On this day in motorsport history...

Frank, thanks for the link to additional info on the Cobra and ZF6 debuts…interesting to note it was written by future R&T editor, David E. Davis. Davis, even then, was never lacking in his use of adjectives and superlatives.

October 14,

1899, In the early days of the automobile, many doubted that owning a "horseless carriage" would ever be within the reach of an average citizen. Indeed, some critics of the noisy and expensive invention went so far as to prophesize its eventual demise once the wealthy got over the novelty of owing one. On this day the Literary Digest declared that "the ordinary horseless carriage is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its price will probably fall in the future, it will never, of course, come into common use as a bicycle." But what critics of the automobile failed to foresee were the types of revolutionary manufacturing techniques that would be developed by Henry Ford and others. Less than a decade after the Literary Digest predicted that the automobile would remain a luxury of the wealthy, Ford revolutionized the automotive industry with his affordable Model T built for the average American. Ford was able to keep the price down by retaining control of all raw materials, and by employing revolutionary mass production methods. When it was first introduced, the "tin Lizzy" cost only $850 and seated two people, and by the time it was discontinued in 1927, nearly fifteen million Model Ts had been sold.

1947, Grand Prix driver, Rikky von Opel was born in Liechtenstein.

1962, Edoardo Lualdi won the Coppa Autoumno at Monza, Italy, driving a Ferrari 250 GTO.

1962, At the same time, another 250 GTO driven by Fernand Tovano and co-driver Marcel Martin won the Rallye Cognac in France.

2000, Top Fuel drag racer, Wayne Bailey died from injuries suffered in a crash during the IHRA National event at Shreveport, Louisiana.

2001, Suzuka, Michael Schumacher ended an extraordinary season with a ninth victory in 17 races. He had been unbeatable in qualifying, taking pole by seven-tenths of a second and in the race his use of new Bridgestone tires in the first few laps of the race were enough to wipe out any chance the opposition had to win the race.

Michael wanted to help Rubens Barrichello to grab second place from David Coulthard in the Drivers' Championship but the Brazilian could not outgun Juan-Pablo Montoya despite being on a three-stop strategy. And so, Michael was left to win. Montoya chased as hard as he could but he was still five seconds behind when they set off on the final lap of the race. Schumacher let Montoya close in a bit but victory was his.

Coulthard had an uneventful afternoon and finished third in the race and coming in second in the WDC chase. His teammate, Mika was fourth followed by Rubens in fifth and Ralf in sixth.

Originally posted by fines
Congrats Richard, for hitting the 1000!

Well done


__________________
Michael Ferner

Michael, thanks for the accolade, but in reality, this effort should just be ready to be refined once I’ve completed the year. There have been improvements in detail and volume as this past years’ entries have progressed. (Inspired to a great degree by your additions) Moreover, the emphasis is on quality and not quantity and to try to keep the continuity intact.

At the culmination of this effort, I shall appeal to the management to see if there is some sort of calendar that could be incorporated into TNF that could be filled with a condensed version of this thread – only the substantive content would be entered and the original thread archived for future additions, entries more deserving of a historical nature, etc. – lord knows, as well as many of this collective body, I missed many of the pre WWII era races, lots of British GP events, Many of the Le Mans events, Targa Florio and Millie Miglia, etc, etc, and who knows how many corrections to this, that and the other still need to be confirmed.

Any additions to those events are more than welcome. I suppose that when all is said and done, each day should be a snapshot of motor racing history - though I'll admit some detail has been overblown - I just found them to be interesting and was thinking that readers who didn't want the detail could just scan for the results.

Also Oct 14th 1857
Birth of Elwood Haynes... Pionner of Indiana's automobile industry.

http://www.indianahi...itage/ehay.html

Not sure... but i Think that in Oct 14th 1988 Massimo 'Mikki' Biasion Won San Remo Rally (Lancia Delta HF) and became that day World Champion..

October 14, 1947... Charles (Chuck) Yeager put the Bell X-1 rocket plane into a dive and exceeded the speed of sound.

Nobody had ever done that before...

October 14 1997, Charles 'Chuck' Yeager commemorates the previous comment (and 50th anniversary) by shaking down again the speed of sound at the age of 74



Taken from ..: http://www.chuckyeag...s/bioframe.html

Chuck Yeager made his last flight as a military consultant on October 14, 1997, the 50th anniversary of his history-making flight in the X-1. He observed the occasion by once again breaking the sound barrier, this time in an F-15 fighter.

Somewhere there's a photo of Yeager and my brother standing together...

My brother was born on that day. Note the surname...

Originally posted by Ray Bell
October 14, 1947... Charles (Chuck) Yeager put the Bell X-1 rocket plane into a dive and exceeded the speed of sound.

Nobody had ever done that before...

Oh sure, Achilles had done just that in his famous race with the tortoise... Didn't you know that?

And Richard, I second your notion about the TNF calendar, that would be a cute thing! Don?

DON???

October 15,

1899, Motorcycle racer, Grand Prix and Sports car driver, Adolf Brudes von Breslau was born in Kotulin, Poland. Germany.

1919, 1952 AAA Champion and Grand Prix driver at Indy, Chuck Stevenson was born in the USA.

1920, Racing journalist, TV commentator and Publisher of National Speed Sport News, Chris Economaki was born in Brooklyn, New York.

1921, Canadian National and Grand Prix driver, Al Pease was born in Canada.

1964, Craig Breedlove became the first man to drive 500 mph when he set a new World Land Speed Record of 526.277 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats in his "Spirit of America". He crashed and wrecked the jet car at the end of the second run when his brakes failed. When the dust cleared, Breedlove emerged shaken from the vehicle as the not-so-proud record-holder for the longest skid marks ever recorded. Nevertheless, Breedlove, who already held the land-speed record, did manage to break the 500 mph speed barrier that year, just as he had broken the 400 mph barrier the year before, and just as he would surpass 600 mph in the year following.

1967, Buddy Baker scored his first NASCAR Grand National victory when he won The National 500 Grand National (NASCAR) race Charlotte, North Carolina.. One of the racers he beat to the finish line was Grand Prix great, Jim Clark. BTW, did we ever conclude in that Jim Clark in NASCAR thread that he crashed and retired or was it a mechanical problem that put him out?

1981, Grand Prix driver, Philip Fotheringham-Parker passed away in Beckley, nr Rye, East Sussex England. A gentleman driver who raced an Alvis at Brooklands before the war and continued into the late 1940s with an ERA and later a Maserati 4CLT with which he contested the 1951 British Grand Prix.

1983, Kyalami, The World Championship battle between Alain Prost (Renault), Nelson Piquet (Brabham-BMW) and Rene Arnoux (Ferrari) had been finely balanced all season but Prost was still ahead as they gathered for the showdown in Kyalami. Frank Williams finally decided it was time to debut the new Honda-engined FW09 and both Keke Rosberg and Jacques Laffite had the new cars. Otherwise, the field was unchanged.

Patrick Tambay was on pole position in his Ferrari but Arnoux was in trouble because his car broke down out on the track and when the marshals pushed it, they pushed it over his foot and so he was hobbling badly only fourth on the grid behind the two Brabham-BMWs with Piquet ahead of Riccardo Patrese. Alain Prost was only fifth while Keke Rosberg was an impressive sixth in the new Williams-Honda ahead of Nigel Mansell’s Lotus-Renault, Manfred Winkelhock in his ATS-BMW), Andrea de Cesaris – Alfa Romeo and Jacques Laffite in the second Williams-Honda.

At the start, Piquet and Patrese both blasted ahead and Tambay and the Brazilian began to build a lead at a remarkable rate. Tambay was soon overtaken by de Cesaris, then was passed by Prost but the Frenchman could do no better than third and he soon came under pressure from Niki Lauda, charging hard in the McLaren-TAG. On lap 18 Lauda went up to third. Piquet stopped without losing the lead on lap 28 and briefly Prost rose back up the order to third while others pitted but on lap 35 he came in to retire with a turbo failure. Arnoux had gone out early with an engine failure so all Renault could do was hope that Piquet was fail to finish.

Piquet began to nurse his car and so Patrese caught him and overtook on lap 60. On lap 69 Lauda also went ahead but two laps later the engine failed and so Piquet was back in second. On lap 75 de Cesaris went up to second but Piquet's car was still going and third place was good enough. He had snatched the World Championship from Prost. The remaining points went to Derek Warwick (Toleman-Hart), Rosberg and the dispirited Eddie Cheever in his Renault. A few days later Prost and the Renault Team would split in acrimonious circumstances.

1995, Kenny Brack won the FIA F3000 race at Magny-Cours, France.

October 15th

1956 Jaguar announce his retirement from competition



...And Another sort of motorsport...

1966
His name was kept anonymous but... A 75 years old driver gets 10 fees , drive 4 times on the wrong side , escapes 4 times from the police and is at the origin of 6 accidents .... All those things happened in 20 mn in McKinney (Texas - USA)



Back to Sport...

1997 Andy Green Breaks land speed world Record (and sound barrier) at Black Rock Desert (NEVADA)... Flying mile 763.035 mph (1227.985 kph) ....Flying kilometre 1223.657 kph (760.343 mph)

Originally posted by fvebr
October 15th

1956 Jaguar announce his retirement from competition

...

Fevbr,

I have the Jaguar pull-out as October 13, 1957 - where did you find that source? Thanks.

Completely spaced the Thrust II records - thanks for that too.

I saw that article on the 75 year-old man as well.. pretty funny. Did you see this one? ....On another record-breaking bad driver note, Mrs. Fannie Turner of Little Rock, Arkansas, finally overcame her driving demons this day in 1978, when she finally passed the written test for drivers-- it was her 104th attempt!

Originally posted by rdcr
1964, Craig Breedlove became the first man to drive 500 mph when he set a new World Land Speed Record of 526.277 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats in his "Spirit of America". He crashed and wrecked the jet car at the end of the second run when his brakes failed. When the dust cleared, Breedlove emerged shaken from the vehicle as the not-so-proud record-holder for the longest skid marks ever recorded . . .

Did I understand correctly that his first statement upon climbing from the vehicle and confronting his relieved crew was, "For my next act I set myself on fire!"

Originally posted by rdrcr
October 15,


1967, Buddy Baker scored his first NASCAR Grand National victory when he won The National 500 Grand National (NASCAR) race Charlotte, North Carolina.. One of the racers he beat to the finish line was Grand Prix great, Jim Clark. BTW, did we ever conclude in that Jim Clark in NASCAR thread that he crashed and retired or was it a mechanical problem that put him out?

I don't know that particular thread - but it was definitely an engine problem and not a crash. I was there that day - in fact the evening before the race my brother J.C. and his wife Joan and I had dinner with Jim, Jochen Rindt, and Ludovico Scarfiotti. In the race, Jim started 24th and seemed by my recollection to pass a car nearly every lap. I believe he was 11th and still moving up when the engine expired.

Originally posted by Mike Argetsinger

I don't know that particular thread - but it was definitely an engine problem and not a crash. I was there that day - in fact the evening before the race my brother J.C. and his wife Joan and I had dinner with Jim, Jochen Rindt, and Ludovico Scarfiotti. In the race, Jim started 24th and seemed by my recollection to pass a car nearly every lap. I believe he was 11th and still moving up when the engine expired.

Thanks Michael... Don (he was there as well!) and Joe Fan had the same recollection... BTW I found it in the TNF archives, seems that it was some sort of engine problem. Jim Clark in NASCAR

Originally posted by FrankS

Did I understand correctly that his first statement upon climbing from the vehicle and confronting his relieved crew was, "For my next act I set myself on fire!"

Frank... Yeah... he did. Shamelessly Stolen From the Car & Driver Magazine Website - from the 10 Best list of Tough Guys

Number 7. Craig Breedlove--

"After setting a land speed record of 526 mph, Craig Breedlove, driving the Spirit of America at Bonneville in 1964, lost two parachutes, sliced through a telephone pole, hopped a hill, then plunged nose-first into a brine pond. When medics reached him, he said, "For my next act, I will set myself on fire." Source

Originally posted by Frank S


Did I understand correctly that his first statement upon climbing from the vehicle and confronting his relieved crew was, "For my next act I set myself on fire!"

Followed shortly by: "Daddy, I broke my race car".

A couple of great quotes. Of course, Breedlove himself was in a state of shock and nervous relief.


Jim Thurman

October 16,

1918, Grand Prix driver, Tony Rolt of Bordon, England was born.

1934, Grand Prix driver, Peter Ashdown was born in Essex, England.

1950, California Sports Car Club holds the first race at Palm Springs, California. – I don’t know about this one… I found another record stating April 16, 1950 as well. Confirm please.

1951, On this day, Hudson introduced the Hornet, and put some sting into their step-down design. The Hornet was built with a 308 cubic-inch flat head in a line six-cylinder motor, producing generous torque and a substantial amount of horsepower. It was with this popular model that Hudson first entered stock car racing in 1951. After ending their first season in a respectable third place, Hudson began a three-year domination of the racing event. In 1952 alone, Hudson won twenty-nine of the thirty-four events. A key factor in Hudson's racing success was the innovative step-down design of its cars. Because of their lower centers of gravity, Hornets would tear around corners with relative ease, leaving their clunky and unstable competitors in the dust.

1960, Charlotte Motor Speedway opened with a 400 mile NASCAR Grand National race - won by Speedy Thompson in a Ford.

1966, Phil Hill and Jim Hall, drove Chaparral 2Es, and finished 1-2 in the Can-Am race at Laguna Seca, California. This was the only Can-Am victory for Chaparral – can that be correct?

1966, Donnie Allison made his NASCAR Grand National debut and finished 27th at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina.

1994, Jerez, for the GP of Europe, The entry list had altered somewhat since the Portuguese GP with Michael Schumacher back in action after his two race ban and Nigel Mansell returning to Williams for the final three races of the year in place of David Coulthard. Tom Walkinshaw had bought Johnny Herbert's contract from the Team Lotus receivers and put the Englishman into Ligier, replacing Eric Bernard. The Frenchman was transferred to be Alex Zanardi's teammate at Lotus for the weekend. Hideki Noda took over the second Larrousse while Mimmo Schiattarella became a Simtek driver for the weekend.

