I can remember it as if it was
yesterday
source: cart.com - Gordon Kirby On a fine spring afternoon in June, 1961, I watched the first Player's 200 at Mosport from the grass bank on the exit of turn three. Witnessing the arrival of big time auto racing in Canada was a heady experience for a 12-year old kid, and the day was made by Stirling Moss who scored a dominant victory aboard a beautifully-shaped lime green Lotus 19 sports/racer. A few weeks earlier, driving Rob Walker's boxy blue and white Lotus 18 Formula 1 car, Moss had scored a classic win at Monaco, beating the dominant shark-nose Ferraris of Phil Hill, Wolfgang von Trips and Richie Ginther. Moss was racing's great superstar of those days and it was often suggested in the Canadian press that the new track was named after the Englishman. That wasn't true - it was a contraction of motor sport - but there was no question about the origin of the name for the double ninety degree hairpin at the bottom of the course - Moss Corner. In that inaugural Player's 200 - the first motor sports event sponsored by Player's - Moss was supreme, beating the pair of silver Porsches driven by Swede Jo Bonnier and Belgian ace Olivier Gendebien. Ludwig Heimrath Sr - a naturalized Canadian citizen - flew the Canadian flag with a fine drive to fourth place in his own Porsche RS60. I made the trip to Mosport amid heavy traffic in my dad's '57 Chevrolet station wagon. The traffic was stopped as we turned off Highway 401 east of Toronto and it took us more than an hour to inch our way over the remaining 20 miles into the track. Helped by Player's promotion and Moss's presence a big crowd poured into Mosport's first professional race and Moss gave us what we wanted - a consummate victory by a maestro.
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