Moroccan Formula One Grand Prix
Moroccan interest in motor racing dates back to 1925, when a Grand Prix was held in the Atlantic coastal city of Casablanca during the days when the Moroccan nation was still a French dependency.
Formula One motor racing returned to Morocco in 1954 at a sports car circuit in the southern coastal resort of Agadir, where it remained for two years. But in 1957 came the Suez Crisis, which threatened to play havoc with the Grand Prix calendar due to the fuel shortages and transportation difficulties which resulted from the closure of the Suez Canal. Seizing what he perceived as a golden opportunity to supplant one of the big European Grand Prixs, Sultan Mohammed V orders the hasty construction of the Ain-Diab Street Circuit in Casablanca; a project that was completed in just six weeks. The following year, an officially sanctioned Grand Prix did take place on the dusty Ain-Diab track and was won by Englishman Stirling Moss driving a Vanwall. Sadly, the event was marred by the horrific crash of Stirling's team-mate Stuart Lewis-Evans, whose engine seized, reputedly due to the dust, and sent him plunging into the barriers at high speed, his car in flames. His death cast a shadow over the Grand Prix, which ultimately saw Formula One abandon the Moroccan Grand Prix, never to return. |
AIN-DIAB
LOCATION: Ain-Diab, Morocco
CIRCUIT TYPE: Street Circuit
CIRCUIT LENGTH: 4.75 Miles
LAP RECORD: 2:22.500 - S.Moss 1958
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