Sir
Stirling Craufurd Moss,
OBE FIE (Fellow of the Institute of Engineers) (born 17 September 1929) is a former
Formula One racing driver from
England. An inductee into the
International Motorsports Hall of Fame
his success in a variety of categories placed him among the world's
elite—he is regarded by some commentators as "the greatest driver never
to win the World Championship".
Moss, who raced from 1948 to 1962, won 212 of the 529 races he entered, including 16
Formula One Grands Prix.
He would compete in as many as 62 races in a single year and drove 84
different makes of car over the course of his racing career, including
Lotus, Vanwall, Maserati, Jaguar, Ferrari and Porsche. Like many drivers
of the era, he competed in several formulae—very often on the same day.
He retired in 1962 after a crash left him in a coma for a month, as
afterwards he felt unable to continue driving at a professional level.
In spite of this early retirement he has continued to be the focus of
media attention and consequently, a well-known figure.
Moss was one of the first customers of the
Cooper Car Company
when,using money won from his horse riding events, he put a deposit on a
racing car. He eventually managed to persuade his father, who was very
much against Stirling becoming a racing driver, wanting him to become a
dentist, to allow him to purchase one of the new Cooper 500 cars. He
quickly demonstrated his ability with numerous wins, at national and
international level, and continued to compete in
Formula Three, both in Coopers and Kieft cars long after graduating to the senior categories.
His first major international race victory was in the 1950
RAC Tourist Trophy for sports cars on the
Dundrod
circuit in Northern Ireland. He went on to win the Tourist Trophy six
more times: 1951 (Jaguar C-Type), 1955 (Mercedes-Benz 300SLR), 1958
& 1959 (Aston Martin DBR1) and 1960 & 1961 (Ferrari 250 GT).
Moss was a pioneer in the British Formula One racing scene and was
second in the Drivers' Championship four times in a row from 1955 to
1958.
Moss was also a competent rally driver and is one of only three people to have won a
Coupe d'Or (Gold Cup) for three consecutive penalty-free runs on the
Alpine Rally (Coupe des Alpes). In addition, he finished second in the 1952
Monte Carlo Rally driving a
Sunbeam-Talbot 90 with co-driver
John Cooper.
In 1954, he became the first foreign driver to win the
12 Hours of Sebring, sharing the
Cunningham team's 1.5-liter O.S.C.A. MT4 with American Bill Lloyd.
Mercedes racing boss
Alfred Neubauer
approached Moss's manager Ken Gregory in 1953, and showed an interest
in Moss's services, but after having seen Moss do well in a mediocre
car, Neubauer wanted to see how Moss would do in a better car, and
suggested that they buy a Maserati for the 1954 season, which they did.
Moss did not get high up in the championship points because of
unreliability, but he often qualified alongside the Mercedes
frontrunners and performed very well; the best of these performances
being at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, where he passed both men who
at time were considered to be the two best Formula One drivers at the
time-
Juan Manuel Fangio in a Mercedes and
Alberto Ascari
in a Ferrari for the lead. Ascari retired with engine problems, and
Moss led until lap 68 until he too developed engine problems, and Fangio
went by to take the victory, with Moss pushing his Maserati 250F to the
finish line. Neubauer, already impressed having seen Moss test the
W196 at Hockenheim, promptly then signed Moss up to drive for the 1955 season.
Moss's first Formula One win was his home race, the
1955 British Grand Prix at
Aintree. He became the first British driver to win the British Grand Prix. His
Mercedes-Benz W196
led home a 1–2–3–4 win for the German marque. It was the first race
where he finished in front of Fangio, his teammate, friend, mentor, and
archrival at
Mercedes.
It is sometimes debated whether Fangio, one of the all-time great
gentlemen of sport, allowed Moss to win in front of his home crowd. Moss
himself asked Fangio repeatedly, "Did you let me win?" and Fangio
always replied, "No. You were just better than me that day."
One of his best remembered drives was in the 1955
Mille Miglia,
which he won in the record time of 10 hours 7 minutes 48 seconds,
finishing almost half an hour ahead of teammate Fangio in second place.
Moss' navigator in the
Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR #722 (indicating the time of the start) was journalist
Denis Jenkinson. As navigator, Jenkinson supported Moss with
pace notes
in the form of a Roller Map, which listed all the details of the long
road trip, then an innovative technique. This assistance helped Moss
compete against drivers who had a lot of local knowledge of the route.
Jenkinson later wrote extensively about the experience.
Moss won the Nassau Cup at the 1956 and 1957
Bahamas Speed Week.
Also in 1957 he won on the longest circuit ever to hold a World Championship Grand Prix, the daunting 25 km (16 mi)
Pescara Circuit,
again demonstrating his skills at high speed, long distance driving. He
beat Fangio, who started on pole, by a little over 3 minutes over the
course of a gruelling 3-hour event.
