That Was The Week That Was – Anniversaries and Milestones From Motorsport’s Past

October 3

1965: Graham Hill completed a hat-trick of US Grand Prix wins at Watkins Glen. The BRM ace defeated the Brabhams of Dan Gurney and Jack Brabham. Scot Jim Clark, who had already been crowned World Champion, retired with engine failure after starting on the front row alongside polesitter Hill.

1970: Frenchman Pierre Veyron, who won the Le Mans 24 Hours for Bugatti in 1939 and after whom the Veyron hypercar is named, died, aged 67.

1971: François Cevert took his only Grand Prix win – for Tyrrell at Watkins Glen. The Frenchman finished 40 seconds ahead of Jo Siffert’s BRM, with Ronnie Peterson completing the podium for March.

1976: Forty years ago today James Hunt won the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport to close to within eight points of Championship leader Niki Lauda. The Austrian finished eighth for fer, almost a lap behind his McLaren rival. Carlos Pace took second for Brabham, with Jody Scheckter finishing third for Tyrrell.

1982: The World Sportscar Championship’s first visit to Japan’s Fuji circuit resulted in victory for the factory Rothmans Porsche 956 of Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass. They led home the Lancia LC1 of Riccardo Patrese and Teo Fabi in the six-hour race to ensure the title fight between Ickx, who won twice with Mass and once with Derek Bell, and Patrese, who had also won two races during the year, would go to the Brands Hatch finale.

October 4

1970: Emerson Fittipaldi’s breakthrough Grand Prix win came at Watkins Glen, the Brazilian winning for Lotus in only his fourth race and first in the British squad’s 72. He beat the BRM of Pedro Rodriguez by half a minute, with Lotus team-mate Reine Wisell taking third. Sixth place went to the Surtees of Derek Bell for what would be the Briton’s only point-scoring finish in F1.

1985: The bewinged Audi Sport Quattro S1 took its only World Championship Rally win, courtesy of Walter Röhrl in Sanremo. The German beat the Peugeot 205 T16 of Timo Salonen, preventing the World Championship-leading Finn from taking a fifth straight win. Henri Toivonen secured third in his final outing in the two-wheel-drive Lancia 037 Evo.

1992: Former World Champion Denny Hulme succumbed to a heart attack, aged just 56, while competing in the Bathurst 1,000km touring car race in Australia. The Kiwi won the 1967 F1 title for Brabham and notched up eight wins – for Brabham and McLaren – during his 112-race career. He also took two Can-Am titles for McLaren.

1992: Andy Rouse took his 60^th and final British Touring Car Championship race win in the season finale at Silverstone for Toyota. The race is best remembered for the controversial collision between Vauxhall ace John Cleland and BMW star Steve Soper, which handed the title to Soper’s team-mate Tim Harvey.

October 5

1922: José Froilán González, the Argentinian hero who gave Ferrari its first World Championship Grand Prix win, was born. He contested 26 races, winning twice for Ferrari – at Silverstone in 1951 and 1954. He also won Le Mans for Ferrari in 1954. He died, aged 90, in June 2013.

1949: German all-rounder Klaus Ludwig was born. He won Le Mans three times for Porsche and took three DTM titles – one for Ford and two for Mercedes. He also won the FIA GT title, alongside Ricardo Zonta, in 1998 for the Three-Pointed Star.

1962: American Michael Andretti was born. Son of US racing hero Mario Andretti, Michael won a record 42 CART Indy/Champ Car races. He never managed to win the big one, the Indianapolis 500, as a driver, but has overseen three wins as a team owner. He also raced for McLaren in F1 in 1993, taking a best finish of third in the Italian GP at Monza.

1969: Jochen Rindt secured his first F1 win, in the US GP at Watkins Glen. The Austrian’s Lotus was dominant, heading Piers Courage’s Brabham by 46 seconds. John Surtees completed the podium for BRM.

1974: Lancia’s sonorous V6-engined Stratos took its maiden WRC win in Sanremo. Local ace Sandro Munari took the mid-engined machine to a 7m43s victory over the Fiat 124 Abarth of Giulio Bisulli.

1992: Renault Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen was born. The Dane made his F1 debut in 2014 as reigning Formula Renault 3.5 Champion and finished second on his first appearance with McLaren in Melbourne. He was dropped by McLaren for 2015, but joined Renault for 2016.

October 6

1944: Brazilian Carlos Pace was born. He made 71 F1 starts for March, Surtees and Brabham, taking his only win on home soil at Interlagos for Brabham in 1975. He was killed in a light-aircraft crash in March 1977, aged 32.

