I remember reading an article in a racing magazine (probably Autosprint or Rombo) about a race in which the leader spun in the last corner and crossed the finish line in reverse gear, taking the chequered flag!
I'm not sure, but that might have happened in America...
The magazine was from 1999, around the time Greg Moore died, but the article might have been about a race of the past...


Do you know what race might have been?

thanks
Luca

I seem to recall Paul Stewart winning a F3 race at Snetterton in 1989, (I think it was), where he crossed the line backwards having spun while going through the old, Russell chicane. I dont think that he was in reverse gear at the time because he was still spinning when he crossed the line.

Jean Ragnotti (sp?) did a 360° spin over the line when he won a French touring car race in a Renault 21 turbo (it could have actually been a R21 one make race). But he did it on purpose rather than by accident (type his name in YouTube to see how much of a car control master he was...). This would have been in about 1989 or '90 i think.

That's right. He was leading the race and lost it coming onto the start/finish straight. The following lap, there was a shunt and the result was declared from the end of the previous lap, which Stewart led, albeit in a reverse direction. I imagine the headline in Motoring News that week would have been either 'Stewart Spins & Wins" or "Backwards to Victory".

There are some other examples in this related thread:

Unusual way to finish a race

Lou Unser once spun at the last corner of the Pikes peak "race to the clouds" and reversed over the line, but he didn't win, i believe he was second. I dont know if he was leading or not at the time, perhaps a bit difficult to say it being a hill climb. Late forties or early fifties.

The Boillot incident in the first post of that thread was the one that immediately came to my mind for today's.

Probably not what you were looking for, but Robert Benoist did exactly that in his Delage at the Mont Agel hillclimb in 1926 and still beat the course record.

Source: "The Grand Prix Saboteurs" by Joe Saward p.56

It was Mika Hakkinen who had the accident which caused the race to be stopped. A pretty hefty one too...

Am I correct in remembering that Mo Nunn achieved this feat in an F3 race at Silverstone circa 1971 when was driving a Gold Leaf Lotus 59?

Edit: Or was it Bev Bond...?

Rolled it at the Bombhole if I recall correctly

Of course, Greg Moore did that himself in one of his last races (though not for the win). Whether that's the incident referred to, or the trigger for the article considering similar events.

Just from memories, Greg spun in the final corner, remaining on track. Rather impressively he caught it in a straightline, although pointing the worng way, and rolled/drove the final 200 yards, probably still doing well over 100, and dropping from perhaps 4/5th to bottom end of the top ten? A feat made all the more remarkable as:
a) The car was now biased to go up the hill
b) There were a lot of cars going both sides of him.