Sir Stirling Moss gives up racing

Sir Stirling Moss, OBE, is to retire from racing after a career spanning more than sixty years.

It had to come eventually – Sir Stirling Moss retiring from motor racing – but it felt like the best driver England has ever produced could go on for ever.

Stirling Moss won sixteen Grands Prix in his career and became synonymous with the Mille Miglia, but his career ended in 1962 after a crash at Goodwood put him in a coma for a month.

Many said Stirling could have come back after he recovered from his injuries, he just tried to do it too soon. But Stirling had made up his mind to end his racing career, and once Stirling makes up his mind it stays made up.

Not that Stirling stopped racing altogether. He’s driven in historic races for the last fifty years, interspersed with media work and even cameo roles in films (he turned up in Casino Royale in the ’60s).

But the last time Stirling drove in an historic race – until this week – was last year at the at the Monterey Motorsports Reunion at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca where he drove the Porsche RS61 he’d acquired at the Amelia Island sale earlier in the year for a record $1.7 million.

Unfortunately for Stirling, having spun off but kept the classic Porsche out of harms way, he then got clobbered by another off parking itself in the back of his Porsche.

Now repaired, Stirling was down to race the RS61 at the Le Mans Legends race this weekend. But for the first time in his life Stirling wasn’t at the top of his game. He said:

This afternoon I scared myself and I have always said that if I felt I was not up to it or that I was getting in the way of fellow competitors, then I would retire.

I love racing, but now it is time to stop.

So Sir Stirling Moss, OBE, is giving up racing. But he won’t be giving up on life, and we’ll see him popping up regularly on TV and at car events.

For a very long time, we hope.