In qualifying, Schumacher took pole position from title rival Damon Hill. Mansell was third on the grid. Heinz-Harald Frentzen was fourth for Sauber with Rubens Barrichello (Jordan) fifth, Gerhard Berger (Ferrari) sixth and Herbert seventh. The top 10 was completed by Gianni Morbidelli (Arrows), Mika Hakkinen (McLaren-Peugeot) and Eddie Irvine's Jordan.

At the start Hill went into the lead while Mansell went backwards through the field with a very bad beginning. Frentzen was third while Mansell soon recovered to fourth, passing Berger and Barrichello. Mansell was later repassed by Barrichello and the veteran was unable to get back and damaged the nose of his car on the rear of the Jordan and had to pit for repairs. At the first pits stops Hill was overtaken by Schumacher but, worse than that, Damon had not been given enough fuel and so had to pit again. He dropped away and was never able to catch Schumacher. Hakkinen finished third with Irvine fourth, Berger fifth and Frentzen wound up sixth.

Originally posted by rdrcr
1966, Phil Hill and Jim Hall, drove Chaparral 2Es, and finished 1-2 in the Can-Am race at Laguna Seca, California. This was the only Can-Am victory for Chaparral – can that be correct?

I'm not sure, but I think (I hope someone can correct me if I'm wrong) that there was a Chaparral victory with the sucker car... maybe at the Glen?

Originally posted by rdrcr

Fvebr,

I have the Jaguar pull-out as October 13, 1957 - where did you find that source? Thanks.

Well, found that on ephemerides sites... All i can say is that i don't have something really sure as most sites speaks of October 1957 for stopping involvments in racing...

I'll try to check that again... (Sorry to disturb AGAIN )

As i can recall... Jaguar's line up in races 1957 were from private teams... Not official Jaguar... Am i Wrong ?

Originally posted by Ray Bell


I'm not sure, but I think (I hope someone can correct me if I'm wrong) that there was a Chaparral victory with the sucker car... maybe at the Glen?

Don't think so Ray... As far as I can tell the 2J best finish was 6th at Road Atlanta before it was banned. Perhaps I was thinking of the USRRC Series where the Jim Hall cars were so dominant.

Fevbr, I don't know if you're wrong or not... I just found more references to Oct. '57 than '56 - that's
all.

October 17,

1919, A 10/30 Mercedes fitted with a Roots supercharger begins road tests between Degerloch and Echterdingen in Germany. This was the first use of a Roots blower in an automobile.

1926, Grand Prix driver, Roberto Lippi was born in Italy.

1948, The first post-WWII race to be held at Monza, Italy, was won by Jean-Pierre Wilmille in an Alfa.

1954, Jimmy Byrant won the Champ car race on the dirt track at Sacramento, California, in an Offenhauser powered Kuzma.

1979, John R. Cooper was named President of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

1979, F1 driver Kimi Raikkonen was born in Finland.

1981, Las Vegas, There were three weeks between the Canadian and Las Vegas GPs and in that time Niki Lauda decided to return to F1 with McLaren in 1982. The F1 circus was rather perplexed to be racing around the parking of a Las Vegas casino and no one seemed to like it much. The entry was as it had been in Canada and in qualifying it was World Championship leader Carlos Reutemann on pole from his teammate Alan Jones. The Australian was not going to do anything to help the Argentine to the title because of their clash over team orders at the start of the year. He was retiring from F1 after the race and had nothing to lose. He was going for a victory.

Third on the grid was Gilles Villeneuve in the Ferrari with Reutemann's title rival Nelson Piquet fourth, Alain Prost fifth in his Renault and John Watson sixth in the McLaren. The top 10 was completed by Patrick Tambay (in his last race with the Talbot Ligier team), Bruno Giacomelli (Alfa Romeo), Nigel Mansell (Lotus) and Mario Andretti (Alfa Romeo).

Jones took the lead at the start with Reutemann dropping behind Villeneuve, Prost and Giacomelli before the first corner. Watson and Laffite were sixth and seventh with Piquet a cautious eighth. With Villeneuve acting as a block to those behind him, Jones was able to drive away to victory. He was never headed.

Villeneuve's second place last only until the third lap when Prost blew past him but the Renault was no match for the Williams. On the next lap, Laffite overtook Watson and the order then stabilized with Piquet running behind Reutemann, both men out of the points. On lap 17 Piquet passed the subdued Reutemann and he was followed by Andretti. Piquet chased after Watson and took sixth place on lap 22. This was briefly fifth when Villeneuve stopped with a fuel injection problem. But Nelson was then overtaken by Andretti. A few moments later, Giacomelli's promising run in fourth place ended when he went off and rejoined back in ninth position so Piquet was back in fifth but when Reutemann overtook Watson for sixth the pair were back on equal points (although Piquet would win the title on victories). Then Andretti retired with a broken rear suspension and Piquet moved to fourth and Reutemann to fifth.

Soon afterwards Prost pitted for tires and dropped to sixth but at the same time Mansell went ahead of Reutemann and as Prost recovered so Carlos lost another place. Prost's recovery would take him to second place, while Reutemann's unimpressive afternoon continued as he drifted behind the recovering Giacomelli. Piquet got up the third when Laffite went in for tires but he was then overtaken by Mansell and Giacomelli, the Italian moving up to third in the closing laps. So Piquet came up fifth but with Reutemann out of the points it was enough to win the title.

1994, CART president Andrew Craig wrote Phoenix International Raceway owner Buddy Jobe a letter to tell him that CART would no longer race at his track.

1999, Sepang, The inaugural Malaysian Grand Prix saw Michael Schumacher back into action for Ferrari for the first time since his leg-breaking accident at the British GP in July. After weeks of being less than impressive the Ferraris - or at least Schumacher's car - were suddenly fast again. Schumacher was so fast in fact that he was a second ahead of the two McLarens in qualifying. Irvine was alongside him on the grid and the McLarens of David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen were third and fourth. Then came a revitalized Johnny Herbert, much more motivated after his win at the European GP three weeks previously. Herbert's Stewart-Ford team mate, Rubens Barrichello, was sixth on the grid.

In the race, Schumacher went off in the lead with Irvine having trouble keeping Coulthard, Hakkinen and Barrichello behind him. On lap four Schumacher slowed and allowed Irvine to pass him and then proceeded to block Coulthard and the others. David was in no mood for such behavior and on the next lap he forced his way past the Ferrari and went off in pursuit of Irvine. He was challenging for the lead when his car broke down.

Back in second place, Schumacher slowed down again to allow Irvine to get an advantage. Then, needing to stay ahead of Hakkinen during the pit stops, Michael accelerated the pace in order to build a lead. Realizing this, McLaren took a risk. They gave Hakkinen half a tank of fuel and hoped it would be enough to get him out of the pits ahead of Schumacher.

The gamble failed. Schumacher blocked Hakkinen again and the gap to Irvine went up to around 20secs. Irvine did not have a big enough advantage to stay ahead at his second stop but Ferrari was sure that Hakkinen would have to stop again. He did, emerging in fourth place behind Herbert. Schumacher slowed again to allow Irvine to take the lead. Hakkinen could do no more than force his way past Herbert to take third place. After the race the Ferraris were found to be illegal by an FIA official. The stewards agreed. The Ferraris were thrown out, which - in theory - made Hakkinen World Champion.

Ferrari appealed and the FIA Court of Appeal in Paris later ruled that the cars were not illegal and that the measurements taken had been wrong. The two Ferraris were reinstated.

Non-racing Related:

1973, On this day, eleven Arab oil producers increased oil prices and cut back production in response to the support of the United States and other nations for Israel in the Yom Kippur War. The same day, OPEC, (The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries), approved the oil embargo at a meeting in Tangiers, Morocco. Almost overnight, gasoline prices quadrupled, and the U.S. economy, especially its automakers, suffered greatly as a result.

The U.S. car companies, who built automobiles that typically averaged less than fifteen miles per gallon, were unable to satisfy the sudden demand for small, fuel-efficient vehicles. The public turned to imports in droves, and suddenly Japan's modest, but sturdy, little compacts began popping up on highways all across America. Even after the oil embargo crisis was resolved, American consumers had learned an important lesson about the importance of fuel efficiency, and foreign auto manufacturers flourished in the large American market. It took years for the Big Three to bounce back from the blow; eventually they gained ground with the introduction of their own Japanese-inspired compacts in the 1980s.

Also October 17th 1991

French driver Didier AURIOL (co-driver Bernard OCCELLI) Wins the 33rd SAN-REMO Rallye with a Lancia Delta Integrale 16V

Should be back in the next posts about jaguar for 'maybe' clearing that thing ...

Originally posted by rdrcr


Fevbr, I don't know if you're wrong or not... I just found more references to Oct. '57 than '56 - that's
all.

http://passionnemans...guar_typeD.html

Is one site (in french) talking about that... Can't find any precise date but i found that on other different sites too...

The thing that makes me more over 56 is that in 57 we don't find any official jag team... Just 'Privates' like Ecurie Ecosse...

If somebody can find better...

Jaguar's announcement it was pulling out of racing was 13 October 1956 and, as fvebr states, the company's racing fortunes from 1957 onwards were carried by teams such as the very successful Ecurie Ecosse.

I would suggest the reason there are more references to October 1957 than October 1956 on web sites is that some people, in their rush to get information onto the web in a quest for their 15 minutes of fame, often hit the key next to the one they intended to hit. Very rarely does anyone seem to proof-read these things - and plagiarists aren't too particular about the accuracy of material they steal.

From my experience, it seems almost the rule that if you have two differing versions of a "fact" on the web, the majority is wrong and the minority is correct.

Originally posted by Barry Lake
... "I would suggest the reason there are more references to October 1957 than October 1956 on web sites is that some people, in their rush to get information onto the web in a quest for their 15 minutes of fame, often hit the key next to the one they intended to hit. Very rarely does anyone seem to proof-read these things - and plagiarists aren't too particular about the accuracy of material they steal..."

Thanks a bunch - I'm glad that someone here knows the real deal. One of the many reasons that I've posted this collection, is to find the truth about the "facts" out there on the web. If there was one place that could find out the bottom-line on something, it would be here.

From my experience, it seems almost the rule that if you have two differing versions of a "fact" on the web, the majority is wrong and the minority is correct.

Good point...

;)

October 18,

1919, Grand Prix driver, Hans Klenk was born in Germany.

1933, Grand Prix driver, Ludovico Scarfiotti was born in Italy

1970, Denny Hulme drove his McLaren M8D to victory in the Can-Am race at Laguna Seca, California.

1972, CART driver, Alexandre Tagliani was born.

1987, Mexico City, The field was much as it had been all season, the only changes being that Osella had gone back to one car and Larrousse has expanded to two with Yannick Dalmas joining Philippe Alliot. Nelson Piquet was 18 point ahead with three races to go and so Nigel Mansell needed a good result without Piquet scoring too well. The atmosphere in the Williams had deteriorated badly between the two drivers but as Ayrton Senna was out of the running for the World Championship there was no chance that the two could take points from one another as they had in 1986 and let a third driver win the title.

In qualifying the drivers found that the Mexico City track had become more bumpy and there were a series of big accidents, including one of Mansell, another for Ayrton Senna. Mansell was on pole from Gerhard Berger second in his Ferrari ahead of Piquet, Thierry Boutsen (Benetton-Ford), Alain Prost (McLaren), Teo Fabi (Benetton) and Senna. The top 10 was rounded off by Riccardo Patrese (Brabham-BMW), Michele Alboreto (Ferrari) and Andrea de Cesaris (Brabham).

At the start, Mansell made a bad start and was overtaken by Berger, Boutsen, Piquet and Prost. At the first corner Piquet and Prost tangled and both cars spun. Prost was out but Piquet got going again. So Mansell was third. There were further incidents down through the field with Stefan Johansson spinning and being eliminated when he was hit by Christian Danner.

At the front Boutsen took the lead from Berger on the second lap with Mansell a distant third but then the Benetton began to misfire and Berger went back into the lead and Boutsen went out with electronic trouble. Berger retired six laps later with an engine failure and with Alboreto also having disappeared Ferrari's race was over.

Mansell was thus left in the lead with Senna second and Patrese third and Piquet fourth. Then there were red flags after Derek Warwick (Arrows-Megatron) had a huge accident at the final corner when something broke at the back of his car.

A new grid was formed up based on the order of the cars before the crash with the race being decided on aggregate. Piquet took the lead at the restart but with Mansell sitting behind him there was no way he could win the race. In the closing laps, Senna spun off and so Piquet ended up in second place having done enough to beat Patrese on aggregate. Eddie Cheever was fourth in his Arrows with Fabi fifth and Philippe Alliot sixth.

October 19,

1924, Count Louis Vorow Zborowski died in wreck during the Italian GP at Monza. Antonio Ascari, driving an Alfa Romeo P2, won the race.

Zborowski, the wealthy son of a Polish Count and an American mother, lived at Higham Place a large country house near Canterbury where with his engineer Captain Clive Gallop he built three aero-engined cars, all called Chitty Bang Bang and a fourth monster the Higham Special, later known as Babs - the car in which Parry Thomas died at Pendine Sands in 1927 during his final land speed record attempt. Louis Zborowski was wealthy enough to own many cars which he raced both in Europe and America. 1923 saw him journey to the brickyard with a straight eight 2 litre Bugatti clothed in a single seater all enveloping body, the driver's seat being offset to one side of the propshaft. The following year Zborowski was invited to join the Mercedes team as a works driver, only to perish very soon afterwards in one of their 2 litre cars at Monza

1947, Eddie Hulse, driving Regg Schlemmer's Mercury powered roadster, sets a new Southern California Timing Association Class C speed record of 136.05 MPH on the El Mirage dry lake.

1956, Sportscar driver, Didier Theys was born.

1958, At the Ain Diab circuit in Casablanca, Morocco. The recently independent state of Morocco wanted to establish its own international identity and applied for a World Championship race on the Ain Diab circuit, a very fast road circuit near Casablanca.

Stirling Moss and Mike Hawthorn went to Morocco for the final round of the World Championship with Moss needing to win and set the fastest lap with Hawthorn finishing third if he was going to win the title. There was a strong field of 25 cars but as expected Hawthorn and Moss were at the front with the Ferrari driver a tenth faster after practice. Stuart Lewis-Evans was third quickest in his Vanwall while the second row featured Jean Behra's BRM and Phil Hill in the second Ferrari. Olivier Gendebien (Ferrari), Tony Brooks (Vanwall) and Jo Bonnier (BRM) made up the third row.

