The Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance celebrates the 60th anniversary of one of the greatest racing victories in history – the record-breaking 1955 Mille Miglia run by Stirling Moss driving a Mercedes-Benz 300SLR – by reuniting the world-champion driver with the winning sports car at its March 2015 event.
The 20th annual Amelia Island Concours will feature a special class of 20 race cars that Moss drove during his illustrious career. Moss, considered to be one of the greatest drivers of all time, will be the honored guest at the concours; he was the event’s first such honoree when the concours was launched in 1996.
The showing of the fully restored 300SLR, the No. 722 car that Moss drove throughout 1955 to clinch the World Sports Car Championship for Mercedes-Benz, will be highlighted in the class of his Grand Prix racers and sports cars. Moss is expected to drive the SLR roadster during the concours.
“We intend to make the 20th anniversary Amelia Concours an unforgettable event,” Bill Warner, founder and chairman of the Amelia Island Concours, said in a news release. “Sir Stirling will be reunited with the 722 on our 20th anniversary field on Sunday morning, March 15, 2015. This will be the first time in more than a decade that Sir Stirling will drive 722 in America.”
Moss and Jenkinson in the race-battered 300SLR | Mercedes-Benz
In 1955, a 25-year-old Moss – accompanied by motorsports journalist Denis Jenkinson as navigator – roared through the challenging 1,000-mile Mille Miglia course on Italian back roads with a resounding record run that was never equaled (the race was discontinued a short time later).
They completed the grueling lap in about 10 hours at an average speed of nearly 100 mph, a remarkable feat for a race held on public roads. The event has since come to be referred to as “The Greatest Race.”
During that same year, Moss won his first Formula 1 World Championship race at his home Grand Prix in Aintree, England, driving a Mercedes-Benz W196. The 60th anniversary of that accomplishment also will be honored at Amelia.
The 2015 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, which has taken its place as one of the world’s great classic car events, is scheduled for March 13-15 at the Golf Club of Amelia Island at the Ritz-Carlton. For information, see www.ameliaconcours.org.
Ho Hum…just like the Quail 3 years ago….getting a bit tired….
Actually, it is NOT referred to as “The Greatest Race”. It is referred to as “The Greatest Race EVER WRITTEN” after the story from Denis Jenkinson. Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY knows that “The Greatest Race” was Fangio/Maserati250F/Nurburgring/1957.Fangio/Maserati250F/Nurburgring/1957.Really. Everybody knows. Ask Sir Stirling.
Well I for one look forward to the Concours and to seeing Stirling Moss and the car regardless of what the original race came to be called. Or not.
The “greatest race” was the 1935 Grand Prix won by Nuvolari The 1935 event was considered to be one of the greatest motorsports victories of all time. Italian legend Tazio Nuvolari, driving a hopelessly outdated and underpowered Alfa Romeo against state-of-the-art Mercedes and Auto Unions drove a very hard race in appalling conditions. After a dreadful start, he was able to pass a number of cars, particularly while some of the German cars pitted. But after a botched pit stop that cost him six minutes, he drove on the limit, made up that time and was second by the start of the last lap; 35 seconds behind leader Manfred von Brauchitsch in a Mercedes. Von Brauchitsch had ruined his tyres by pushing very hard in the dreadful conditions and Nuvolari was able to catch the German and take victory in front of the stunned German High Command and 350,000 spectators. The small 42-year-old Italian ended up finishing in front of eight running Silver Arrows. Second placed Hans Stuck was two minutes behind Nuvolari.