Sir Stirling wants it painted green, and we think it should be red

Sir Stirling Moss was the surprise star of the Spa round of the RAC Woodcote Trophy, organised by Motor Racing Legends, where he went on to take a well-deserved class win. This was the first race outing for Moss in his own, just-restored Osca. Moss bought the Osca FS372 two years ago and had the car restored by specialiasts Hall & Hall.

The car’s first race was a huge success: Sir Stirling's victory in the under-1500cc drum-braked class of the one-hour Woodcote Trophy at Spa, was the highlight of the evvent. Sharing the drive with Roger Earl, they raced the Osca unpainted, because Moss and Hall couldn’t agree on the colour.

“He wants it painted green,” said Rick, “and we think it should be red.” Sir Stirling not only won his class, he was also presented with the ‘Spirit of the Woodcote Trophy’ award by Gregor Fisken, of the historic automobile dealership Fiskens. The award was presented in recognition of Sir Stirling’s perseverance in completing this extremely complex two-year restoration.

Meanwhile, the battle for overall honours in the Woodcote Trophy race was between Marc Devis’s Maserati 250SI and Tony Bianchi’s Farellac Allard. Sadly, after four laps, Bianchi’s Farellac dropped out with engine problems and the battle for second place fell to the pole-sitting Jaguar D-type of Lukas Huni and Gary Pearson – winners at Spa last year – versus the D-type of Ben Eastick. When the flag fell, Marc Devis scooped overall victory by a substantial margin while Eastick pipped the Huni/Pearson D-type to second place by just nine-hundredths of a second.

For a fuller report on each race and overall/class results, see www.motorracinglegends.com, and for the story behind Sir Stirling's racing return, read December's Octane, due out October 29.