The newly crowned King Mohammad V was present for the race and watched Moss take the lead at the start. Phil Hill made a great start from the second row (as he had done in the previous race at Monza) and was second. he challenged for the lead on several occasions but on the third lap he went off up an escape road and dropped behind Hawthorn and Bonnier. Hill quickly caught the Swedish driver and Hawthorn waved him through to go after Moss. Brooks, keen to help Moss by overtaking Hawthorn overtook Bonnier and caught and then passed Hawthorn. The World Championship was in play although Moss then ran into the back of Wolfgang Seidel and dented his car. Moss set a new lap record - which would gain an extra point - while Hawthorn speeded up and battled with Brooks for 11 laps before the Vanwall blew up. Hill was told to slow down to allow Hawthorn into second place. Lewis-Evans, in the third Vanwall, tried to close up but on lap 42 his engine blew up and as the car ran off the circuit the oil spraying from the engine caught fire. Lewis-Evans jumped out, his overalls alight, and the flames were extinguished. Despite this he had suffered terrible burns. He was flown back to Britain in a chartered jet and admitted to a specialist burns unit in East Grinstead but he died six days later.

Moss's victory was not enough to win him the World title but England celebrated Mike Hawthorn becoming its first World Champion. He announced his retirement a few days later - at the early age of 29. Three months later, he was tragically killed in a road accident in his Jaguar road car while racing the Mercedes of Rob Walker on the Guildford bypass.

1966, NHRA Pro Stock driver, Randy Anderson was born in Denver, Colorado.

1969, Mexico City, The final Grand Prix of the 1960s took place in Mexico City, two weeks after the United States GP at Watkins Glen. That had been won by Team Lotus's Jochen Rindt but his team mate Graham Hill had broken both his legs in an accident. Hill was not replaced in Mexico City although Lotus did run a second car for John Miles (who continued his development of the four-wheel-drive Lotus 63) as Mario Andretti was busy racing USAC cars (and winning) at Kent.

The field was otherwise unchanged with only one Ferrari being run by NART for Pedro Rodriguez.

The Brabham team was dominant in practice with Jack Brabham fastest, ahead of his team mate Jacky Ickx. Jackie Stewart was third fastest in his Matra and shared the second row with Denny Hulme's McLaren, while the Lotus 49s of Jo Siffert and Jochen Rindt were on row three.

For the second consecutive race Bruce McLaren's car failed to make the start and so there were only 16 cars in the race. Stewart made the best start to take the lead but Ickx and Brabham gave chase. Rindt was fourth but had Hulme trying to pass him. On the second lap Hulme moved to fourth while Ickx began to put pressure on Stewart. On lap six Stewart was forced to give way and on the same lap Hulme passed Brabham to take third. Hulme was clearly the man on the move and during the seventh lap he overtook Stewart and chased after Ickx. On lap 10 the McLaren moved ahead. Stewart had dropped behind Brabham and the top four positions then remained stable although the way to the finish. Rindt ran fifth early on but bent his suspension hitting a curb and had to retire and so fifth place went to Beltoise with Jackie Oliver finishing sixth in the BRM, to score his first point of the year (despite the fact that he was two laps behind).

1978, Enrique Bernoldi was born in Curitiba Brazil.

1985, Kyalami, A fortnight after Nigel Mansell's victory at Brands Hatch, the Formula 1 circus moved to South Africa for the penultimate race of the season. Alain Prost was already World Champion and because of the political problems with South Africa several teams decided not to take part, notably Renault and Ligier. RAM had run out of money and Zakspeed was never planning to go to Kyalami and so the entry was reduced to 21 cars. Philippe Streiff had switched from Ligier to Tyrrell but otherwise the field was unchanged apart from the fact that Niki Lauda was back in action having missed two races because of a wrist injury.

Qualifying resulted in pole position for Mansell with Nelson Piquet (Brabham-BMW) second, Keke Rosberg third in the second Williams-Honda and Ayrton Senna fourth in his Lotus-Renault. Marc Surer (Brabham-BMW) was fifth and then came Elio de Angelis (Lotus-Renault), Teo Fabi (Toleman-Hart), Niki Lauda and his McLaren team mate Prost. The top 10 was completed by Thierry Boutsen's Arrows-BMW.

On race morning the Beatrice team withdrew Alan Jones because he was ill and so there were only 20 starters and that became 18 at the start when the two Alfa Romeos of Riccardo Patrese and Eddie Cheever collided at Riccardo was punted by Piercarlo Ghinzani's Toleman. Mansell took the lead but Rosberg missed a gear change and was beaten to the first corner by Piquet, Surer, de Angelis and Senna. By the end of the lap, Surer was back in seventh behind Rosberg and Lauda. Marc would retire with engine failure on the third lap.

Piquet also disappeared early with an engine failure and Rosberg made quick work of the Lotuses and so was soon running second behind Mansell while Senna and de Angelis diced for third. Rosberg took the lead on the eighth lap but soon afterwards went off on oil dropped by Ghinzani's exploding Hart engine. He managed to keep going but was back in fifth place with Mansell in the lead again. At the same time Senna's engine blew and Michele Alboreto's Ferrari failed him again and so Prost and Lauda were second and third having both got past de Angelis. After nine laps the field was down to 11 cars. That became 10 on lap 17 when Streiff spun out. On the same lap Rosberg repassed de Angelis for fourth place. All the major runners pitted for new tires and during the pit stops Lauda suffered a turbo failure and so Rosberg was back to third and so it remained until the finish, despite Keke stopping a second time for tires later in the race. Late in the race de Angelis disappeared with engine failure and so fourth place went to Johansson with Gerhard Berger (Arrows-BMW) fifth and Boutsen sixth.

1987, Grand Prix driver, Hermann Lang passed away where he was born, in Bad Canstatt, Germany. Lang started out as a mechanic working for Daimler-Benz in 1932. Seven years later he was European Champion, having dominated the 1939 season at the wheel of a factory Mercedes W163 with five wins out of eight starts. Lang was an absolute natural driver with a diffident and slightly self-effacing nature. Beneath the surface he was resilient and tough, however. He certainly needed to be as his working class origins were regarded with a certain disdain by his teammates, most notably the aristocratic Manfred von Brauchitsch.

Yet Lang was a loyal team player and a devoted Mercedes man, so much so that he turned down a lucrative offer to join the rival Auto Union team in the mid-1930s. He returned to racing after the war, sharing the winning Mercedes 300SL at Le Mans with Fritz Riess in 1952. His last F1 outing came in the 1954 German Grand Prix, by which time this pleasant man was well past his best for front line international racing.

1997, Cory McClenathan became the first person in NHRA history to register a 320 mph top speed at the end of a 1/4-mile run. His exact speed was 321.77 mph at Ennis, Texas.

October 20,

1910, Maldwyn E. Jones made his professional motorcycle racing debut by winning three of four races in Dayton, Ohio.

1921, AAA and Grand Prix driver at Indy, Manny Ayulo was born in Los Angles, California.

1940, NHRA Funny car driver Gary Densham was born.

1978, F1 driver, Gunnar Nilsson passed away. This very promising Swedish driver developed into one of the stars of the British Formula 3 scene during the mid-1970s and was promoted into the Lotus Formula 1 team at the start of the 1976 season as part of a deal which saw Colin Chapman release Ronnie Peterson to the March squad. Nilsson proved a willing apprentice, eager to learn the ropes from team leader Mario Andretti with whom he was paired through to the end of the 1977 season. Armed with the ground-effect Lotus 78, Nilsson also grasped a great opportunity to win the rain-soaked 1977 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder after Andretti took John Watson's Brabham-Alfa off the road on the first lap, eliminating both cars. By the end of that season, despite feeling unwell, he signed to drive for the new Arrows Formula 1 season alongside Riccardo Patrese from the start of the following season. He never drove the car, for by then he was suffering from the lung cancer, which eventually killed him in the autumn of that same year – he passed away in Hammersmith, London.

1982, Ayrton Senna won the F3 Macau Grand Prix in a Ralt-Toyota.

1985, Darrell Waltrip won the NASCAR Winston Cup race at Rockingham, North Carolina.

1991, Suzuka, There were signs of change in the paddock in Suzuka. The Leyton House team was struggling for money following the arrest of Akira Akagi and so Ivan Capelli was dropped and Karl Wendlinger took over, bringing financial support from Mercedes-Benz. AGS did not turn up, while Arrows announced that the adventure with Porsche was over and that the team would use the Mugen-prepared Honda V10s in 1992 with Aguri Suzuki and Michele Alboreto driving. Minardi also announced a change of engines with plans to run Lamborghini V12s in 1992.

Bertrand Gachot reappeared in the paddock, hoping to regain the Jordan drive he had lost when he was jailed but things had moved on and Alex Zanardi stayed in the car. Coloni was back in action having found Naoki Hattori to drive while Johnny Herbert was back in action for Team Lotus once again, having missed the previous race because of an F3000 commitment in Japan. On Friday morning, Eric Bernard crashed his Larrousse Lola heavily and broke his ankle.

In qualifying, World Championship favorite Ayrton Senna took pole for McLaren-Honda but his challenger Nigel Mansell was second in his Williams-Renault. Senna's McLaren teammate Gerhard Berger was third. Alain Prost was fourth in his Ferrari ahead of Riccardo Patrese in the second Williams, Jean Alesi in the second Ferrari, Pierluigi Martini and Gianni Morbidelli in the Minardi-Ferraris and Michael Schumacher in the faster of the Benettons. The German had a huge crash in qualifying while Nelson Piquet completed the top 10 in his Benetton.

At the start, Berger led Senna into the first corner and then drove away leaving Senna holding up the two Williams-Renaults. As Mansell needed to win the race to keep his World Championship hopes alive he knew he had to react.

Alesi disappeared quickly when his Ferrari blew and as a result, de Cesaris spun. This caused JJ Lehto (Dallara) to brake and he was hit from behind by his team mate Emanuele Pirro. As more cars arrived, de Cesaris tried to rejoin and drove into the path of Wendlinger who was then bounced into Lehto.

Mansell was beginning to look for a way to pass Senna when he went off at the start of the tenth lap. Senna was the World Champion. He then began to charge after Berger, who had sacrificed his tyres to help Senna. On lap 18 Ayrton took the lead. Senna and Berger traded fastest laps. As the race went on Schumacher went out with engine trouble and Martini with an electrical problem and so Martin Brundle (Brabham-Yamaha) moved to fifth and Stefano Modena (Tyrrell-Honda) to sixth. In the final laps, Berger's engine began to misfire and he dropped back. Senna had agreed before the race that whoever led the opening laps of the race should win the race and so he backed off at the final corner and let Berger through to victory.

After the race, Senna launched a tirade of abuse against the recently departed FISA President Jean-Marie Balestre which rather spoiled his World Championship celebrations.

October 21,

1891, On this day, a one-mile dirt track opened for harness races at the site of the present-day Tennessee State Fairgrounds in Nashville. Harness racing proved a popular event at the annual Tennessee state fair, but it was nothing compared to the excitement generated by the fair's first automobile race, held at the Fairgrounds in 1904. For the next fifty years, motor racing events were the highlight of the annual state fair, drawing top American drivers to compete, and launching the careers of others.

In 1956, the track was paved and lighted, and the tradition of weekly Saturday night racing at the Fairgrounds was born. And in 1958, NASCAR came to Nashville with the introduction of the NASCAR Winston Cup to be run on a brand-new half-mile oval. The legendary driver Joe Weatherly won the first Winston Cup, beating the likes of Fireball Turner, Lee Petty, and Curtis Turner in the 200-lap event. Between 1958 and 1984, the Fairgrounds hosted forty-two NASCAR Winston Cups, and Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip were the overall leaders in victories, with nine and eight Winston Cups respectively.

The last Winston Cup race to descend onto the Tennessee State Fairgrounds was a 420-lap event won by driver Geoff Bodine. But despite the departure of the Winston Cup, the Nashville Speedway continued to improve on its racetrack, and illustrious racing events such as the Busch Series are held on the historic track every year.

1912, Grand Prix driver, Alfredo Pian was born in Aregentina.

1932, Grand Prix driver, Cesare Perdisa was born in Italy.

1943, F1 driver, Jacques Laffite was born in Paris, France.

1951, Tony Bettenhausen Sr. won the AAA Championship race at San Jose, California, in a Kurtis-Offy.

1960, Pedro and Ricardo Rodriguez drove a Ferrari 250 GTO to victory in the Paris 1000 Kms at Montlhery, France.

1973, Grand Prix driver, Nasif Estéfano died. A contemporary of Alessandro de Tomaso, Estefano drove a Cooper in the 1960 Argentine Grand Prix and failed to qualify de Tomaso's first F1 car in the 1962 Italian race.

1973, Benny Parsons clinched the NASCAR Winston Cup Championship. With his fourth place finish at Dover Downs International Speedway, underdog Benny Parsons found himself atop the point standings with a 211.75-point lead over Cecil Gordon, who finished the race in 27th. James Hylton and Cale Yarborough also struggled as they were contending for the championship, finishing 19th and 25th, respectively. Defending champion Richard Petty was also in the running for the title and came in seventh at Dover.

1984, Estoril, It was 24 years since the last Portuguese GP had been held in Oporto. Upgrading work at the Estoril circuit was still being finished when the F1 circus arrived and heavy rains had not helped but there were few complaints from the drivers. The field was slightly bigger than usual because Renault Sport was running a third car for test driver Philippe Streiff. The only other change was the appearance of Manfred Winkelhock in the second Brabham after Teo Fabi's father died suddenly and he went back to Italy.

Qualifying was the same story as it had been at previous races with Nelson Piquet (Brabham-BMW) on pole position ahead of Alain Prost (McLaren-TAG). Ayrton Senna was an impressive third for Toleman with Keke Rosberg fourth in his Williams-Honda. Then came the two Lotus-Renaults of Elio de Angelis and Nigel Mansell, Patrick Tambay's Renault, Michele Alboreto's Ferrari and Derek Warwick in the second Renault. Stefan Johansson was 10th in the second Toleman while World Championship leader Niki Lauda was only 11th. With four and a half points between Lauda and Prost, Alain needed to win the race with Lauda lower than third. He could finish second if Lauda failed to score.