1968: America’s greatest-ever racer, Mario Andretti, secured pole on his debut for Lotus at Watkins Glen. His 49B outqualified Jackie Stewart’s Matra but retired with clutch failure after 32 laps.

1973: F1 was rocked during qualifying for the US GP at Watkins Glen, the final weekend of the year, when Tyrrell star François Cevert crashed to his death. He was 29. The Frenchman was due to lead the Tyrrell team in 1974 once team leader and World Champion Jackie Stewart had retired. Stewart chose not to race in what would have been his 100^th GP as a mark of respect to his fallen team-mate and protégé.

1985: Nigel Mansell finally secured his first F1 win – in the European GP at Brands Hatch. The Brit’s victory for Williams came in his 72^nd start and he beat the Lotus of Ayrton Senna and Williams team-mate Keke Rosberg. Fourth for McLaren was enough for Alain Prost to lift his first World Championship title. 

1985: Jaguar took its only Bathurst 1,000km win when the Tom Walkinshaw Racing-run XJS of Armin Hahne and John Goss won the Australian tin-top classic. Second went to the BMW 635CSi of Johnny Cecotto and Roberto Ravaglia, while the polesitting Jaguar of Tom Walkinshaw and Win Percy took third.

1985: The March-Nissan 85G took its only World Sportscar Championship win in torrential rain at Fuji. Kazuyoshi Hoshino guided the car to victory in the shortened race – it ran to 275km instead of 1,000km – by himself.

October 7

1979: Gilles Villeneuve won the US GP at Watkins Glen for Ferrari. The French-Canadian beat the Renault of René Arnoux by 48 seconds for his third win of the year.

1984: The first F1 race, titled European Grand Prix, on the new, shortened Nürburgring was won by Alain Prost’s McLaren-TAG. The Frenchman beat the Ferrari of Michele Alboreto and World Champion Nelson Piquet’s Brabham-BMW to close to within 3.5 points of team-mate and series leader Niki Lauda, who finished fourth.

1990: Michael Schumacher took his first World Sportscar Championship win alongside Jochen Mass in a Sauber-Mercedes C11. The German duo beat the Nissan R90CK of all-British pair Julian Bailey and Mark Blundell in the 480km race.

2007: Victory for Kimi Räikkönen in the Chinese GP marked Ferrari’s 200^th World Championship F1 success. The Finn beat the McLaren of Fernando Alonso and the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa.

October 8

1951: Flying Finn Timo Salonen was born. He contested 95 WRC events, winning 11 times – once for Fiat and Mazda, twice for Datsun and seven times for Peugeot. He also landed the 1985 Drivers’ World Title after five wins in the Group B Peugeot 205 T16.

1961: The factory Lotus team’s first F1 win came courtesy of Innes Ireland, who took his Climax-engined 21 to victory in the US GP at Watkins Glen. He beat the Porsche 718 of Dan Gurney by 4.3 seconds for what was his only success at the top level.

1978: Gilles Villeneuve’s maiden F1 win came in his home race in Montreal, which hosted its first race on the island circuit in the St Lawrence river. His Ferrari 312T3 beat the Wolf-Ford of Jody Scheckter and the second Ferrari of Carlos Reutemann.

2000: Victory in the Japanese GP at Suzuka, thanks to Michael Schumacher, secured Ferrari its first F1 Drivers’ title since 1979. Schumacher headed McLaren nemesis Mika Häkkinen by just under two seconds to end the Scuderia’s 21-year drought.

October 9

1961: British racer Julian Bailey was born. He was the first Britain to win a race in the FIA International 3000 Championship – at Brands Hatch in 1987 – and made his F1 debut with Tyrrell the following year. He then spent two years with Nissan’s Le Mans and World Sportscar Championship squad, before returning to F1 for 1991 with Lotus. His best result was sixth place in that year’s San Marino GP at Imola in the Judd-powered 102B. He moved into touring cars and sportscars, winning the British GT title in 1999 with Lister and landing the FIA GT crown a year later.

1977: The last GP at Mosport was won by the Wolf of Jody Scheckter. The South African held off former Tyrrell team-mate Patrick Depailler to win by 6.7 seconds, with the McLaren M26 of Jochen Mass taking third.

1988: With a fifth victory of the year for Jaguar, in the Fuji 1000km, Briton Martin Brundle secured the World Sportscar Championship title. He won the Japanese round, to add to victories at Jarama, Monza, Silverstone and Brands Hatch, alongside American Eddie Cheever, their XJR-9 beating the Porsche 952 of Price Cobb and Klaus Ludwig by a lap.