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

December 5

1972: British rally hero Roger Clark won the RAC Rally for the first time. Co-driven by fellow Brit Tony Mason, Clark took his Ford Escort RS1600 to victory in what was the last qualifying round of the International Championship of Makes; just over month later the inaugural World Rally Championship would kick off in Monte Carlo. Clark beat the Saab 96 of Stig Blömqvist and Arne Hertz by more than three minutes to start a winning run for Ford that would last until 1980.

2011: Peter Gethin, winner of the Grand Prix with the closest finish in Formula 1 history, died aged 71. He triumphed in the 1971 Italian GP at Monza for BRM – to the tune of 0.01s over the March of Ronnie Peterson. Englishman Gethin was also a winner in British F3, European F2, European and US F5000, and the Tasman and Can-Am Series.

December 6

1948: Happy birthday Keijo Erik Rosberg! The Swedish-born Finn raced in 114 Grands Prix for Theodore, ATS, Wolf, Fittipaldi, Williams and McLaren, winning five races and the 1982 F1 Drivers’ Championship. Recently, he witnessed son Nico become only the second son of a World Champion to also lift the title – adding their names to an exclusive club occupied by Graham and Damon Hill. 

1982: Susie Woolf was born. The Scot raced in junior single-seaters but switched to the DTM with Mercedes for seven years before landing a reserve-driver role with Williams in F1. She drove in Free Practice 1 at the British and German GPs in 2014 and in Spain and Britain in 2015. At the end of 2015 she retired from driving to concentrate on her ‘Dare To Be Different’ campaign to increase the number of women involved in motorsport.

December 7

1984: Polish star Robert Kubica was born. He made his F1 debut in 2006 with BMW Sauber and gave the team its first and only win in Canada in 2008. A rallying accident at the start of 2011 spelled the end of his single-seater career. As a result he moved to rallying full-time, tackling the WRC between 2013 and 2015 in Citroen DS 3 and Ford Fiesta machinery. His best result was fifth in Germany in 2013. After quitting rallying on cost grounds, he’s been linked to a return to circuit racing, probably in sportscars.

1986: The last-ever World Championship rally for Group B cars, the Olympus Rally in the United States, was won by Markku Alén’s Martini Lancia Delta S4. The Finn triumphed by 3m26s over the Peugeot 205 T16 of Juha Kankkunen, who came away with that year’s Drivers’ title after a controversial end to the season and the era.

2008: Multiple World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb won Wales Rally GB for the first time. After twice finishing second – in 2003 and ’04 ­– and twice taking third – in 2005 and ’07 – he came good at his seventh attempt, defeating the Ford Focus WRC of Jari-Matti Latvala by 12.7s.

December 8

1983: Swiss racer Neel Jani was born. After numerous wins in single-seaters, he switched to sportscars and became one of the lead drivers in Porsche’s LMP1 World Endurance Championship squad. A last-gasp victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2016 boosted his and team-mate Romain Dumas’ and Marc Lieb’s points tally that would help them secure the Drivers’ Championship in the final round.

December 10

1947: German sportscar veteran Jurgen Barth was born. He won two rounds of the World Sportscar Championship in 1980 – at the Nürburgring in a Porsche 908 and at Dijon in a 935 – but is best known for his 1977 Le Mans 24 Hours win alongside Jacky Ickx and Hurley Haywood in the Martini 936. He later went on to co-found the BPR Global GT series (with Patrick Peter and Stéphane Ratel), which would soon become the FIA GT Series.

1954: American racer Price Cobb was born. He won the Le Mans 24 Hours for Jaguar alongside Martin Brundle and John Nielsen in 1990. He also raced extensively in his home country, winning 12 rounds of the IMSA GTP Championship – nine for Porsche and three for Jaguar.

1983: The World Sportscar championship had its latest-ever finishing date, courtesy of the Kyalami 1000km. The race was won by the works Rothmans Porsche 956 of Stefan Bellof and Derek Bell, which defeated the Martini Lancia LC2 of Alessandro Nannini and Riccardo Patrese by four laps. A further four laps adrift, in third place, was the second factory Porsche of Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass.  

December 11

1935: Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, grandson of marque founder Ferdinand Porsche and son of Ferry Porsche, was born. As a designer, he was responsible for the iconic shape of the company’s greatest creation, the 911, which began to roll off the production line in 1964. He died, aged 76, in 2012.