Motor-Racing MOSS BLAMES RULING BODY

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29293, 26 August 1960, Page 13

Motor-Racing MOSS BLAMES RULING BODY

“Slowly Ruining Racing”

(NJZ. Press Association— NEW YORK, August 25. The governing authority of international motor racing was slowly ruining the sport, said Stirling Moss in a signed article in the latest issue of “Sports Illustrated.” The English champion driver claimed in the magazine that “slowly but surely, international motor racing is being dragged down and ruined by the foolishness of its governing authority.” He said that he questioned the new safety rules devised by the Commission Sportive Internationale of the Federation Internationale de 1 Automobile, not the need for them. The commission had steadfastly ignored the opinions of drivers ana. “inconceivably,” the builders of Grand Prix cars, in spite of their criticisms, Moss said. Fortunately, the builders had not given in. “The car builders have dented the committee's bureaucratic armour—this is a fine thing. As long as the sport continues to provide worthwhile advertising to manufacturers, it will thrive.

'"Hie moment people begin to ignore it—and they will if the cars are not exciting and the drivers are not given a voice in managementadvertising support will be withdrawn and the sport win die,” he said.

Moss said that the Le Mans accident in 1955 which killed 85 persons had “triggered a panic move to introduce safety into the sport.” "The Commission Sportive Internationale decided to do something about the size and speed of cars. I think the committee would have done better to look instead at the races,” he said. A A totally unnecessary element 6f risk at Le Mans, he said, was allowing large and small cars, with big speed differentials, to race simultaneously. The governing body, paying ho heed to the criticisms of the drivers, decreed that the solution lay in reducing the size of the bigger cars.