Another Rouen First (the Birdcage Maserati)

Speaking of firsts at Rouen les Essarts, Stirling Moss gave the Maserati Tipo 60/61 its first victory there.  In its first race, in the summer of 1959.

He had tested a Tipo 60 in Modena in the spring, and was so impressed that he asked Maserati to enter it for him in the Rouen sports car race, an off-weekend on his calendar.  The only difference between a Tipo 60 and a Tipo 61 was the engine: a 2-liter four or a 2.9 liter four.

The Tipo 61 went on to give the Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa all it could handle in championship sports car racing in Europe.  It dominated the big-bore sports car class in the U.S. too.  Its most famous victory was the Moss/Gurney win at the Nurburgring 1000 km. in 1960, but it won races into 1962.

It was a light, quick, sweet-handling, car; the apotheosis of front-engine racing sports car technology.  It was nicknamed the Birdcage Maserati for its intricate space frame of small-diameter tubes.  This is Moss's Rouen Tipo 60.  Guerrino Bertocchi, Maserati's Chief Mechanic, is on the left.