A Moment of Triumph – Silverstone 1961 By Gerald Coulson

The Intercontinental Formula was first organised by the British Racing Drivers Club to allow the racing of cars with 2000 cc to 3000 cc engines. At that time the 1500 cc limit of formula 1 had been instituted by the international ruling body in the belief that the smaller cars would mean safer racing. In reality this meant that the relatively easy to handle Formula 1 cars could be driven by less experienced drivers almost as fast as the most experienced drivers. The result was that the car with fractionally more power was the deciding factor in a race, rather than the better driver but this also compromised track safety. The introduction of the Intercontinental Formula was seen as more of a challenge for the drivers, with the larger and more powerful cars requiring greater skill and experience than the 1500 cc cars of Formula 1.
The thirteenth International Trophy on Saturday 6th May 1961 was the first race of the season to carry World Championship points and consisted of 80 laps of Silverstone, a total of 233 miles.
Stirling Moss, having already won the International Sports Car Race in Lotus earlier that day, was driving Rob Walkers 2½ litre Cooper Climax and qualified second on the grid despite being unhappy with the steering of his car. The starting grid front row was Bruce McLaren, Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham and Graham Hill and by the time the race started at 2:30pm heavy rain meant that the track was not only soaked but also covered in oil and rubber from the previous races of that day.
World Champion Jack Brabham made a superb start, passed Moss and was into Copse and by lap 4 Moss was in 3rd place led by Surtees and Brabham. Due to appalling conditions and poor visibility many of the cars were spinning or leaving the track and by lap 13 Brabham and Moss were 1st and 2nd with the rest of the field some distance behind. Moss now poured on the pressure and for the next few laps he tried to pass as he harried Brabham in a duel for the lead.
The pair were now beginning to lap the tailenders and at around, a quarter of the distance Moss was held up by Flockhart, Brabhams team member, who had allowed Brabham to pass. Moss gestured angrily at Flockhart as he was unable to follow Brabham and, as the rain paused for a while the pace became faster.
Suddenly and quite dramatically Moss passed both Flockhart and Brabham and within two laps had gained five seconds on the World Champion. As the rain returned in a deluge Moss mercilessly pushed on, increasing his lead to 1½ minutes by the half way mark. Although he could have taken things easy at this point Moss drove on relentlessly at a seemingly impossible pace and was now lapping most of the field for a second time. By the ¾ stage he completed his humiliation of Brabham by passing him for a second time to lap him representing a 3 mile lead. Moss eventually won the race in 2hrs 41 mins 19.2 seconds, 1½ laps ahead of Brabham and at least two laps ahead of the rest of the field in what were treacherous conditions.
At the end of the race Moss summed the experience up as ‘a nice ride’, having proved himself to be one of the greatest and fastest drivers in the world under any conditions.
Sir Stirling Moss believes this to be one of his finest ever drives and was delighted when approached to be involved in the project.
Coulson, one of the worlds most collected and highly regarded Motorsport artists has captured the moment perfectly as Moss passes Brabham for the second time and pulls away to extend his lead, leaving the World Champion shrouded in the spray from Moss’s Cooper.

Signed and Numbered by the artist Gerald Coulson and Sir Stirling Moss OBE.

An exclusive and very collectable print

Overall print size: 28¼" x 21¼"

Edition size:
500 Signed and numbered print - £165 inc vat (£140.43+vat)

Orders from outside the European Union are free of VAT.

If you have arrived at this page through a ‘backdoor’ you will have nowhere to go.

Please click here to go to our HOME page

www.oliversart.com