That Was The Week That Was: Anniversaries And Milestones From Motorsport's Past

April 18

1940: Versatile British racing veteran Gordon Spice was born. He was a winner in the British Saloon car Championship, the Spa 24 Hours and a world champion and Le Mans winner in the Group C2 class of the World Sportscar Championship. In recent years, he’s been an interested spectator at the Goodwood Members’ Meetings, where several of his period Ford Capris have run in the Gerry Marshall Trophy.

1942: Jochen Rindt was born. He won six races for Lotus and became the only posthumous Formula 1 World Champion in 1970 after losing his life during practice for the Italian GP at Monza in September. His title-points advantage was not eroded in the remaining three races.

1971: The Tyrrell team scored the first of its 23 World Championship Grand Prix wins. Jackie Stewart took victory in the Spanish GP at Montjuich Park in Barcelona, finishing 3.4s ahead of Jacky Ickx’s polesitting Ferrari.

1979: British racer Anthony Davidson was born. The Hertfordshire ace competed in 24 GPs for Minardi, BAR and Super Aguri between 2002 and 2008 and went on to lift the 2014 World Endurance Championship title with Toyota, for which he still competes in WEC.

April 19

1970: Jackie Stewart guided March to its maiden Grand Prix win aboard his Ken Tyrrell-run 701 in the Spanish GP at Jarama. Bruce McLaren was second in a McLaren M14A, while Mario Andretti took his first career podium finish with third for March.

2009: Red Bull Racing joined the winners’ circle in Formula 1 for the first time, thanks to Sebastian Vettel’s victory in the Chinese GP in Shanghai. The young German started from pole and led home team-mate Mark Webber, who ensured a Red Bull one-two. Since that day just seven years ago, Red Bull has amassed 50 wins, which puts it fifth on the all-time list, and four Drivers’/Constructors’ title doubles.   

April 20

1927: The first American F1 World Champion, Phil Hill, was born in Miami, Florida. Hill raced for Maserati, Ferrari, A.T.S, Lotus and Cooper, winning three times for Ferrari­  – his first, in the 246 Dino at Monza in 1960, being the last win for a front-engined car. He lifted the 1961 drivers’ title in the tragic Italian GP. He also won the Le Mans 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours three times for the Prancing Horse. Hill died, aged 81, in August 2008.

1987: Finnish rallying king Hannu Mikkola, World Champion of 1983, took his 18th and last WRC win – in the Safari Rally. The victory was the 24th and last for Audi, the German firm also securing a one-two thanks to the second 200 Quattro of Walter Röhrl.

2003: Japanese MotoGP sensation Daijiro Katoh was killed on the second lap of his home race at Suzuka, the opening race of the season. Honda rider Katoh, who was 26, was a former 250cc World Champion and very much a star of the future. 

2008: Danica Patrick became the first woman to win an IndyCar race when she took her Andretti Green Racing Dallara-Honda to victory in round three at Motegi in Japan. She started seventh and eventually beat poleman Helio Castroneves’ Team Penske machine.  

April 21

1985: Ayrton Senna blitzed the field in the wet at Estoril in Portugal to take the first of his 41 GP wins. He qualified his JPS Lotus 97T on pole for the first time and disappeared into the distance to win by over a minute. Michele Alboreto’s Ferrari was the only other car on the same lap, with Patrick Tambay’s Renault taking third.

1991: Happy birthday Max Chilton! The Brit won two races in GP2 in 2012 and graduated to F1 with Manor in 2013, with which he set an F1 record: finishing his first 25 GPs. He now competes in the US IndyCar Series for Chip Ganassi Racing.

1999: Citroen’s maiden WRC victory came on the Spanish asphalt of Catalunya, courtesy of Frenchman Philippe Bugalski and the two-wheel-drive Xsara Kit Car. Bugalski, who died in August 2012, did it again two weeks later in Corsica. His second career win in as many weeks was the last win for a front-wheel-drive car in the WRC.

April 22

1953: French rally veteran Alain Oreille was born. He began his career in the top flight in 1984 in a Renault 11 Turbo and stayed loyal to the marque for 10 years, contesting 27 more events in 5 GT Turbo and Clio machinery. His only win at WRC level came in the African Ivory Coast Rally in 1989 – in a Group N-spec 5 GT Turbo.  

April 23

1973: Local hero Shekhar Mehta won the first World Championship-qualifying Safari Rally in a Datsun 240Z. Co-driven by fellow Kenyan Lofty Drews, Mehta tamed the African marathon to beat Swede Harry Källström’s Datsun 1800SSS on a tie-break – decided on penalty points accrued at time controls during the 5000km event. 

1984: Derek Bell and Stefan Bellof got their World Sportscar Championship campaign off to the perfect start by winning the opening round, the Monza 1000km, for Porsche. Their Rothmans 956, which started on pole, beat the sister car of Jacky Ickx/Jochen Mass.

1989: Ayrton Senna led Alain Prost to a McLaren one-two in the San Marino GP at Imola, the duo soon embroiled in a war of words over a broken agreement concerning first-corner positions at the start and restart. The race was marred by Gerhard Berger’s fiery crash on lap four. The Austrian’s Ferrari ploughed into the Tamburello wall and erupted. He suffered only broken ribs and second-degree burns to his hands, missing the following Monaco GP race while he recovered. 

2005: The inaugural GP2 Series, the replacement for the FIA Formula 3000 International Championship, kicked off at Imola, in support of the San Marino GP. The race was won by Finn Heikki Kovalainen’s Arden International machine.

2006: Imola held its 27th and final Grand Prix. Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher started from a record-breaking 66th pole position and beat World Champion Fernando Alonso’s Renault by 2s after a thrilling tussle. McLaren’s Juan Pablo Montoya was third.

April 24

1937: German sportscar top name Reinhold Joest was born. A winner in the World Championship and the Daytona 24 Hours, he moved into team ownership, taking the German firm and its rival Audi squad to numerous wins in the Le Mans 24 Hours. Most recently, he oversaw Audi’s short-lived win in last weekend’s WEC opener, in which Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoit Tréluyer scooped the RAC Tourist Trophy in the R18.

1983: German star Rolf Stommelen died, aged 39, at the wheel of a Porsche 935 in an IMSA sportscar race at Riverside in California. Stommelen had raced in 53 Grands Prix for Brabham, Surtees, March, Hill, Hesketh and Arrows, taking a best finish of third in the 1970 Austrian GP. He enjoyed more success in endurance racing, winning the 1967 Targa Florio and the Daytona 24 Hours on four occasions for Porsche.