The historic Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR that Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson piloted to victory in the 1955 Mille Miglia will be featured at the Lime Rock Historics 2015, scheduled for September 3-7 at the 7-turn, 1.5 mile Lime Rock Park road course in Connecticut.
Wearing number 722 indicating a 7:22am start time in the Mille Miglia, the famed 300 SLR will be joined at Lime Rock with a Mercedes-Benz W196 Formula One Grand Prix car of the type that Juan Manuel Fangio and Moss finished first and second in the world championship the same year.
On hand to drive the cars at Lime Rock will be Sir Stirling Moss himself as well as Mercedes Classic official driver Jochen Mass. Both will serve at Honored Guests. Mass, the winningest driver of the Group C era, won the 1989 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Sauber Mercedes C9, the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix for McLaren and the 1987 Sebring 12 Hours in the Bayside Porsche 962.
Event Chairman Murray Smith said, “Stirling’s drive to victory in the Mille Miglia is one of the outstanding sporting feats of the 20th century…right up there with Roger Bannister’s sub-4-minute mile and Jean-Claude Killy’s three gold medals in the 1968 Grenoble Winter Olympics. It is probably the single greatest drive of all time in motorsports.”
Smith continued, “We are delighted that Mercedes have honored us with this gesture. We are planning to reciprocate by underlining the three pointed star’s outstanding sporting and engineering legacy as we organize a truly great display of the company’s cars from the last 10 decades.”
This gathering of Mercedes-Benz machinery will stand out at the Lime Rock Historic Festival 2015. This year’s event will see 280 vintage and historic cars in nine racing groups, with more than 900 vehicles on display for the Sunday in the Park Concours d’Elegance and Gathering of the Marques.
For more information, visit LimeRockHistorics.com.
[Source: Lime Rock Historics; photo: Daimler AG]
I agree that Stirling Moss’s win in the 1955 Mille Miglia was one of the greatest sporting feats of the twentieth century. Unfortunately you probably won’t see it is any sports record book because it isn’t a stick and ball game. Luckily us car crazy people know better.
Lets not forget Moss’ great navigator/copilot ( one Dennis Jenkinson) for that event too and his wonderful roll map of the entire route which certainly helped the speed.
What many do not know about ” Jenks” is that he was very well suited for his role in the Mille Miglia, having served
as World Sidecar Champion Eric Oliver’s crewman ( movable ballast ! ) over several seasons.
And let us not fail to recognize local talent, Lakeville resident the late John Fitch, winning the GT class in the ’55 Mille with an astounding 5th place overall in a road-legal 300SL Mercedes Gull-wing coupe; John had a hand in the design of Lime Rock, managed the track in the early years, and of course was a sterling friend, as well as Mercedes team-mate to Sir Stirling. May he be long remembered.