula 1 in 1962 I certainly never envisaged I would be getting back in race cars for another 40 or 50 years.
“I had quite a serious accident that ended my F1 days and I was probably lucky to still be alive.
“At that stage, any involvement in getting back behind the wheel was certainly far from my mind and I resigned myself to the fact that, at the age of 32, I would have to work for a living, but that turned out not to be the case.”
Q: WHILE YOU WILL BE THE GUEST OF HONOR AT LIME ROCK PARK, YOU WON’T BE RACING. HOW DID YOU COME TO THE DECISION TO FINALLY RETIRE LAST YEAR?
A: “At 82 years of age, I figured that was probably a good time to finally retire permanently. I have certainly enjoyed a very long career because I started racing back when I was 17. I felt I had a fairly good innings and left it at that.
“There really is no point in taking part if you are not competitive and I was racing at Le Mans last year in a historic event when I realized that if I was going to be fast enough I was going to scare myself.
“Apart from the odd mistake over the years, that had never really happened to me before so I thought it was probably best that I got out.”
Q: ARE YOU STILL SURPRISED TO SEE SOME OF THE CARS YOU DROVE DURING YOUR CAREER STILL COMPETING ON TRACK?
A: “It amazes me to see the cars that I drove over the years still out there competing and they are worth so much more now than back in the day.
“About 20 years ago I got a call from a man who said he had my old Maserati 250 F and asked me if I would like to buy it.
“He was trying to sell it for 75,000 pounds and I got my diary out and looked up back to 1954 and found I had only paid 4,000 pounds for it back in the day - there was no way I was going to buy it.
“Of course now it’s worth about 3.5 million pounds!
“I would have loved to still owned some of those old machines but I drove 108 different cars over the years and if I only had eight of them I’d have a very valuable collection.
“Of course back when I was racing you were always looking to the next new car - why would you hold on to last year’s model?”
Q: IF YOU TURN BACK THE HANDS OF TIME AND BE IN YOUR 20s AGAIN, WOULD YOU HAVE LIKED TO COMPETE IN THE MODERN F1 CARS OF TODAY?
“I got great pleasure from those days. It was fast and quite dangerous, but that was all part of the attraction when you are young.
“I certainly wouldn’t want to go back.
“I don’t think the modern drivers get the same pleasure, thrill and excitement that I got when I was racing.
“Now the sport has become very safe but I don’t think it provides the same thrill when you are behind the wheel.
“To my mind it was very much more exciting back then. There were also many more problems with the cars that you had to drive around. It is interesting today, but not as exciting.”
Q: HOW HAS HISTORIC RACING CHANGED OVER THE YEARS FROM WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED COMPETING?
A: “When I started there were some races for pre-war cars but nothing like historic racing is today.
“It is great to come to these events and see some of these old machines that I raced many years ago but haven’t seen in a very long time.
“The amazing thing is they are now worth so much money compared to when they first were built.
“Putting these cars in a museum I believe is the wrong thing to do. They should be on the race track and I looking forward to seeing them do just that at the Lime Rock Park Festival.
“These cars were built to be raced and to put them away would be a real shame.”
ABOUT LIME ROCK PARK
Lime Rock Park is one of America's most recognized road racing venues and has been continuously operated since its opening in 1957. Listed on the National Registry of Historic Places by the National Park Service, the track is 1.5 miles in length, encompassing seven corners and more than seven stories of elevation change. The track is considered one of the most beautiful - and challenging to drive - in the world, constructed in a natural valley in the Berkshire Mountains of extreme northwest Connecticut. Discounted advance-priced tickets can be purchased at limerock.com or by calling860.435.5000
