On any given day, 81-year-old racing legend Sir Stirling Moss, OBE zips more than 100 miles per hour in a car worth millions of dollars.
One of the world’s most famous and successful racing drivers, Moss finished runner-up four times in the Formula One World Championships and won 16 grand prix races during his career. He has competed across the globe including Australia, England, France, Italy, and the United States. This year, he makes his return to The Bahamas for a very special reunion as the first patron of the highly-anticipated Bahamas Speed Week Revival on November 30-December 4.
“The original Speed Week was a love affair with The Bahamas as much as it was with motor racing,” said Moss. “It was an event that everyone looked forward to and the cast of characters that wrote its history were truly world class. I am quite pleased to see it return and I accept wholeheartedly His Excellency Sir Arthur Foulkes’ invitation to attend as the first patron.”
During the late 50s and 60s, Nassau was an unlikely, distant site for an historic, week-long racing event. These years were described by car enthusiasts and spectators as the golden age of motor racing, where internationally acclaimed drivers from around the world attended to compete, but more importantly to soak in the backdrop of sun, sea and scorching hot cars. Now a revival of those storied events is being planned for November 30-December 4, the traditional time frame for Speed Weeks in the past.
With the return of Sir Stirling Moss, the love affair continues.
Some 50 years after Moss raced through the country’s capital at near-subsonic speeds, the legend announced his official retirement from the sport during a qualifying race in Le Mans, France earlier this year. His full retirement comes years after a near career-ending accident in 1962, which left him in a coma for a month. When he regained consciousness, his left side was paralyzed and his recovery was slow and painful. It was months before he sat behind the wheel again. Having raced from the age of 18, Sir Stirling Moss continues to put his driving gloves on for exceptional occasions – Bahamas Speed Week Revival will be one of them.
“We are so honoured that Sir Stirling has agreed to grace us with his presence at Bahamas Speed Week Revival,” said Jimmie Lowe, president of the organizing team. “We know that his being here will attract many people who knew him personally in the past and others who know of the legendary role he has played in the world of auto racing. Sir Stirling Moss is to race car driving what Michael Jordan is to basketball or Andre Agassi to tennis. There will always be new entries in the field, but there will never be another who broke records, held on to them and won hearts and admiration like those heroes we all looked up to in days gone by.”
Tickets for the Arawak Cay and Fort Charlotte racing sprints are slated to go on sale soon.
