- Carroll Shelby will replace injured Stirling Moss as a guest of honor at the Amelia Island concours.
- A freak elevator accident at Moss' London home caused him to break both his ankles.
- Moss was to be honored alongside Richard Petty and Don Garlits at the annual Florida event.
AMELIA ISLAND, Florida — It was a logical choice: Stirling Moss, injured last weekend in a freak elevator accident at home, couldn't fulfill guest-of-honor duties at the 15th annual Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, where he was to have celebrated the 50th anniversary of winning the last-ever Cuban Grand Prix in 1960 in a Birdcage Maserati. Who will take his place at Amelia this weekend? Carroll Shelby, whose Ferrari 410 finished 2nd at the 1957 Cuban GP. (Juan Manuel Fangio, who won that year, is no longer with us.)
A headline event of the weekend is a "Three Greats" seminar on Saturday morning, for which Sir Stirling Moss was to have taken the dais alongside NASCAR champion Richard Petty and drag-racing legend Don Garlits. Instead, Shelby will complete the group as well as be on hand at the Sunday concours.
Moss, 80, was injured over the weekend when he accidentally stepped into an open elevator shaft in his London home and fell three stories, breaking both ankles and sustaining other injuries that required surgery. He is currently in a London hospital. Jacksonville.com reported that Moss has e-mailed the Amelia Island concours organizers with his regrets and called Shelby "a great and worthy substitute."
The Amelia Island event runs from Thursday evening through Sunday, headquartered at the island's Ritz-Carlton hotel.
Inside Line says: Odds on Moss' return to the concours circuit sooner rather than later are outstanding. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent
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