At the start, Piquet went away slowly and Prost got ahead but he was beaten away by Rosberg and Mansell and was only third at the first corner. Alain made quick work of Mansell and chased after Rosberg. Further back Lauda began making progress up the field, picking carefully through the midfield. On the ninth lap Prost went ahead. Lauda was still ninth so things were looking good for the Frenchman. Behind him Mansell overtook Rosberg for second and was followed through by Senna, Alboreto was fifth and Johansson got the better of de Angelis to run sixth. On lap 18 Lauda passed de Angelis and nine laps later he moved ahead of Johansson. In the meantime Senna overtook Rosberg. On lap 28 Lauda was ahead of Alboreto and in the points. and within a few laps he was ahead of Rosberg. On lap 33 he passed Senna for third. The order now remained stable until lap 51 when Mansell spun because of brake trouble. He restarted before Lauda could pass him but the McLaren was right on his tail. On the next lap Mansell spun again and Lauda was second. It was all he needed. Prost duly won but lost the World title by half a point to Lauda.

Senna finished third with Alboreto fourth, de Angelis fifth and Piquet sixth.

1990, Suzuka, There were three weeks between the Spanish and Japanese GPs and there were several changes in the entry. Sandro Nannini had been seriously injured in a helicopter accident, his right arm being severed just below the elbow by the disintegrating rotor blade. This was reattached in an 11-hour operation that evening in Rome and, although it was "a technical success", Nannini would never race in F1 again, although he did recover enough to race touring cars successfully. He was replaced by Roberto Moreno, EuroBrun having withdrawn from F1 (along with the Life team). Martin Donnelly was still in intensive care after his accident in Spain and so Johnny Herbert had been signed up by Team Lotus. Paolo Barilla had left Minardi as well, opening the way for Gianni Morbidelli. With only 30 cars there was no need for pre-qualifying.

The system of pre-qualifying was developed in response to the increasing number of teams competing in Formula 1. It was decided that 30 cars were the maximum safe limit to compete for 26 grid places. The cars which had to pre-qualify were decided at the beginning and the midpoint of each season. The 26 cars which had achieved the best results in the previous two-half seasons automatically entered official qualifying for the race. All the other cars had to pre-qualify for the four other slots available for official qualifying. Those that failed to pre-qualify just went home.

There were a number of big crashes in qualifying with Emanuele Pirro dislocating a finger when he crashed his Dallara and Jean Alesi hurting a neck muscle when the Tyrrell went off at the first corner, skipped the sandtrap and hit the wall head-on. He took no further part in the weekend.

In a splendid qualifying showdown, McLaren's Ayrton Senna just beat his World Championship rival Alain Prost (Ferrari) to pole position. Nigel Mansell (Ferrari) and Gerhard Berger (McLaren) were on the second row ahead of Thierry Boutsen (Williams) and Nelson Piquet's Benetton. Then came Alesi (who would not race), Riccardo Patrese (Williams) and Moreno. The top 10 was completed by Aguri Suzuki (Lola Larrousse Lamborghini) and Pierluigi Martini's Minardi.

Overnight there had been a political battle going on over pole position. McLaren wanted it to be changed so that Senna would be on a clean piece of track but the request was blocked. Senna saw it as collusion between Prost and the officials and it helped to decide him on a frightening course of action at the start. If his position proved to be a disadvantage Senna was not going to back off in the first corner. Prost made the better start (as expected) and as they went into the first corner he was half a car length ahead. Senna went for the gap and did not lift off. The two cars collided and spun into the sand trap. Senna was the World Champion. With once race left, Prost would not be able to get the points necessary to beat him. The incident put paid to Stefano Modena's Brabham which ran into Philippe Alliot's Ligier in the sand cloud and the two Arrows contrived to run into each other, which dropped Michele Alboreto to the back of the field.

Out in front Berger led but at the start of the second lap Gerhard spun off on sand from the incident. This left Mansell being chased by the two Benettons, with Piquet and Moreno more or less holding station and keeping the Williams-Renaults at bay. On lap 26 Mansell pitted. He had a healthy lead but was in a hurry to get out of the pits as both the Benettons and Patrese's Williams were running on the harder B compound tyres, trying to go through without a stop. It was a quick stop and Mansell set off with a huge burst of horsepower which snapped the Ferrari driveshafts. This left Piquet and Moreno first and second with Patrese in third. Riccardo soon realized that the tyres were not going to go the distance and so pitted and Suzuki moved to third place. Patrese, Boutsen and Satoru Nakajima (Tyrrell) completed the top six.

October 22,

1918, AAA and Grand Prix driver at Indy, Johnnie Tolan was born in the USA.

1941, Four time IMCA champion Gus Schrader was killed in an accident during the feature race at Shreveport, Louisiana.

1954, The Ford Thunderbird was introduced…

1958, Former CART and current IRL and Pike’s Peak driver, Johnny Unser was born in Long Beach, CA.

1966, CART Champion and F1 driver, Alessandro Zanardi was born in Bologna, Italy.

1967, Mexico City, The battle for the World Championship between Jack Brabham and Denny Hulme provided most of the interest the Brabham number two being five points ahead of his team leader with Brabham having to drop two points if he finished higher that fourth place. All Hulme had to do was to keep his team leader in sight and not make a mistake.

The field was much as standard although Ferrari finally decided to run a second car and sent Jonathan Williams over to partner Chris Amon. Jochen Rindt did not appear in the Cooper-Maserati because he was unhappy about the starting money and was leaving the team to join Brabham but Pedro Rodriguez was back in action, having recovered from his F2 crash at Enna in August.

Qualifying resulted in Jim Clark again fastest in the quick but unreliable Lotus 49 while Amon was alongside him. The second row featured Dan Gurney's Eagle-Weslake and Graham Hill's Lotus. The two Brabhams were side by side on row three with Jack Brabham just quicker than Hulme while John Surtees's Honda and Bruce McLaren's McLaren were on the fourth row.

The start saw Gurney run into the back of Clark, but the Lotus went away with only a bent exhaust while Gurney also rejoined by retired after a few laps with a damaged radiator. Clark soon passed Amon and then his team mate Hill and after that was able to dominate the race despite not having a clutch. Hill went out with a driveshaft failure on lap 18 so third place went to Brabham but he had Hulme behind him and so he knew that there was no chance of winning the World Championship. Amon stayed in second until the final few laps when the Ferrari began to misfire. This allowed Brabham, Hulme and Surtees to overtake him. He crossed the line in fifth place but was later dropped back to ninth because his final lap was too slow to be counted. This allowed Mike Spence to take fifth in his BRM and Rodriguez to take sixth.

Hulme won the World Championship, having scored 51 points to Brabham's 46 (although his actual total was 48).

1969, The Datsun 240Z sportscar was introduced.

1989, At Rockingham, North Carolina, Mark Martin scored his first NASCAR stockcar win.

1989, Suzuka, Three weeks after Ayrton Senna's dominant victory at the Spanish GP, the Brazilian needed to win again in Japan to keep the World Championship open. Senna duly took pole position from the World Championship leader Alain Prost with the Ferraris of Gerhard Berger and Nigel Mansell sharing the second row. Then came Riccardo Patrese (Williams), Sandro Nannini (Benetton), Thierry Boutsen (Williams), Philippe Alliot (Larrousse Lola Lamborghini), Stefano Modena (Brabham) and Nicola Larini in an Osella.

At the start, Prost made a good start and took the lead and for the first half of the race he chipped away to build up a lead of five seconds. Then Senna began to come back at him and by lap 40 they were only a second apart. Prost had the advantage on the straights, Senna was better in the corners.

At the end of lap 46 Senna made his move at the chicane. Prost saw him coming and turned into his teammate's path. The two interlocked McLarens slid up the chicane escape road. Prost, thinking the World Championship was over, climbed out.

To separate the cars the marshals pushed Senna backwards on to the track. They put the car into a dangerous position and so had to push it forwards again. As they did so, Senna bump-started the engine. He drove through the chicane and rejoined. The nose of his car was damaged and he had to pit but he rejoined only five seconds behind Nannini. Senna's chase was furious and merciless. On lap 50 Ayrton sliced past Nannini at the chicane to take the lead and won the race.

However, it was Nannini who appeared on the podium. Senna had been excluded for missing the chicane. McLaren appealed the decision but the FIA Court of Appeal not only upheld the decision but fined Senna $100,000 and gave him a suspended six month ban.

In the record books, the win still belongs to Nannini but anyone who was there will remember it as one of Senna's greatest days. A day when, in equal machinery, the titans of the 1980s went up against each other - and Senna won the battle.

Behind Nannini were the two Williams-Renaults of Patrese and Boutsen while Nelson Piquet (Lotus) was fourth, Martin Brundle (Brabham) fifth and Derek Warwick (Arrows) sixth.

1995, Ward Burton won the AC Delco 400 at Rockingham, North Carolina, for his first NASCAR Winston Cup victory.

1995, Aida for the Pacific GP, Michael Schumacher was crowned World Champion at Aida, at 26 the youngest ever double World Champion. If his victory at the Nurburgring had been spectacular, his win at Aida was even more remarkable because he produced it from nowhere. Going into the final pit stops Schumacher had a 21-second lead over David Coulthard. He was in the pitlane for 24secs and yet he was four seconds ahead of David Coulthard at the end of his first lap out of the pits. It was like a conjuring trick. The numbers did not seem to add up.

There is no magic in motorsport, however, and careful examination revealed that the race had been won with Michael's "in" and "out" laps, when he entered and left the pits. His "in" lap had been nearly two full seconds faster than anyone else's in the course of the afternoon and the "out" lap was startlingly beaten only by an earlier one from Coulthard. The Benetton team certainly helped with Michael in the pitlane with the second fastest stop of the day.

The other neat trick was that throughout qualifying Schumacher had been carefully saving new tyres - because the team recognized that Aida was a track where a new set of tyres was worth a lot. Michael started the race with four new sets - out of an allocation for the weekend of seven (the rules specify how many sets of tires the drivers can use) - while the two Williams drivers had only two apiece.

The rest of the race was fairly predictable with Schumacher able to hold off Coulthard with ease to win the race and the championship, although in the Benetton cockpit things were rather more exciting than they appeared. Schumacher began to have a downshifting problem until, on the last lap, lights, whistles and bells began to go off on the dashboard. The car was dying. Lady Luck often rides with the winners and Michael managed to get to the finish.

There had already been trouble between Hill and Schumacher over blocking a faster car during a race, notably at Spa. With the FIA having finally ruled on overtaking maneuvers - basically leaving it up to the drivers so long as the moves are not adjudged to be dangerous - Hill was ready to be a little less circumspect when dealing with Schumacher and at the start Damon showed Schumacher what it is like to be on the receiving end. Damon refused to give way as the German tried to go around him. Neither backed off and the pair teetered out into the dusty areas of the track, allowing Alesi to get ahead. Berger tried the same but Hill shut him out. Hill was third, Alesi fifth.

After the race, there was a bit of fracas as Schumacher complained to Hill off camera, and said "no problem" on screen. Damon pointed this out, exposing a side of Schumacher, which many in F1 do not like - the public face does not correspond with his behavior when the cameras are turned off. Michael was clearly annoyed at having been caught out.

Throughout the weekend, no one ever came close to matching the performance of the Renault-engined cars, with Ferrari the closest of the chasers as usual with Alesi and Berger fourth and fifth on the grid. Eddie Irvine again showed well by qualifying sixth.

McLaren was in trouble again with Mika Hakkinen out of action because of an appendicitis operation. Blundell was 10th on the grid and F1 new-boy Jan Magnussen was 12th. The pair would finish nose-to-tail two laps down...

2000, Sepang, As the lights were still on and the engines were screaming Mika Hakkinen's McLaren jumped forward. Mika stopped it before the lights went out but he had jumped the start. Michael Schumacher made a poor start and was behind Mika while Coulthard came up the outside and was alongside, but on the outside of Michael as they funneled into the first corner. It was a McLaren 1-2. Behind Hakkinen and Coulthard, Schumacher was followed by Barrichello, Wurz and Villeneuve.

In the midfield, there was trouble, several different kinds of trouble. The second corner saw Pedro Diniz trying to overtake Heidfeld, who was alongside de la Rosa. It did not work and the result was that they all collided. Diniz went into Alesi and spun him around. Diniz, Heidfeld and de la Rosa were out on the spot. Alesi was able to rejoin. The Minardis had to pick their way through the wreckage. Further around the lap there was another shunt involving Irvine, Ralf Schumacher and Trulli. A little further on Verstappen had a spin all by himself. All the carnage meant that out came the Safety Car and so for the whole of the second lap the field was held back while the wreckage was cleared away. Then it was off again and almost immediately, Hakkinen and Coulthard swapped places

When Hakkinen pitted, he went from fourth to the back of the field. He spent the rest of the afternoon charging back. He was never going to be able to make up such a huge disadvantage and so had to be happy with fourth place 35 seconds behind the winner. That was pretty much what his stop-go penalty cost him so he would have been competitive.

It was an irrelevant point. The McLaren torch had been passed to Coulthard and he set off to build a lead over Schumacher. He set a series of fastest laps but on lap 10 he went wide in Turn Six and ran half the car over the grass. David was called in on lap 17. The stop was nice and quick and he was soon out on the track again but he was sixth.

Out in front Schumacher piled on the pressure. He set four consecutive fastest laps and then pitted on lap 24, leaving Barrichello in the lead for a lap before he stopped. When both Ferraris were back on track Michael was nearly five seconds ahead of Coulthard. He tried to make up for lost time and in the laps that followed he clipped Michael's lead from five to just under two seconds but then he had to pit again on lap 38. Michael followed him in on the next lap and the race was won. In the final stint, Coulthard closed on Schumacher and for the final 12 laps he was within a second of the Ferrari. The pair ended the race just seven-tenths apart while Barrichello was 18 seconds behind.

It was a hard fought race, one which one should have been won by McLaren but once again little mistakes opened the door for Michael Schumacher.


