In fact there was a lone Aston at the season-opening race at Sebring in Florida but only because the organisers had paid the team for it to be there. It retired before two of the 12 hours were complete, the race won entirely predictably by Ferrari, who’d only failed to win one round of the championship the year before. The title must already have seemed in the bag for the Italian marque. True, the small and agile factory Porsches clean-swept the next race over the tight and tortuous course of Sicily’s Targa Florio, but that was to be expected. With just the Nürburgring, Le Mans and the Tourist Trophy race at Goodwood remaining, and with Aston Martin out of the picture, nothing could stop the mighty Ferrari now. Surely?
Which is where Stirling Moss enters the story. The DBR1 had already won at the Nürburgring in 1957 and ’58, with Moss himself driving in the latter race, and he thought the car could do the hat-trick. The DBR1 suited the circuit and Stirling Moss was, well, Stirling Moss. He also knew there was a spare DBR1. Wyer still said no, and continued to refuse right up to the moment Moss said he’d pay all the expenses out of his own pocket.
The spare was duly sent with a skeleton crew to take on three factory Ferraris. By the time Moss handed over to co-driver Jack Fairman after three hours’ driving, his lead was over five minutes. Which was fine until Fairman spun the car into a ditch. News came through that it was thoroughly beached, so Moss changed out of his overalls, presuming his race was run. Not so: Fairman, finding strength from who knows where, physically lifted the rear of the car back onto the circuit, fired it up and roared away. Nonetheless, by the time Moss was back at the wheel there were two Ferraris and 75 seconds between him and the lead. It took him three laps to eliminate the deficit. By the finish, and having driven the vast majority of the 1000km race, Moss won by over half a minute in what even he would call one of his greatest drives.