13-04-2020, 02:30 AM
I saw Stirling Moss win the Lady Wigram Trophy race, in a Lotus 21, at the Wigram RNZAF base in Christchurch on a super-hot nor'west day in January 1962. The sort of day we don't seem to have anymore. The tar-seal on the perimeter roads, which were pressed into temporary service as a racetrack, was softened in the heat, and so he chose to use softer-compound wet-weather tyres which gave him a decisive advantage.
This was in the days of the Australia-New Zealand "Tasman Series" when big names, not very well paid at that time, would travel south to race in the European off-season.
I remember reading of his central London flat, which was built on a bomb site which he had bought very cheaply. He was quoted as saying that he wished he had bought the whole street. The other thing I recall is that he drove around London on a Vespa.
Most people in New Zealand would have replied "Stirling Moss" when asked the name of a racing driver.
This was in the days of the Australia-New Zealand "Tasman Series" when big names, not very well paid at that time, would travel south to race in the European off-season.
I remember reading of his central London flat, which was built on a bomb site which he had bought very cheaply. He was quoted as saying that he wished he had bought the whole street. The other thing I recall is that he drove around London on a Vespa.
Most people in New Zealand would have replied "Stirling Moss" when asked the name of a racing driver.