Non-Racing Related:

1936, The first test-drives of the Volkswagen began, and employees drove the VW 3-series model over 800 kilometers a day, making any necessary repairs at night. After three months of vigorous testing, Porsche and his engineers concluded, in their final test verdict, that the Volkswagen "demonstrated characteristics which warrant further development.

1987, Canadian Garry Sowerby and American Tim Cahill completed the first trans-Americas drive on this day, driving from Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in a total elapsed time of twenty-three days, twenty-two hours, and forty-three minutes. The pair drove the 14,739-mile distance in a 1988 GMC Sierra K3500 4-wheel-drive pickup truck powered by a 6.2-liter V-8 Detroit diesel engine. Only on one occasion did Sowerby and Cahill trust another form of transportation to their sturdy Sierra: the vehicle and team were surface-freighted from Cartagena, Colombia, to Balboa, Panama, so as to bypass the dangerous Darien Gap of Colombia and Panama.

Originally posted by rdrcr
October 21,

1973, Grand Prix driver, Estefano Nasif died. A contemporary of Alessandro de Tomaso, Estefano drove a Cooper in the 1960 Argentine Grand Prix and failed to qualify de Tomaso's first F1 car in the 1962 Italian race.

Please, Richard, let's lay off the myth - it's Nasif Estéfano, not the other way round...;)


__________________
Michael Ferner

And I'm hovering like a fly, waiting for the windshield on the freeway. -- Peter Gabriel

Thanks - I'll make the change and inform the source...

October 23,

1926, AAA and Grand Prix driver at Indy, Larry Crockett was born.

1937, Grand Prix driver, Giacomo Russo was born in Italy

1941, Engineer Gerard Ducarouge was born in Paray-le-Monial, France.

1947, Tim Flock scored his first stockcar win, at Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta, Georgia.

1955, Torrey Pines, California, saw the final race for Ken Miles' "Flying Shingle" R2 MG Special.

1966, Dick Atkins won the USAC Championship race on the dirt track in Sacramento, California, in a Watson-Offy.

1966, NHRA Top Fuel driver, Larry Dixon was born.

1966, Mexico City, Ferrari did not bother to send a team to the Mexican GP but all the other regulars were in action with Lotus running a third car for Pedro Rodriguez (an old Climax engined 33) and Cooper running a third chassis for Moises Solana. Dan Gurney had a pair of Eagles, but decided to drive the Climax-engined car leaving the Weslake V12 car for Bob Bondurant.

In qualifying John Surtees put his Cooper-Maserati on pole position with Jim Clark's Lotus-BRM (which had won the US Grand Prix three weeks earlier) sharing the front row. Then came Ritchie Ginther's Honda and World Champion Jack Brabham in his Brabham-Repco. Jochen Rindt (Cooper-Maserati) shared the third row with the second Brabham of Denny Hulme while Graham Hill and Rodriguez lined up on the fourth row.

In the race Ginther went into the lead as he had done 12 months earlier and he was chased by Rindt, Brabham, Hulme, Surtees and Clark. During the second lap, however, Brabham got into the lead and Ginther then dropped behind Rindt, Surtees and Hulme. Surtees then overtook Rindt and began to chase after Brabham. A lap later he was in the lead and he stayed there for the rest of the afternoon being shadowed all the way by Brabham. Rindt ran third until he retired on lap 32 with a suspension failure. This left Rodriguez in third place to the delight of the locals but on lap 49 he went out with a transmission failure and so Ginther moved to third. On the penultimate lap Hulme overtook him to jump up to fourth in the Drivers' World Championship behind Brabham, Surtees and Rindt but ahead of Hill, Clark and Stewart.

1970, Gary Gabelich, driving the Blue Flame, set at new Land Speed Record of 622.407 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

1973, AAA and Indy driver, "Smiling" Ralph Mulford passed away. Sports records are made to be broken and records set at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway are no exception. Since day one at the Speedway the record measuring time and distance, speed, has been broken countless times by dozens of drivers for every mark from one to 500 miles.

But there is one record in the Speedway record book that will never be erased, in 1912 Ralph Mulford completed the 500 miles at an average speed of 56.28 mph, taking 8 hours and 53 minutes much to the infield fan's and official's dismay, the slowest a competitor ever ran the full 500 miles. Now don't get the wrong idea about Smiling Ralph Mulford just because of his record for being the turtle at Indianapolis, the man was one hell of a race driver.

In fact, Ralph won the National Driving Championship twice, once in 1911 and again in 1918, and this was in spite of Mulford refusing to race on Sundays because of his religious beliefs. Thirty-five times between 1915 and 1922, he raced on the always dangerous board tracks, winning six times and finishing in the top five an amazing 21 times.

On July 4th, 1917 this kindly, gentle, religious man won one of his six board track victories on the 41 degree banks of the 1.25 mile board track at Omaha, Nebraska, in what many old timers said was the most dangerous automobile race ever run. It was the last race on the badly deteriorating track, the boards broke in several places during the race puncturing tires and radiators. Splinters filled the air as drivers dodged many holes opening up due to broken boards.
But in spite of Mulford's success, and reputation, as race driver the Indianapolis Motor Speedway never treated him very kindly.

From 1911 through 1922, Ralph raced at the Speedway 10 times with a second place finish in 1911 being his best effort, but wait, there were many who didn't believe he finished second that first time out. Many believed Ralph Mulford was the winner of the first Indianapolis 500, not Ray Harroun.

Harroun and Mulford had started side-by-side, 28th and 29th, and had a ding-dong battle between them as they raced to the front of the pack. On about the 160th lap Harroun blew a tire about halfway down the back straight and had to limp around to the pits on the rim. Mulford swore up and down he lapped Ray during his slow trip to get a new tire. To add to the confusion the timing wire strung across the track broke several times during the race and the cars had to be scored manually.
Mulford protested the finish but his protest fell on deaf ears and Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis 500.

1977, Fuji, The final round of the World Championship saw a much-reduced field with Fittipaldi, Hesketh, Williams and Renault Sport all deciding not to bother. March ran only one car after Ian Scheckter had troubles with his visa and could not get into Japan. Ligier expanded to run two cars Jacques Laffite being joined by Jean-Pierre Jarier and there were three local drivers: Kunimitsu Takahashi in a Muritsu Tyrrell and two Kojimas: one being run for Noritake Takahara by Kojima and the other for Kazuyoshi Hoshino by Heroes Racing.

Mario Andretti took pole in his Lotus with James Hunt alongside in his McLaren while the second row featured the Brabham-Alfa Romeos of John Watson and Hans Stuck. Laffite was the third row with Jody Scheckter's Wolf while the fourth row featured Carlos Reutemann (Ferrari) and Jochen Mass in the second McLaren. The top 10 was completed by Vittorio Brambilla (Surtees) and Clay Regazzoni (Ensign), Alan Jones (Shadow) and Hoshino.

In the race, Hunt took the lead but Andretti made a terrible start and dropped behind Scheckter, Mass, Regazzoni, Watson, Laffite and Stuck. Andretti began a recovery drive but on the second lap collided with Laffite and was out. A wheel from the Lotus caused both Hans Binder (Surtees) and Takahara to spin off.

On lap six Villeneuve missed his braking point at the end of the main straight and went into the back of Ronnie Peterson's Tyrrell. The Ferrari cartwheeled off the track and although the Canadian escaped unhurt a marshal and a photographer were killed and others injured. The race was not stopped.

At the front, Mass and Watson (who had overtaken Regazzoni) both went ahead of Scheckter and the order remained stable until the 29th lap when Mass's engine blew and Watson suffered a gearbox failure. That put Scheckter back up to second place but he was soon overtaken by Regazzoni although the Ensign then went out with an engine failure. Reutemann then took the place (having passed Scheckter) but he was overtaken by Laffite. The Frenchman looked to be on his way to second but he ran out of fuel on the penultimate lap and so Reutemann ended up second with Patrick Depailler (Tyrrell) third and Jones fourth. Laffite was classified fifth with Riccardo Patrese (Shadow) sixth, scoring his first World Championship point.

1993, Grand Prix and Sports car driver, Innes Ireland passed away. Ireland was one of the most colorful drivers of his generation, getting involved in all manner of spectacular scrapes and confrontations during an action-packed life behind the wheel. Innes's unique character - and penchant for the odd social drink - might well have sat uneasily with the strict Methodist upbringing of BRM boss Sir Alfred Owen had the Scottish driver accepted an offer to partner Graham Hill in 1962.

As it was, Innes stood by his word that he would join the independent UDT/Laystall organization and turned down the BRM offer. It cost this man of principle his best shot at the Championship. Innes, a former paratrooper, won the '61 US Grand Prix for Lotus only to be dismissed a few weeks later by Colin Chapman who saw Jim Clark as a brighter prospect. That was certainly correct, but it was a matter of enduring enmity between Jim and Innes and they never made their peace before Clark's death.

Later in life, he became president of the British Racing Drivers Association before his death from cancer. A great raconteur and gentleman, few retired drivers were capable of providing such convivial and amusing company as Innes.

Originally posted by rdrcr
October 23,

1926, AAA and Grand Prix driver at Indy, Larry Crocker was born.

Larry Crockett?

...yeah... that's him... fixed - thanks again.

October 24,

1908, The Locomobile - Old 16, driven by George Robertson, became the first American-made car to beat the European competition when it raced to victory in the fourth annual Vanderbilt Cup held in Long Island, New York.

Old 16 was first built in 1906 by the Connecticut-based Locomobile Company, and showed promise when it raced to a respectable finish in the second Vanderbilt Cup. With some modifications, Old 16 was ready to race again in 1908. Americans pinned their hopes on the state-of-the-art road racer to end the European domination of early motor racing. Designed simply for speed and power, Old 16 had an 1032 cc, 4-cylinder, 120 hp engine with a copper gas tank, and a couple of bucket seats atop a simple frame with wooden-spoked wheels completed the design. At the fourth Vanderbilt Cup, Robertson pushed Old 16 to an average speed of 64.38 mph, dashing around the 297-mile course to the cheers of over 100,000 rowdy spectators, who lined the track dangerously close to the speeding cars. With a thrown tire in the last lap and a frantic fight to the finish against an Italian Isotta, Robertson proved American racing prowess.

1924, AAA and Grand Prix driver at Indy, George Amick was born in Oregon.

1948, Nino Farina gave Ferrari their first F1 victory when he won a minor event at Lake Garda in a Type 125.

1954, The Dust Devils Car Club opened the Inyokern Dragstrip in California.

1954, Pedralbes, Spain, The Lancia team made its first appearance at the final race of the season with a pair of the new D50 chassis for Alberto Ascari and Gigi Villoresi. Mercedes-Benz fielded World Champion Juan-Manuel Fangio, Karl Kling and Hans Herrmann as usual while Ferrari was running Mike Hawthorn and Maurice Trintignant. Maserati had cars for Stirling Moss, Luigi Musso, Sergio Mantovani and Roberto Mieres. Peter Collins turned up with a Vanwall but crashed the car badly and so did not take part in the race.

Practice saw Ascari on pole position in the new Lancia with Fangio alongside with Hawthorn and a surprising Harry Schell (Maserati) completing the front row while the second row featured Villoresi, Moss and Musso. At the start Schell took the lead from Hawthorn, Ascari and a fast-starting Maurice Trintignant. this lasted only a couple of laps before Ascari moved ahead but Villoresi went out with a brake problem and within a few laps the leading Lancia was in the pits with clutch trouble.

This put Schell back into the lead but he still had Trintignant and Hawthorn with him. Eventually Schell gave in to the pressure and spun, dropping to fourth behind Fangio. He would retire later with a gearbox problem. Trintignant also ran into trouble and so Hawthorn was left alone in the lead with a big advantage over Fangio, who was having trouble because his car was spraying oil back into the cockpit. This enabled Musso to catch and pass the World Champion but Fangio held on to finish third.

1960, F1 driver, Joachim Winkelhock was born in Germany.

1962, NASCAR driver, Dave Blaney was born.

1965, Mexico City, The final race of the 1965 World Championship - and of the 1.5-liter formula - took place in Mexico City with Honda keen to finish the year on a high note after a troubled year. Jim Clark had won the World Championship in August but was still keen to win races and he was fastest in qualifying, beating Dan Gurney's Brabham by less than a tenth of a second. Ritchie Ginther put his Honda on he second row, alongside Jack Brabham's Brabham, while Graham Hill (BRM) and Mike Spence (Lotus) shared the third row. There was some excitement during qualifying with Tim Parnell firing Innes Ireland after the Scotsman got lost getting to the circuit. His place was taken by Bob Bondurant, who had been replaced in the NART Ferrari team by Lodovico Scarfiotti. The Italian did not get to start the race, however, as his car was taken over by team mate Pedro Rodriguez after the Mexican's own car was damaged in a practice crash after a wheel fell off.

At the beginning of the race, Ginther made a great start and took the lead while Stewart was also quick away and was second although he dropped quickly behind Spence. Clark was not in the hunt because of engine trouble and he retired after nine laps. Stewart dropped behind Hill and Gurney in the next few laps but it was Gurney who was going quickest and he overtook Hill and then Spence to take second place on lap 20. He then charged after Ginther's Honda but the Japanese car was strong and Ginther drove without making a mistake and he won by just under three seconds, giving Honda, Goodyear and himself a first win in the World Championship. Spence finished third behind Gurney with Jo Siffert being the only man left unlapped in fourth place after Graham Hill and Solana had both broken down in the late stages of the races. This race also marked the last of the 1,500 cc formula.

1971, Jo “Seppi” Siffert was killed. In the Porsche works team, while Pedro Rodriguez was referred to as the "Mexican Bandit" so Jo Siffert was affectionately known as the "Crazy Swiss." They were drivers out of absolutely the same mold and were thrown together as teammates and rivals in the BRM F1 squad for 1971. Nicknamed "Seppi" in his youth, this son of a motor trader won the Swiss 350cc motorcycle championship in 1959 before switching to four wheels with a Formula Junior Stanguellini.

He graduated to F1 as a privateer in 1962 with a four-cylinder Lotus-Climax, later driving under the Swiss Scuderia Filipinetti banner and in 1964 joined British private owner Rob Walker's team. In 1968, "Seppi" drove superbly into the F1 history books by winning the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in Rob's Lotus 49B, beating Chris Amon's Ferrari into second place after a race-long battle. Walker and his wife Betty held Siffert in deep affection and Jo continued to drive for them through to the end of 1969.