Moss believed the manner in which the battle was fought was as
important as the outcome. This sporting attitude cost him the 1958
Formula 1 World Championship. When rival
Mike Hawthorn was threatened with a penalty in the Boavista Urban Circuit in Porto,
Portugal,
Moss defended Hawthorn's actions. Hawthorn was accused of reversing in
the track after spinning and stalling his car on an uphill section of
the track. Moss himself shouted the suggestion to Hawthorn that he steer
downhill, against traffic, to bump-start the car, which Hawthorn did.
Moss's quick thinking and then gracious defence of Hawthorn before the
stewards preserved Hawthorn's 6 points for his second-place finish
(behind Moss). Hawthorn went on to beat Moss for the title by one point
even though he won only one race that year to Moss's four, making
Hawthorn Britain's first World Champion.
Moss was as gifted at the wheel of a sports car as he was in a Grand
Prix car. In addition to the Tourist Trophy, Sebring 12 hours and Mille
Miglia victories described above for three consecutive years (1958–1960)
he won the gruelling 1,000 km (620 mi) race at Germany's
Nürburgring, the first two years in an
Aston Martin (in which he won almost single-handedly) and the third in the memorable
Tipo 61 "birdcage"
Maserati, co-driving with the American driver
Dan Gurney.
The pair lost nearly six minutes when an oil hose blew off, but in
miserable conditions they regained the time and won going away.
In the 1960 Formula One season, Moss took the top step of the podium at
Monaco, winning in
Rob Walker's
Coventry-Climax-powered
Lotus 18.
[7] Moss had a huge accident at the Burnenville sweep during practice for the
Belgian Grand Prix at
Spa-Francorchamps
and was severely injured in what was to be one of the darkest weekends
in the history of Formula One. He missed 3 races and did not race for
most of that year. He recovered sufficiently to return to competition
late in the year and won the season-ending US Grand Prix at Riverside,
California.
For the 1961 F1 season, which was run under the new 1.5-litre rules,
Enzo Ferrari rolled out his state-of-the-art "sharknose"
Ferrari 156 with an all-new
V6 engine.
[8] Moss was stuck with an underpowered Climax-engined
Lotus, but managed to win the
1961 Monaco Grand Prix by 3.6 seconds (beating the 156s of
Richie Ginther,
Wolfgang von Trips, and
Phil Hill),
[8] and later also the partially wet
1961 German Grand Prix.
Some observers have noted that, while taking nothing away from Moss's
superlative performances in those races, there were other factors at
play. At Monaco, the tight circuit negated the horsepower advantage of
the powerful but heavy and ill-handling Ferraris; and at the
Nürburgring, Moss and manager Ken Gregory made a risky but inspired
decision to fit rain tyres on the Lotus after a pre-race shower had
soaked the track. Had the skies cleared and the track dried, the
decision would have been disastrous for Moss. When rain returned, Moss
was able to drive away from Hill and Trips (while nursing rapidly
deteriorating tyres) to take the win.
In 1962, Moss was badly injured in a crash at
Goodwood in a Lotus in the
Glover Trophy. The accident put him in a coma for one month and partially paralysed the left side of his body for six months
. He recovered but decided to retire from racing after a private test session in a
Lotus 19
the next year. During this session, he lapped a few tenths slower than
before, and did not feel he had the command of the car to which he was
accustomed. Many racing and medical observers have speculated that Moss
simply tried to return too soon – that another six months of recovery
and training would have allowed him to regain most of the physical
acuity that distinguished him.
Away from driving, in 1962 he acted as a
colour commentator for
ABC's Wide World of Sports for Formula One and NASCAR races. He eventually left ABC in 1980 when he made a brief driving comeback in the
British Touring Car Championship with
Audi, alongside
Martin Brundle. Previous to this he also competed in the
1974 World Cup Rally in a Mercedes-Benz but retired from the event in the Algerian Sahara,
he shared a
Holden Torana with
Jack Brabham in the 1976
Bathurst 1000 which was rammed from behind on the grid and eventually retired with engine failure,
and a
Volkswagen Golf GTI with
Denny Hulme in the 1979 Benson & Hedges 500 at
Pukekohe Park Raceway in New Zealand.
Čech holds a number of goalkeeping records, including the Premier League record for fewest appearances required to reach 100 clean sheets,
having done so in 180 league appearances. He also holds a Czech
professional league record of not conceding a goal in 903 competitive
minutes. In addition, he has a club record at his former club Sparta
Prague, having gone 928 minutes unbeaten in all competitions in 2001–02,
when his unbeaten run in Czech league competition was combined with his
performances in the UEFA Champions League.
During the 2004–05 season, Čech went 1,025 minutes without conceding a
goal – a Premier League record, until it was surpassed by Edwin van der Sar of Manchester United on 27 January 2009. Čech also won the Golden Glove in both the 2004–05 and 2009–10 seasons as the Premier League goalkeeper with the most clean sheets. As of 11 January 2014, Čech has kept a club record 209 clean sheets for Chelsea in all competitions.
