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

August 29

1945: French rally ace Jean Ragnotti was born. He made 41 WRC starts between 1973 and 1995, all bar one of them in Renault machinery. He won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1981 and the Tour de Corse in ’82 in the Renault 5 Turbo and took a third win – again in Corsica – in ’85 at the wheel of the Group B R5 Maxi Turbo. Now into his seventies, he’s still a popular showman at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

1947: British legend James Simon Wallis Hunt was born. The charismatic playboy racer won 10 GPs – one for Hesketh and nine for McLaren – and captured the 1976 World title in dramatic fashion in the Japanese GP decider. He died, aged just 45, in June 1993.

1964: Graham Hill won the seventh and final RAC Tourist Trophy at Goodwood, aboard Maranello Concessionaires’ Ferrari 330P. He beat the 250 LM of fellow Brit David Piper and a trio of Shelby Cobras pedalled by Dan Gurney, Jack Sears and Bob Olthoff. It was the Englishman’s second successive win in the event, having taken a 250 GTO to victory the year before. 

1976: Birthday boy James Hunt won the Dutch GP at Zandvoort for McLaren, defeating the Ferrari of Clay Regazzoni by less than a second. Mario Andretti took third for Lotus. It was two in a row in the dunes for 29-year-old Hunt following his maiden F1 win there for Hesketh 12 months earlier.

1982: The Swiss GP was held at Dijon in France (motorsport was still banned in the country following the 1955 Le Mans disaster) and won by the Williams FW08 of Keke Rosberg. The Finn beat Alain Prost’s Renault to take the championship lead with two rounds to go.

2009: Australian cult hero Frank Gardner died at the age of 78. The gritty New South Welshman won the British Touring Car Championship three times – twice for Ford and once for Chevrolet. He also made eight F1 starts in 1964/’65 in a Brabham and won a round of the European F2 Championship – in a Brabham at Hockenheim in 1967. In later life he ran a team of BMWs in the Australian Touring Car series.

August 30

1937: Bruce McLaren was born. The Kiwi racer and pioneer became the youngest winner of a World Championship GP when he took victory for Cooper in the US GP at Sebring at the end of 1959. He raced for the British squad until building and entering his own car at Monaco in 1966. Bruce also won Le Mans in a Ford GT40 that same year and went on to take two Can-Am titles in his self-built M8s. He was killed during a test at Goodwood in June 1970, although his team carried on, winning the Indianapolis 500 three times, taking two more Can-Am crowns and, of course, enjoying huge success in F1.

1962: French rally star Francois Delecour was born. He won four events in a works Ford Escort RS Cosworth in 1993/’94. His most recent outing came on this year’s Monte Carlo Rally, in which he finished 16^th in a Peugeot 207.  

1963: Welsh rally co-driver Phil Mills was born. He famously partnered Petter Solberg to the 2003 WRC title in the Prodrive Subaru Impreza WRC, but had also tasted British Championship success with Mark Higgins and Nissan in 1997.

1992: Michael Schumacher took the first of his record-smashing 91 GP wins in the Belgian GP at Spa for Benetton. Just a year after his debut, for Jordan, Schumacher started from third on the grid and comfortably beat the hitherto dominant Williams-Renaults of Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese to record the only win for a V8-engined car that season. 

1998: The Jordan team secured a fairytale result in a rain-lashed Belgian GP at Spa when Damon Hill and Ralf Schumacher finished one-two for Eddie Jordan’s squad. Jean Alesi’s Sauber finished third in a race that was restarted after much of the field was involved in a huge smash on the run down to Eau Rouge on the opening lap.

August 31

1975: Hannu Mikkola’s second successive win in his home WRC event, the 1,000 Lakes, was his third career win in three different cars. He won the 1,000 Lakes in 1974 for Ford, taken victory for Peugeot in Morocco in ’75 and then took a Toyota Corolla to victory in Finland two rallies later. He beat the Saab 96 V4 of Simo Lampinen and the Ford Escort RS1800 of Timo Mäkinen to make it a home-hero 1-2-3.

1980: Nelson Piquet’s second career victory in F1 came in the Dutch GP at Zandvoort for Brabham. The Brazilian started fifth and got to the front by lap 13, holding off previous leaders René Arnoux (Renault) and Jacques Laffite (Ligier) to win the 72-lap race.

September 1

1985: German superstar Stefan Bellof was killed after tangling with fellow Porsche ace Jacky Ickx at the bottom of the hill into Eau Rouge on lap 77 of the Spa 1,000km World Sportscar Championship qualifier. Bellof’s Brun Racing 956B, which he shared with Thierry Boutsen, hit the wall head-on and the 27-year-old perished in the impact. The subdued affair was won by Mauro Baldi, Riccardo Patrese and Bob Wollek, who gave Lancia’s Martini-liveried LC2 its only victory of the year.

1994: Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 driver Carlos Sainz Jr was born. Son of double World Rally Champion and Spanish motorsport hero Carlos Sainz Sr, he made his F1 debut in 2015 as reigning Formula Renault 3.5 Champion. To date, his best result has been sixth in his home race this season.

September 2

1924: Italian-born but British-raised Dario Resta, who won the 1916 Indianapolis 500 in a Peugeot, was killed during a speed-record attempt for Sunbeam at Brooklands, aged 42.

1956: Stirling Moss won the Italian GP at Monza for Maserati. The Englishman’s third career win, and second of that year, was not enough to give him his first world title. Unbelievably, fellow Brit Peter Collins, who also had a chance of the title, handed his car over to Juan Manuel Fangio, whose own car had failed. The duo finished second, which was enough to give Fangio his fourth title!

1966: One-time Grand Prix winner Olivier Panis was born. The Frenchman raced in 157 GPs, for Ligier, Prost, BAR and Toyota between 1994 and 2004, famously winning the 1996 Monaco GP for Ligier – from 14^th on the grid. Other notable achievement include title victory in the 1993 European F3000 Championship and a win in the Sebring 12 Hours in an ORECA Peugeot in 2011.

September 3

1950: Giuseppe Farina clinched the inaugural Formula 1 World Championship crown with victory on home soil at Monza. Farina’s factory Alfa Romeo 159 took an easy win over the shared Ferrari 375 of Dorino Serafini and Alberto Ascari. Interestingly, 65 years on, Farina remains the only driver to win the title in his home GP.

1989: Donington Park hosted its first World Sportscar Championship race, the Wheatcroft Gold Cup. The 120-lap race was won by the Sauber-Mercedes C9/88 of Jochen Mass and Jean-Louis Schlesser. They defeated the sister car of Kenny Acheson and Mauro Baldi, with the Nissan R89C of Brits Julian Bailey and Mark Blundell finishing third.

September 4

1960: Phil Hill’s victory in the Italian GP at Monza, his first in F1, was the last for a front-engined car. The American’s 246 Dino finished 2m27s ahead of the sister car of fellow American Richie Ginther, with Belgian Willy Mairesse making it a Maranello 1-2-3 on home soil.

1966: Ferrari won at its spiritual home again when Ludovico Scarfiotti took his only F1 win in the Italian GP at Monza. Briton Mike Parkes had started his 312 V12 on pole but had to give best to his team-mate in the race. Denny Hulme’s Brabham-Repco took a close third.

1976: Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass took their Group 5 factory Martini Porsche 935 to victory in the World Championship of Makes race at Dijon, ahead of the Kremer Racing 935 of Bob Wollek and Hans Heyer. The next day, Ickx/Mass won the World Sportscar Championship race in the Group 6 936 prototype, finishing ahead of the Alpine A442-Renault of Patrick Depailler and Jacques Laffite.