In 1970, Porsche bankrolled Siffert's seat in a works F1 March, the German company not wishing to lose one of their prize sports car racing aces to rivals Ferrari. His association with March was disastrous, so he was delighted to join Rodriguez at BRM the following season. He was killed in an end-of-season non-championship F1 race at Brands Hatch, the scene of his greatest victory.

1976, Fuji, The World Championship showdown was scheduled to take place at Mount Fuji with Niki Lauda just three points ahead of James Hunt after an incident-packed and controversial season. The field was much the same as usual although Noritake Takahara had rented the second Surtees (replacing Brett Lunger) and Hans Binder was back in the second Wolf Williams after Masami Kuwashima's money failed to materialize. Maki resurrected its old F1 car for Tony Trimmer while Heroes Racing entered an old Tyrrell for Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Kojima Engineering entered a locally built chassis for Masahiro Hasemi (on Dunlop tires).

In qualifying, Mario Andretti took pole position in the Lotus 77 with Hunt alongside him on the front row and Lauda third. Then came John Watson's Penske, Jody Scheckter (Tyrrell), Carlos Pace (Brabham-Alfa), Clay Regazzoni (Ferrari) and Vittorio Brambilla (March). The top 10 was completed by Ronnie Peterson (March and Hasemi in the Kojima. The Maki failed to qualify.

On race day, the weather was dreadful with streams running across the track and fog. There were intense debates as to whether the race should be started but the organizers decided to go ahead and the drivers all agreed (although some were not happy). At the start, Hunt went into the lead with Watson behind him and Andretti leading the rest of the field. Lauda was in the midfield but in the course of the second lap (during which Watson went down an escape road) Lauda pulled into the pits and withdrew. In the laps that followed Pace and Fittipaldi also pulled out, joining Perkins who had decided against racing at the end of the first lap.

Out on the race track Hunt continued to lead while the situation behind him was rather more confused as second place passed between Andretti and Brambilla. On lap 22 Brambilla even challenged for the lead but then spun. Jochen Mass made it a McLaren 1-2 but on the 36th lap, he crashed and so Depailler moved to second place with Andretti third.

It looked as though Hunt was on course for the title but the track was drying and Hunt was fading. On lap 62 he fell behind Depailler and Andretti. Hunt knew he had only to finish fourth to win the title. Two laps later Depailler's left rear started to deflate and he had to pit. Andretti took the lead. Then Hunt had a similar problem. Distraught, he headed for the pits. He dropped to fifth and set off after Depailler, Alan Jones (Surtees) and Regazzoni. Depailler overtook both men on lap 70 and on the next lap, Hunt did the same, although he finished thinking that he had lost the World title. Ferrari had won the Constructors' Championship - but it was little consolation.

1993, Suzuka, The World Championship had been settled in Portugal and winner Alain Prost had announced his retirement from F1 at the end of the season. In the month between the Portuguese and Japanese races, much was happening. McLaren signed a deal to use Peugeot engines in 1994, while it was announced that Ayrton Senna would finally leave the team to join Damon Hill at Williams. Pedro Lamy would stay on with Lotus as Alex Zanardi was still not ready to return as a result of his crash in Belgium. Eddie Irvine came in to partner Rubens Barrichello at Jordan while Minardi replaced Christian Fittipaldi with Frenchman Jean-Marc Gounon, while Philippe Alliot was dropped by Larrousse to make way for Japanese veteran Toshio Suzuki.

Ligier turned up with an unusual Gitanes color scheme for Martin Brundle's car but there were signs of trouble ahead as team boss Cyril de Rouvre attacked a journalist who had written that he was in legal trouble in France.

Alain Prost was fastest as was normal but Damon Hill spun in qualifying and so had to be satisfied with a lowly sixth on the grid. This allowed Ayrton Senna to take second on the grid in his McLaren-Ford with his new team mate Mika Hakkinen third ahead of Michael Schumacher's Benetton, Gerhard Berger's Ferrari, Hill, Derek Warwick (Footwork) and Irvine, a Suzuka expert. Jean Alesi had a heavy accident in his Ferrari and was 14th on the grid.

In the race Senna made the best start and led Prost and Hakkinen with Berger fourth and a fast-starting Irvine fifth, although he was soon pushed back to seventh by a slow-starting Schumacher and by Hill. Alesi blew an engine early on and Schumacher followed him into retirement after making contact with Hill when both men tried to challenge Berger. The first pit stops had already begun when it started to rain but it was not wet enough for a tire change and in the conditions, Senna was quickly able to close up on Prost. Hill's hopes of a good result were ruined with a puncture, which meant he had to stop for slicks but then two laps later the rain had increased and he was back for wets. When Prost, Senna and Hakkinen pitted for wets, Prost's stop was slow and so Senna went ahead. The rain then eased and the track began to dry and in the difficult conditions, both Prost and Hill went off but were able to rejoin. Patrese (Benetton) also had a brush with another car and damaged an oil cooler. Later in the race, this broke and Patrese spun at high speed and was fortunate to escape without injury from a huge accident.

Senna and Prost battled for the lead and the gap closed dramatically when they came up to pass the battle for fifth place between Hill and Irvine. Irvine greatly annoyed Senna with his behavior and after the race the two came to blows. The leaders eventually got clear of the Ulsterman and soon afterwards pitted for slicks. The order at the front was set with Senna leading home Prost and Hakkinen to score his 40th and McLaren's 103rd victory, equaling Ferrari's record of Grand Prix wins. Hill managed to extricate himself from the clutches of the cocky Irvine who also annoyed Warwick by punting him off at the chicane with three laps to go. In the end, fifth place went to Barrichello with Irvine sixth.

1998, John Force set an NHRA Funny Car 1/4-mile ET record with a run of 4.787 seconds at Ennis, Texas.

Non-Racing Related:

1944, French automaker and accused Nazi collaborator Louis Renault died on this day in a Paris military prison hospital of undetermined causes. Born in Paris, Renault built his first automobile, the Renault Type A, in 1898. Inspired by the DeDion quadricycle, the Type A had a 270 cc engine (1.75 hp), and could carry two people at about 30 mph. Later in the year, Renault and his brothers formed the Societe Renault Freres, a racing club that achieved its first major victory when an automobile with a Renault-built engine won the Paris-Vienna race of 1902. After Louis's brother, Marcel, died along with nine other drivers in the Paris-Madrid race of 1903, Renault turned away from racing and concentrated on mass production of vehicles.

During World War I, Renault served his nation with the "Taxis de la Marne," a troop-transport vehicle, and in 1918, with the Renault tank. Between the wars, Renault continued to manufacture and sell successful automobiles, models that became famous for their sturdiness and longevity. With the German occupation of France during World War II, the industrialist who had served his country so well during the World War I mysteriously offered his Renault tank factory and his services to the Nazis, perhaps believing that the Allies' cause was hopeless. The liberation of France in 1944 saw the arrest of Louis Renault as a collaborator, and the Renault company was nationalized with Pierre Lefaucheux as the new director. The sixty-seven-year-old Renault, who likely suffered torture during his post-liberation detainment, died soon after his arrest.

Errmmm

Renault served his nation with the "Taxis de la Marne," a troop-transport vehicle,

In fact this Renault 8 C Model AG was a Taxi-Cab launched in 1905 for the Cab companies in Paris...

As germans were near Paris, Military chiefs took all the taxi cabs of paris to carry the soldiers...

See (in french) at http://www.planetere...oire2.php?id=19

Originally posted by fvebr
Errmmm

In fact this Renault 8 C Model AG was a Taxi-Cab launched in 1905 for the Cab companies in Paris...

As germans were near Paris, Military chiefs took all the taxi cabs of paris to carry the soldiers...

Interesting fevbr, I've informed the source...

For October 25,

1902, Henry Ford and Barney Oldfield make history. Racing was in Oldfield's blood long before he ever had the opportunity to race an automobile. Born in Wauseon, Ohio, his first love was bicycling, and in 1894 he began to compete professionally. In his first year of racing, the fearless competitor won numerous bicycling events and in 1896 was offered a coveted position on the Stearns bicycle factory's amateur team. Meanwhile in Dearborn, Michigan, the entrepreneurial inventor Henry Ford had completed his first working automobile and was searching for a way to establish his name in the burgeoning automobile industry. In the early days, it was not the practical uses of the automobile that attracted the most widespread attention, but rather the thrill of motor racing.

Recognizing the public's enthusiasm for the new sport, Ford built a racer with Oliver Barthel in 1901. Ford himself even served as driver in their automobile's first race, held at the Grosse Point Race Track in Michigan later in the year. Although he won the race and the kind of public acclaim he had hoped for, Ford found the experience so terrifying that he retired as a competitive driver, reportedly explaining that "once is enough."

In 1902, he joined forces with Tom Cooper, the foremost cyclist of his time, and built a much more aggressive racer, the 999, that was capable of up to 80 hp. On this day in 1902, the twenty-three-year-old Barney Oldfield made his racing debut in the 999's first race at the Manufacturer's Challenge Cup in Grosse Point. The race was the beginning of a legendary racing career for Oldfield, who soundly beat his competition, including the famed driver Alexander Winton. The cigar-chomping Oldfield went on to become the first truly great American racing driver, winning countless victories and breaking numerous speed and endurance records. But Oldfield's victory in the 999 was also Ford's first major automotive victory, and together they went on to become the most recognized figures in early American motoring--Ford as the builder and Oldfield as the driver.

1958, Stuart Lewis-Evans died in East Grinstead, Sussex, England, from burns suffered in accident during the Moroccan Grand Prix, six days earlier. Evans, a small-framed, rather frail young man suffered with a stomach ulcer and only enjoyed a brief front-line Formula 1 career. Even so, the statistics fail to do credit to his outstanding ability.

He was signed up midway through the 1957 season as third driver for Tony Vandervell's Vanwall team and cemented his position with a brilliant display of high speed domination in the early stages of the non-Championship F1 race which took place at Reims a week after that year's French Grand Prix at Rouen-les-Essarts. Lewis-Evans was another outstanding product of the cut-and-thrust world of 500cc F3 racing during the early 1950s and emerged as a man to watch via some outings in an F1 Connaught and later as a member of the Ferrari sports car team. Partnered at Vanwall by Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks, he was nominally the third driver but his performances never suggested such a lowly status. He finished the 1957 season with fifth place at Pescara, was second in the non-Championship Moroccan Grand Prix and also took pole position for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

In 1958 Lewis-Evans played a significant role in Vanwall's successful onslaught on the Constructors' World Championship, finishing third in the Belgian and Portuguese Grands Prix and fourth in the British Grand Prix. He displayed a delicate high speed touch and earned a great deal of respect from his two more senior teammates. Tragically, on lap 42 of the Moroccan Grand Prix, the final race of the season, he crashed heavily when his Vanwall's transmission locked up and sustained serious burns. Flown back to Britain in Vandervell's chartered Viscount airliner, Stuart was immediately admitted to the McIndoe burns unit at East Grinstead hospital where he died six days later. He had only competed in 14 Grands Prix.

1964, Mexico City, Graham Hill arrived in Mexico with 39 points in the World Championship battle but knew that he would have to drop three points if he scored again. John Surtees had 34 points and could count anything he scored. Jim Clark was the outsider with 30 points but a victory with the others failing to score would give him the title and he had won more races than his rivals. Clark had not given up and set a scintillating pace in qualifying with a pole position time which was nearly a second faster than his nearest rival Dan Gurney (Brabham). The blue and white Ferraris of Lorenzo Bandini and Surtees were on the second row while Mike Spence in the second Lotus was alongside Hill on row three. Ferrari entered a third car for the event for Pedro Rodriguez.

Clark's hopes of World Championship success were slim but they looked decidedly better at the start as he took off into the lead. Graham Hill dropped to 10th when the elastic on his goggles broke just before the start while Surtees's car was misfiring badly and he was down in 13th place at the end of the first lap. Surtees was in luck, however, as his engine cured itself and he was able to begin a charge through the field. Hill too was able to make up places and on lap 12 he moved into the vital third position which gave him the one point he needed to stay ahead of Clark. Hill remained under threat from Bandini and on lap 31 the two cars made contact and both spun. This enabled Surtees to take third place. Hill rejoined by he had damaged the exhausts on the BRM and had to pit and so his chances of winning the World Championship depended on his rivals retiring. With Gurney second, Surtees could not win the title if Clark won the race and as Bandini's flat 12 Ferrari was quicker than the V8 car being used by Surtees the Italian moved up into third.

It seemed that Clark was going to win a second title but with seven laps to go, the Lotus began leaking oil. On the last lap the Lotus's engine seized up. Gurney went through to win but now Surtees's title depended on Bandini moving over to allow him to finish second. The Italian did exactly that and Surtees became the first motorcycling World Champion to win a world title on four wheels as well.

1969, Denny Hulme drove a Team McLaren M8B-Chevrolet to victory in the Can-Am race at Riverside, California.

1969, The AMC Rebel “Machine” made its debut at the NHRA World Championship races in Dallas, Texas.

1970, Mexico City, The World Championship was over and so the field for the final race shrank to the eight major teams (Tyrrell, Ferrari, Matra, McLaren, March, Brabham, BRM and Lotus) as the Mexican organizers said they could not afford more than 18 cars. The two extras allowed to compete were Graham Hill (in the Rob Walker Lotus) and John Surtees in his Surtees.

After Emerson Fittipaldi's fortunate win at Watkins Glen, when all the other front-runners retired, the battle in Mexico was between Ferrari and Jackie Stewart's Tyrrell. On this occasion Clay Regazzoni took pole for Ferrari with Stewart second and Ferrari's Jacky Ickx third. Sharing the second row with the Belgian was Jack Brabham (who announced his intention to retire after the race on the Friday) and on the third row were Chris Amon's STP March and Jean-Pierre Beltoise in the Matra. Fittipaldi had a terrible time and ended up on the back row of the grid after an engine failure.

