Stirling Moss

I find it impossible to choose the race of my life as I took part in almost 500 altogether, scoring several unforgettable wins in the process on circuits such as the Nurburgring, Monaco, Dundrod and Monza. Two of my most satisfying successes came in 1955, when I won the Mille Miglia and the Targa Florio. I drove the same car - a Mercedes 300SLR - and the circuits were similar, yet you can't compare the two because whereas I could learn the Targa, even with Denis Jenkinson's help I drove the Mille Miglia blind, so to speak, which made that a greater victory for me.

Among my most satisfying drives is one which did not end in victory. It was on my very first visit to Monza in 1951 and that night I wrote in my diary: 'The most fantastic dice of my life!' Run in two, 25-lap heats, the Monza Grand Prix was for Formula 2 cars and Lance Macklin and I were entered in the works HWMs.

In those days the heavily-funded and much-publicised BRM could hardly get out of its garage, whereas the HWM team - run on a shoestring by John Heath and George Abecassis - was racing all over the continent almost every weekend and making a great name for itself.

At Monza we were up against the works, 2-litre Ferraris of Alberto Ascari and Gigi Villoresi and the Simca-Gordinis of Maurice Trintignant and Andre Simon. Hans Stuck, the pre-war Auto Union driver, was there with a Veritas and there was a horde of privately-entered Ferraris, one of them for Juan Manuel Fangio.

In Heat One, Stuck led for a couple of laps before retiring, leaving Ascari to battle for the lead with Fangio until Juan Manuel's Ferrari expired on lap eight.

Some way back, I was involved in a tremendous scrap with the little Simca-Gordinis. My HWM had a 2-litre engine producing all of 129bhp on alcohol, but I was having a very hard time with the Simcas, which had 1500cc engines. They were very quick! The three of us spent most of that heat side by side and Trintignant and Simon tried to scare me off by boxing me in.

I was still only 21, but I had learned a few things in 500cc racing and as we went down the straight I gently sawed at the wheel, making the HWM sway from side to side. The Simca drivers thought there was something wrong with my steering, so they dropped back - until they realised that I was having them on. Then they attacked again and we took the flag in line abreast and were all given the same time, although Trint was given third place (behind Ascari and Villoresi) with me fourth and Simon fifth. But the best was yet to come.

In Heat Two I made a poor start and the two Simcas shot away behind Ascari. Villoresi made an even worse start than I, but soon came by and chopped in front of me. There was nothing dangerous in this, but I remember quite distinctly that the HWM almost leapt up behind his Ferrari and my rev needle went round another 500rpm.

On its own the HWM would pull 5400rpm in top (equal to 129mph, as I recall) and suddenly I was seeing 5900, which was just over 140. Up to this point I had never really known what slipstreaming was - it was not something people talked about then - but now I found out with a vengeance, as I had to lift off the throttle in order not to run into the back of Villoresi.

This was fun and I decided to tag along for the ride and see what happened. Then, as we sailed past the Simca-Gordinis with me just two or three feet behind Gigi in his slipstream, one of them ducked into mine. I now had a problem: how to lose the Simca without losing Gigi. I eventually managed this by going very wide into a corner and then chopping back behind the Ferrari before it could accelerate away from me.

The French car, however, was hopelessly off-line and unable to stay with me, whereas I managed to stay with Villoresi for, I suppose, two-thirds of the race, much to the enjoyment of the spectators. Gigi tried very hard to shake me off, but I just stuck to him like glue. He looked back at me several times, but he never gave me a brake test, as they seem to do so often in Formula 1 these days. He was a charming guy and would never do anything like that, which could have been very dangerous for both of us.

Eventually, as we came upon a slower car going into a corner, Gigi left his braking very late and chopped in front of it, leaving me with no way of following him. The Ferrari then disappeared into the distance and caught up with its team mate, Villoresi and Ascari taking the chequered flag side by side. They were given the same time, but Alberto won the race overall from Gigi, with me third in the HWM, almost 30 seconds ahead of Trintignant in the Simca, which shows just how much that slipstreaming helped, as we had finished Heat One together.

Afterwards, Villoresi congratulated me on my efforts, which was a real compliment, coming from one of the great drivers of the day.

I had no time for celebrations that night, because I spent it on a train to Zurich, where I caught a plane to England in time to race my Kieft 500 at Goodwood the next day, Whit Monday. Nor did I get any sleep, either, as the cycling ace, Fausto Coppi, was on the train with some noisy friends. He recognised me and insisted on talking at me in Italian all night.