I am delighted to have been asked to say a few words at the front of this collection of just some of the dozens of stories that have been published in Motor Sport over the years about Stirling and his racing life.

Motor Sport held a special place in Stirling’s heart from long before that famed article by Jenks about their shared exploits on the 1955 Mille Miglia. He never missed an issue if he could help it because it was, is and I hope will always remain ‘The Authoritative Voice Of The Sport’, as it used to proclaim on its cover.

I think Stirling was so fond of Motor Sport because it reflected the values he felt himself. First and foremost, through every issue floods a love of racing pure and simple. Racing is of course made up of cars, drivers, teams and tracks, but it is racing that unites them. Stirling never thought of himself as simply a driver, nor even a racing driver, he was simply ‘a racer’. He was not born to drive or even to win, such matters were almost incidentals; Stirling was born to race.