The crowd on race day was enormous, estimates ranging up to 200,000 and the pressure for space resulted in the crowds pulling down the safety fences and sitting on the grass verges. Fearing that there would be riot if the race was called off the organizers asked the drivers to go ahead and after attempts had been made to move people back from the track the race began an hour late. Regazzoni took the lead from Stewart with Ickx third. Ickx quickly took the lead and Regazzoni was pushed into third by Stewart. The Scotsman stayed there until his steering column broke and he headed for the pits for repairs. He rejoined but later his dog which damaged his suspension beyond repair. This left the Ferraris to finish 1-2. After Stewart disappeared Brabham ran third but he suffered an engine failure on lap 53 and so failed to go out with podium finish. Third place went to Denny Hulme.

In the closing laps the crowds edged closer and closer to the track and as soon as Ickx crossed the line they invaded the track, forcing all the other cars to slow to a crawl as they made their way to the finishing line.

It was the end of a tragic year for Formula 1 but thankfully no-one was hurt in Mexico.

1972, Grand National, USAC and one time Grand Prix driver at Indy, Johnny Mantz died.

1992, Suzuka, There was more action off the track than on it. Alain Prost had signed for Williams with a deal excluding his old rival Ayrton Senna from joining the team, Senna's future being uncertain. Nigel Mansell had quit F1 and was tipped for a drive with the Newman-Haas team in CART racing in America. Riccardo Patrese had signed to be Michael Schumacher's partner at Benetton, leaving Martin Brundle out of a drive. Ferrari had signed Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi while McLaren had a deal with Michael Andretti and had talks with Mika Hakkinen in case Senna decided not to continue. At the same time Honda had confirmed that it was withdrawing from F1 leaving the team without an engine. Ron Dennis was trying to acquire the Renault supply from Ligier.

While all this was happening Ferrari decided to drop Ivan Capelli for the final two races of the year and replace him with test driver Nicola Larini. March needed more money and so Karl Wendlinger stood down and Jan Lammers took over, returning to F1 after 10 years.

The grid was settled on Friday as Saturday was ruined by torrential rain. It was a familiar story, however, with the Williams of Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese ahead of the McLarens of Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger. Michael Schumacher was fifth for Benetton with Johnny Herbert sixth in his Lotus ahead of team mate Hakkinen. Erik Comas was eighth in his Ligier-Renault ahead of Andrea de Cesaris's Tyrrell-Ilmor and Thierry Boutsen in the second Ligier. Ferrari was nowhere with Larini 11th in an experimental active Ferrari F92A and Jean Alesi was back in 15th position with the F92AT. Martin Brundle was suffering from food poisoning and was 13th.

At the end of the first lap Mansell was 3.1 secs ahead of Patrese. Senna was third but soon disappeared with engine failure. Berger was still there but he pitted early and so dropped behind Schumacher and the two Lotus drivers. On lap 13 Schumacher went out with a gearbox failure. Herbert's gearbox failed shortly afterwards and so he lost third place.

Just before the pit stops, Mauricio Gugelmin crashed his Jordan heavily and Mansell ran over some of the wreckage. He pitted immediately. His stop coincided with the mid-race pits stops when the tires are changed. Berger and Brundle gained back what they had lost with their early stops and were third and fifth respectively. A few laps later both pitted again, but neither lost a place.

This left Mansell 20secs ahead of Patrese with Berger third. Hakkinen was fourth ahead of Brundle and Erik Comas and de Cesaris were fighting for sixth before Erik parked the Ligier with an engine failure.

At the end of lap 36 however Mansell pulled off the racing line. Patrese went into the lead. Mansell then speeded up again and began to hassle his teammate. This appeared to be a repeat of his performance in Italy. Mansell's second charade in three races ended with an engine failure. Patrese was delighted not to have to worry about Mansell playing behind him. Berger was second and, as Hakkinen had retired with an engine problem, Brundle was third. De Cesaris moved up to fourth while fifth and sixth places went to Alesi and Christian Fittipaldi (Minardi)

1999, Tracey Hines won the 33-lap Sammy Sessions Memorial USAC sprint car race at Winchester, Indiana.

October 26,

1910, Barney Oldfield, drove a Knox to sweep all three heats run of a best-of-five match race against heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson, driving a Thomas Flyer. The event is held on a 1-mile dirt track at Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, New York.

1915, AAA and Grand Prix driver at Indy, Joe Fry was born in the USA.

1915, AAA and Grand Prix driver at Indy, Ray Crawford was born in the USA.

1936, Grand Prix driver, Moises Solana was born in Mexico City, Mexico.

1942, F2, Sports car and one off, Grand Prix driver, Jonathan Williams was born in Cairo, Egypt.

1947, Grand Prix driver, Ian Ashley was born in England.

1986, Adelaide, In what may have been the most dramatic and exciting race of the 1980s, the 1986 race in Adelaide saw the showdown of a three-way fight for the World Championship between Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost and Nelson Piquet. Mansell had 70 points, seven more than Piquet but they were split by Prost with 64. Prost's McLaren-TAG was no match for the Williams-Hondas - which had lapped the Frenchman at several races - although Alain had collected points all year while the Williams pair fought one another.

Mansell was on pole ahead of Piquet and Ayrton Senna (Lotus-Renault). Prost was fourth followed by Rene Arnoux (Ligier), Gerhard Berger (Benetton), Keke Rosberg (McLaren), Philippe Alliot (Ligier), Michele Alboreto's Ferrari and Philippe Streiff's Tyrrell.

Mansell took the lead over Piquet but at the second corner, Senna forced his way to the front. Piquet and Rosberg followed him past Mansell and on that first lap, Piquet overtook Senna to take the lead. On the next lap Senna dropped behind Rosberg and on lap 4 behind Mansell. Two laps later Prost was also ahead of Senna.

On lap 7 Rosberg overtook Piquet and began to build a lead while a little later Prost got ahead of Mansell and chased after Piquet. On lap 23 Nelson spun. Prost's hopes seemed to evaporate a few laps later when he had a puncture and had to pit. He was back in fourth again.

Piquet charged back from his spin, passing Mansell for second place on lap 44 but Prost closed on his two Williams driver and with 25 laps to go all three were running together.

On lap 63 the battle became one for the lead, when Rosberg suffered a right rear tire failure. Mansell was on course for the title when two laps later his left rear tire exploded at 180mph. Nigel managed to avoid hitting anything by his championship hopes were over. Williams had no choice but to call Piquet to the pits and so Prost went into the lead. Piquet closed the gap from 15secs to four but Prost won the race and the World Championship after a breathtakingly exciting race.

Third place went in the race went to Stefan Johansson in his last race for Ferrari with Martin Brundle fourth in his Tyrrell. Streiff was fifth and Johnny Dumfries (Lotus) sixth.

1997, Jerez, for the GP of Europe, McLaren scored a 1-2 finish in the European Grand Prix at Jerez de la Frontera but that was not significant. It was like Sandro Nannini's win at Suzuka in 1989 - an undeserved victory. The win belonged to Jacques Villeneuve but on the last lap, under pressure from the two McLarens, he let Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard through since he would be sure of the World Championship.

The build-up for the Villeneuve-Schumacher showdown was much the same as they are in these situations with everyone analyzing every hint of activity of each of the challengers for indications that they were losing their cool. If Villeneuve left a certain button undone on Thursday, did this suggest that he was panicking so much when he was dressing himself that he would do something silly in the car? The Italian journalists, for their part, were sure that there was a conspiracy afoot and that the World title was already decided between Ferrari and the F1 bosses. The only evidence to back this up was that the Ferrari team decided to change the take-off time of the charter plane back to Italy from Sunday night to Monday morning. This was to allow for the celebration party. When the decision was announced in the press room, the place broke into outraged boos: Mr. Paul Gutjahr, Mr. Jacques Regis and Mr. Javier Conesa - a pox on the lot of you. Let us hope we never see the three of you ever again. Championship showdowns always bring out curious sports feature writers who do not always understand the sport completely and so the whole cycle becomes more and more absurd.

The conspiracy theorists had a field day on Saturday, of course, when Villeneuve, Schumacher and Frentzen all set exactly identical times in the qualifying session, lining up in that order on the grid because the rules state that the first man to set the time gets the first position. Formula 1 could not have hoped for a more perfect showdown.

Villeneuve had shown signs in practice of being a little under pressure. He had a cold and on Saturday morning became fed up by being blocked by Eddie Irvine, who seemed intent on getting in Jacques's way whenever the pair were together on the race track. Jacques stalked down to the Ferrari pit, called Eddie Irvine something unpleasant, and stalked back to the Williams pit, trailing his managers and PR types like ducklings in his wake. With pole position Jacques certainly had the advantage for the race but, as Schumacher was quick to point out, everything would ultimately depend on who made the best start. The potential for trouble at the first corner was no doubt there, although Irvine was not fast enough in qualifying to pose much of a problem, being down in seventh on the grid.

The atmosphere was highly charged as the field revved up and the red lights came on one by one. Given all the problems with the local infrastructure in the days before the race it was a miracle that they managed to find five red lights that were all working. These went out as they should have done - this has not always been the case at Grands Prix in Spain - and the field was off. Villeneuve and Schumacher went away together but Schumacher seemed to get more traction, probably because he was using a new set of tires, while Villeneuve was taking the start on a used set of rubber. Whatever the case Michael was ahead as they went into the first corner and Frentzen also made a better start than Jacques and got ahead, Jacques leaving the door open for him to avoid any contact.

Behind them Hill made a poor start and fell behind the McLarens of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard. In those early laps Schumacher grabbed a lead of two seconds over Frentzen while Villeneuve prepared his counter-attack. On lap eight Frentzen - who was also racing on used tires and was struggling to keep up with Schumacher - let Villeneuve through to give Jacques the chance to go after the Ferrari star. Schumacher held the gap until his first pit stop on lap 22.

Villeneuve's plan was to shadow Michael's strategy through the race and so on the next lap Jacques came into the pits. This left Frentzen to lead with Hakkinen ahead of Michael and Jacques with Coulthard mixing it with them as well. In the excitements Jacques tried on one occasion to get past Michael but thought better of it.

During that first pit stop sequence, Frentzen fell behind the two McLarens, and in the process Coulthard was also able to get ahead of Hakkinen.

With the major stops out of the way and all the front-runners on the same strategy there was little in the way of action in the middle stint. It was not helped by the fact that Villeneuve lost over two seconds as he and Michael Schumacher tried to lap Norberto Fontana (who it must be remembered uses a Ferrari engine disguised as a Petronas V10 in the back of his Sauber). This created a sufficient gap to give Michael a breather, but then Jacques began to close again.

At this point the two leaders came up towards the two Jordans. This sent Ferrari team boss Jean Todt marching down towards the Jordan pit. He signaled to Eddie Jordan - what this meant we will never know - and then turned around and marched back to the Ferrari pit. Later Ron Dennis would visit Jordan as well to suggest that Eddie get his men out of the way of Mika and David as they chased after Villeneuve...

Schumacher pitted for the second time on lap 43 and his stop took slightly longer than normal. As planned Villeneuve came in on the following lap and emerged from the pits right on Schumacher's tail. For the next three laps they diced and then on lap 48 they hammered down into Dry Sack Corner and Jacques made his move.

It was a good move and Schumacher was taken by surprise. "When he looked in his mirror I was way behind," Villeneuve reported. "I knew I was taking a big risk but I was surprised that he turned in on me. But he didn't do it well enough because he went off and I did not. My car jumped in the air and I thought something must be broken. The car felt very strange. The hit was very hard. It was not a small thing. I took two laps very slowly to see if the suspension was attached and everything was still working and then I started to push again. I knew Michael was capable of doing that." After the race, Schumacher concocted a ridiculous story about not seeing Villeneuve, which no-one believed - and just added insult to injury. It did not matter. Michael had lost and that was reward enough for Villeneuve and the Williams team.

Michael Schumacher deposited a truckload of egg on his face on lap 48 when he tried to take Villeneuve out of the race when Jacques challenged for the lead. It was exactly the kind of move one would have expected from the man who took out Damon Hill to win the 1994 World title in Adelaide. If there were doubts about that incident there were none on this occasion. It was a cynical attempt to save the World Championship but this time it was executed with an amateurism which must have made Enzo Ferrari rotate in his grave.

As Schumacher's Ferrari bounced off Villeneuve's Williams and slid into the gravel, Michael had only himself to blame. There was no sympathy for him in the paddock. He had damaged his reputation considerably. If this is the best racing driver on earth, they said, why does he need to resort to such unsportsmanlike behavior? He may be a great driver but he will never be a good sportsman.

The FIA - having had the glorious showdown they wanted - contrived to conclude that the crash was a "racing incident" - which was a scandalous decision and just goes to prove that the FIA stewards are either not qualified for the jobs they hold or that they were told what to decide.

And so ended the 1997 World Championship with a slightly sour taste in the mouth. Max Mosley said he wanted the race to be "a proper and fair contest", adding that a range of penalties could be imposed on drivers who ignore the warning. Schumacher chose to ignore this but was allowed to get away with it. The queston, is that really the best way to teach young drivers how true World Champions behave? One could suppose if a champion had cheapened himself like that there was no need for punishment. He had done himself more harm than the FIA ever could...

1997, Chris Menninga won the Barber Dodge Pro Series race at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California. However, it was Derek Hill, son of first US F1 champion Phil Hill, won the series title. Later that day, Butch Leitzinger won the IMSA World Sports Car race and the title in a Ford powered R&S MkIII.

I think you'll find that Siffert never ran a 4-cyl Climax...

His first F1 driver, AFAIK, was in a Lotus 22 with some ballast and a larger than FJr engine, probably the Corsair Classic 109E at 1340cc.

This car now lives in Australia...

Originally posted by Ray Bell
I think you'll find that Siffert never ran a 4-cyl Climax...

This intrigued me, so I did a bit of research. According to Sheldon, he drove the ex-works Lotus 21 [938], still with FPF power, at Pau (7th), Monte Carlo (DNS, too slow), Spa (10th), Enna (4th) and Nürburgring (12th) - I believe we had a picture of the latter event in one of Doug's WOEIT threads and discussed it there, didn't we?

So when and where did he run the 22 with its 'senior' engine, weight and (presumably) wheels?

October 27,

1913, Grand Prix driver, Luigi Piotti was born in Italy.

1936, Grand Prix driver, Dave Charlton was born in South Africa.

1955, World of Outlaw driver, Sammy Swindell was born.

