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

May 9

1971: The J.W Automotive Gulf Porsche 917s took their second straight one-two in the International Championship of Makes, thanks to Pedro Rodriguez and Jackie Oliver leading home Derek Bell and Jo Siffert in the Spa 1000km – a repeat of the Monza 1000km two weeks earlier. Third went to the Alfa Romeo T33/3 of Henri Pescarolo and Andrea de Adamich.

1976: BMW’s first World Sportscar Championship win came courtesy of John Fitzpatrick and Tom Walkinshaw, their Hermetite 3.5 CSL defeating the Kremer Porsche 935 of Bob Wollek and Hans Heyer.

1982: A sombre Belgian GP took place at Zolder the day after Ferrari’s Gilles Villeneuve had been killed in qualifying. Ferrari withdrew Didier Pironi’s car as a mark of respect. The race was won by McLaren’s John Watson, ahead of Keke Rosberg’s Williams.

1987: BMW secured only its second and most recent World Championship Rally win when Bernard Beguin took victory in the Tour de Corse aboard a Prodrive-run M3 E30.

May 10

1959: Jack Brabham’s first Grand Prix win came on the streets of Monaco. The Australian beat Tony Brooks’ Ferrari to pay his first visit to an F1 podium. The Cooper team, for which Brabham drove, had also started from its maiden pole, courtesy of Stirling Moss.

1967: Italian Lorenzo Bandini succumbed to the injuries he sustained in the Monaco GP three days earlier. Bandini crashed his Ferrari at the harbourside chicane and was badly burned in the ensuing fire. Incredibly, he is the only driver to die in a World Championship Grand Prix in the principality.

1975: IndyCar star Helio Castroneves was born. The Brazilian has won 23 series races, including three Indianapolis 500s, and still competes for Penske Racing in America’s top single-seater series

May 11

1975: Niki Lauda won the Monaco Grand Prix, his first victory in the Ferrari 312T. Welshman Tom Pryce started from the front row for the first time in his career, alongside poleman Lauda. Sadly for Pryce, he crashed out just after half-distance.

2003: In an emotional return to the cockpit after his horrific accident in the ChampCar race at Lausitz in 2001, Alex Zanardi completed 13 laps – the number remaining at the point he lost his legs in the crash – in a specially adapted car. And, typically, the Italian was quick enough to have qualified well up the grid.

May 12

1957: The final Mille Miglia ended in tragedy when Alfonso de Portago’s Ferrari left the road, killing him, his co-driver Ed Nelson and 10 spectators. The accident signalled the end of the historic event, which was won by Piero Taruffi’s Ferrari.

1968: Graham Hill rallied the troops at Lotus after the death of Jim Clark, winning the Spanish GP in the 49 ahead of Denny Hulme’s McLaren. Chris Amon started from his maiden pole, although his Ferrari suffered fuel-pump problems, forcing his retirement.

1996: The first of the World Rally Championship’s two visits to Indonesia resulted in victory for the Ford Escort RS Cosworth of double World Champion Carlos Sainz. He beat the Subaru Impreza 555 of Piero Liatti and the Toyota Celica GT-Four of Juha Kankkunen.

May 13

1950: The Formula 1 World Championship was born when 21 cars took the start for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The works Alfa Romeo 158s took 1-2-3-4 on the grid, with Giuseppe Farina leading team-mates Luigi Fagioli, Juan Manuel Fangio and Englishman Reg Parnell. The 1.5-litre supercharged eight-cylinder Italian machines swept to a 1-2-3 in the race, Farina heading Fagioli and Parnell. Fangio’s car retired with an oil leak. The fourth-placed car, Frenchman Yves Giraud-Cabantous’ Talbot-Lago, was two laps adrift.

1956: Stirling Moss took the first of three Monaco GP wins, his Maserati 250F coming home ahead of the Lancia-Ferrari D50 shared by Peter Collins and Juan Manuel Fangio and another 250F driven by Jean Behra.   

1994: British sportscar ace Duncan Hamilton died, aged 74. He won the Le Mans 24 Hours for Jaguar in 1953, the C-type he shared with Tony Rolt averaging more than 100mph. He also finished second a year later in the British marque’s D-type.

May 14

1961: Stirling Moss took arguably his greatest Grand Prix win when his Rob Walker Racing-run Lotus 18 defeated the three works Ferraris of Richie Ginther, Phil Hill and Wolfgang von Trips to win in Monaco. Moss started from pole but had to give best to Ginther for the first 13 laps. Once past the American he led the remaining 87 laps, circulating quicker than qualifying pace to keep the Maranello threat at bay.

1972: The British BRM squad took its 17^th and last Grand Prix win – in Monaco – courtesy of Jean-Pierre Beltoise, who stood atop a podium for the only time. His V12 P160B finished more than half a minute ahead of Jacky Ickx’s Ferrari in the rain-lashed race. Emerson Fittipaldi took third for Lotus after starting from a career-first pole position.

1995: Nigel Mansell bowed out of F1 for the 187^th and final time in the Spanish GP. The 1992 World Champion was making his second start for McLaren, but his MP4-10 retired with handling issues early on.  It was an ignominious end to the Britain’s career after 31 wins, 32 pole positions and 30 fastest laps.

May 15

1977: Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass won the Silverstone 6 Hours in the new-spec Martini Racing Porsche 935/77 by three laps from 1976 winner John Fitzpatrick, this time sharing a Kremer Racing 935 with Bob Wollek.

1986: Italian Elio de Angelis was killed while testing a Brabham BT55 at Paul Ricard. The popular Italian had contested 108 GPs for Shadow, Lotus and Brabham, winning in Austria in 1982 and San Marino in 1985 – both for Lotus. Not until Roland Ratzenberger lost his life at Imola in 1994 had anyone perished in a Grand Prix car since that sad day eight years earlier.