1963, Mexico City, Three weeks after the United States GP the F1 circus gathered again in Mexico City for the penultimate round of the World Championship and it was Jim Clark who took pole in the Lotus ahead of John Surtees in his Ferrari and the BRM of Graham Hill. Fourth on the grid was Dan Gurney's Brabham ahead of Ritchie Ginther's BRM and the Cooper-Climax of Bruce McLaren. Chris Amon was back in action in the Reg Parnell Lola but he was way down on the grid.

Clark who won by a minute and a half dominated the race. Behind him the early laps witnessed Jack Brabham climbing through the field from 10th on the grid and by the end of the race he had worked his way up to second ahead of Ginther and Hill (who was slowed by gearbox trouble). Jo Bonnier was fifth with Gurney sixth because of a fuel problem, while Surtees was disqualified for having had a push-start after an early pit stop.

Clark's victory was his sixth of the season and meant that he equaled Juan-Manuel Fangio's record for the number of wins in a year - and Clark had the chance of a seventh victory in the South African Grand Prix in East London on December 28.

1964, Art Arfons topped Craig Breedlove's twelve day old Land Speed Record by running 536.71 MPH/858.73 KPH in the Green Monster on the Bonneville Salt Flats. This record would stand just over one year.

1977, Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Anton “Tony” Hulman died. Born into wealth, Anton Hulman Jr. embellished his personal resources with courage, foresight and a passion for automobile racing to become the savior of America's foremost motorsports facility and its greatest one-day sports spectacle, the Indianapolis 500.

Hulman purchased the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at the close of World War II, after the 36-year-old track had reached deplorable condition in four years of neglect. Three-time Indy 500 winner Wilbur Shaw fought to save the track from virtual extinction by seeking out a businessman to purchase the facility and revive the tradition of the annual Memorial Day event.

When Shaw located the Yale graduate from Terre Haute, Indiana who had a love for antique cars and was a regular attendee at the Indianapolis 500, he knew he had found the man he was looking for. It quickly became evident that Tony Hulman possessed the unselfish desire to see the great race revived and the Speedway re-established as the showcase it once was.

Continuing to manage his family's 100-year-old general wholesale firm, Hulman and Company, and diverse other business interests ranging from breweries to refineries to real estate, Hulman assumed the presidency of the Speedway in 1954 when Shaw died in a private plane crash. His personality soon became engrained into that of the Brickyard itself. His leadership was responsible for improvement upon improvement.

Hulman's extraordinary organizational prowess was put to its utmost test when AAA abruptly exited from auto racing in 1955. His skillful maneuvering resulted in the creation of the United States Auto Club.

Hulman's ringing rendition of the command, "Gentlemen Start Your Engines" became synonymous with auto racing and is now established as one of the most familiar phrases in all of sports.
Upon his death in 1977, Tony Hulman left a breathtaking motorsports facility unparalleled by any on the planet, together with an expansion and improvement program that may never be considered complete. He also left a legacy of having rescued an entire sport from the brink of oblivion and having breathed into it an unimaginable vitality. All racers and fans are in his debt.

1983, Ayrton Senna won the British F3 race at Thruxton, England.

1996, Bobby Hamilton drove the Petty Racing STP Pontiac to victory at Phoenix, Arizona. This was his first NASCAR Winston Cup win.

Non-Racing Related:

1945, On this day, Ferdinand Porsche was arrested by U.S. military officials for his pro-Nazi activities, and was sent to France where he was held for two years before being released. Meanwhile, the Allies approved the continuation of the original Volkswagen program, and Volkswagen went on to become a highly successful automobile company. As his brainchild Volkswagen grew, Porsche himself returned to sports car design and construction, completing the successful Porsche 356 in 1948 with his son Ferry Porsche. In 1951, Ferdinand Porsche suffered a stroke and died, but Ferry continued his father's impressive automotive legacy, achieving a sports car masterpiece with the introduction of the legendary Porsche 911 in 1963.

1935 - Ernest Eldridge Died of Pneumonia in Kensington, London.

Originally posted by eldridge
1935 - Ernest Eldridge Died of Pneumonia in Kensington, London.

Duly noted - thank you.

Your Grandfather, E.A.D. Eldridge, the campaigner of two cars and 19th finisher of the 1926 Indianapolis 500 has been entered. Besides his Fiat Mephistopheles that he raced, what else can you tell us?

Ernest Eldridge.
Even though He was a family member, very little is really known about E A D Eldridge. He has one surviving son, but he can remember very little about him. There are some facts and myths that have been passed around concerning EADE, and here are a few of them.

He was born to a wealthy family in Hampstead, London. His father was a "bill discounter" and amassed a very tidy fortune (all of which EADE squandered, but more of that later). EADE was sent to Harrow School for his education, but whilst in the 6th form he went out to the Western Front.

Here is the 1st conflicting story. I heard that EADE went to be an ambulance driver, but I have subsequently been told that he went to join the French Artillery! I also believe that he lied about his age.

Not much is known about the years between 1918 and 1922 when EADE reappeared at Brooklands. There are family myths about EADE flying with Count Zborowski, but whether these are true - who knows?

The early part of EADE racing career is littered with corpses of large (often AERO engine) Racing cars. He drove the 10 Litre Fiat, and then arrived with the Issotta Maybach. 20 or so litres of Racing car, and quite Fearsome.

He drove this car for a while, but was not terribly successful with it so sold it to a Frenchman named "Le Champion".

With the proceeds he bought Mephistopheles, and embarked on famous escapades.
It should be stated that as far as we can tell EADE had no formal engineering education. He did however build these cars, and is therefore might be considered one of the first Garagistes! I have read somewhere that EADE was involved with the Gwynne cars, but have not been able to corroborate this.

In 1925 he sold Mephistopheles (again to Le Champion) and decided to enter the world of Grand Prix racing with cars of his own design - The Eldridge Specials. Based on Amilcar Chassis with Anzani Engines, these cars were entered at many races for the 1925/6 seasons including the Brooklands 200, The San Sebastian, the L'ACF and the Italian GPs. He also entered the 1926 Indy 500 (no doubt tempted by the prize money).

Whilst in the USA, EADE tried a Miller 122, and was so impressed he ran it at Salem Rockingham, Atlantic City and Altoona and then Returned to Europe to Break Records at Montlhery. Whilst attempting some speed records over the Xmas Holidays the front axle disintegrated, the cars somersaulted, and EADE was left with some very serious head injuries and than lost one of his eyes.

Once recovered he continued to take records with other cars including Chrysler at Montlhery, and then found himself becoming the "Record Attempt Manager" for Capt Eyston. EADE coordinated (and sometimes drove during) the record attempts with the MG cars, helped design record car "Speed of the Wind" and then went to Bonneville to manage the record attempt.

It was whilst returning from this trip that Eldridge contracted Pneumonia and then subsequently died in Kensington.

As for EADE on a personal level - well I believe him to be something of a chararcter. He spent the family fortune (we know of one occasion that whilst playing "chemy" in Monte Carlo in 1922, EADE lost £60,000 on the turn of ONE card!!), and I'm sure that the Flying and Racing was also expensive!

A few years ago a pair of his racing goggles came up for auction - being sold by his wife. This was strange as his wife had dies before the war. It turned out that this was EADE's 2nd wife that he had married in 1925? Whilst still married to his 1st wife. The 2nd wife was a French woman named Marie by all accounts. So a bigamist as well!

If any TNFers have any information, stories, pictures or anecdotes, please let me know. I have heard that somewhere there is an account written of the 2 GP seasons that EADE undertook. If this is true, and if anyone can help - Please let me Know.

Thanks for those insights and even more intrigue eldridge. Even though you've enlightened us to his memory, I’m pretty sure that there will be others here who can cast a bit more light on your Grandfather’s past.

On a personal note ~ I hope you and your family are ok with those fires looming perilously close…




October 28,

1919, Grand Prix and Sports car driver, Walt Hansgen was born in New Jersey, USA

1923, The Sitges Circuit, the first permanent racetrack built in Spain opened. It was similar in configuration to Brooklands. However, it was abandoned after just a few races because of the poorly designed banking.

1924, Grand Prix and Sports car driver, Antonio Creus was born in Madrid, Spain.

1930, Grand Prix driver and current ringmaster of the F1 circus, Bernie Ecclestone was born.

1951, Pedralbes, Spain, The World Championship finale took place on the 3.9 mile Pedralbes street circuit in Barcelona with Alberto Ascari and Juan-Manuel Fangio both needing to win to be sure of the World title. The Ferrari and Alfa Romeo teams each ran four cars with Ferrari fielding Ascari, Gigi Villoresi, Froilan Gonzalez and Piero Taruffi and Alfa Romeo running Fangio, Giuseppe Farina, Felice Bonetto and Baron Emanuel de Graffenried.

Ascari was fastest in practice and shared the front row of the 4-3-4 grid with Fangio, Gonzalez and Farina. Behind them were Villoresi, de Graffenried and Taruffi.

Ascari led from the start with Gonzalez chasing but by the end of the first lap Gonzalez had dropped to fifth behind Farina, Fangio and Bonetto. Fangio quickly passed Farina and took the lead from Ascari on the fourth lap. As Fangio sailed away to victory, Ferrari's challenge disappeared as their tires began to fall apart - the team having opted to use smaller wheels than normal.

By the time the team had sorted out the problem Ascari was two laps behind. Fangio duly won the race and the championship with Gonzalez finishing second and Farina third.

1989, Stuart Crow won the Bosch-VW Super Vee race on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.

1996, Craig Breedlove drove the Shell Spirit of America LSR vehicle to a speed of 675 mph in the Blackrock Desert before a gust of wind caused him to lose control and crash. Breedlove was not hurt, but car sustained 500k in damages.

Non-Racing Related:

1923, The company later known as Tatra constructed its first automobile in 1897, a vehicle largely inspired by the design of an early Benz automobile. Based in the small Moravian town of Nesselsdorf in the Austro-Hungarian empire, Tatra began as Nesselsdorf Wagenbau, a carriage and railway company that entered automobile production after chief engineer Hugo von Roslerstamm learned of the exploits of Baron Theodor von Liebieg, an avid Austrian motorist who drove across Eastern Europe in a Benz automobile. The Baron himself took the Nesselsdorf Wagenbau's first automobile, christened the President, on a test drive from Nesselsdorf to Vienna. He was impressed with the design and pushed von Roslerstamm and Nesselsdorf Wagenbau to enter racing.

The company put its faith in the talented young engineer Hans Ledwinka, and under his leadership the Rennzweier and the Type A racers were produced, demonstrating modest racing success and encouraging the beginning of large-scale production of the Type S in 1909. The company continued to grow until 1914, when, with the outbreak of World War I, it shifted to railroad car construction.

On this day in 1918, just two weeks before the end of the war on the Western front, the Moravian town of Nesselsdorf in the old Austro-Hungarian Empire became the city of Koprivnicka in the newly created country of Czechoslovakia, necessitating a name change for the Nesselsdorf Wagenbau. Soon after the war, Hans Ledwinka and the newly named Koprivnicka Wagenbau began construction of a new automobile under the marquee Tatra. The Tatra name came from the Tatra High Mountains, some of the highest mountains in the Carpathian mountain range. Ledwinka settled on Tatra in 1919 after an experimental model with 4-wheel brakes passed a sleigh on a dangerously icy road, prompting the surprised sleigh riders to reportedly exclaim: "This is a car for the Tatras."

In 1923, the first official Tatra automobile, the Tatra T11, was completed, and Ledwinka's hope for an affordable "people's car" had come to fruition. The rugged and relatively small automobile gave many Czechoslovakians an opportunity to own an automobile for the first time, much as Ford's Model T had in the United States. In 1934, Tatra achieved an automotive first with the introduction of the Tatra 77, an innovative model that holds the distinction of being the world's first aerodynamically styled automobile powered by an air-cooled rear-mounted engine.

October 29,

1932, Grand Prix driver, Alex Soler-Roig was born in Barcelona, Spain.

1951, Grand Prix driver, Tiff Needell was born in England.

1965, Paul Stewart, former manager of the Stewart F1 Team and son of 3-time F1 champion Jackie Stewart, was born.

1967, Bobby Allison and David Pearson finish 1-2 in Holman+Moody prepared Fords in the NASCAR Grand National race at Rockingham, North Carolina.

1995, Suzuka, Michael Schumacher dominated the Japanese Grand Prix weekend - outpacing the Williams boys all weekend. He was on pole with Jean Alesi's Ferrari second and Mika Hakkinen's McLaren-Mercedes third. Mika was recovering from his appendicitis operation but seemed to be unaffected: Suzuka is a track he relishes and that played no small part in the performance. But an ace is only as good as his car. The men at Mercedes were largely responsible thanks to yet another new evolution of the Ilmor-designed engine - flown in for the occasion from England - and the chassis suited the circuit.

But all was not wonderful at McLaren because Blundell went off on Friday afternoon and did not set a time and then had a big shunt on Saturday morning, which meant he had to sit out final qualifying. He had not therefore completed a lap in qualifying and had to start at the back of the grid.

Blundell's crash was one of several: Johnny Herbert going in hard and Aguri Suzuki having a massive shunt in his Ligier on Saturday, Aguri putting himself into hospital. Damon Hill and David Coulthard were struggling in fourth and sixth places on the grid.

The race started in damp conditions with the whole field in wet tyres - Schumacher was again dominant. He got ahead at the first corner and quickly built up a commanding lead. He was helped when Alesi was given a 10-sec stop-go penalty for jumping the start. Jean pitted. A lap later he came back in for slick tyres. It was a risky move but Jean was soon making huge progress as the others were still messing about on wets. Alesi survived a spin when he was driven off the road by a hapless Pedro Lamy and his next laps were such that by the time Schumacher had stopped for his new tyres, Alesi was only six seconds behind - and closing. He was soon on Michael's tail and there he stayed until the Ferrari engine went bang.

The Williams team self-destructed in the mid-race as Damon Hill and David Coulthard ran second and third. Spots of rain began to fall down at the Spoon Curve, where the cars arrive on the limit of rear grip. If the circuit is more slippery than usual, a car can be carried by momentum into the sandtrap. In such conditions, drivers have to predict trouble. Schumacher managed to get through without drama but Hill, obviously pushing very hard, slid straight on, bounced across the sand trap, but managed to keep going, and motored slowly around on the grass verge between the sandtrap and the tire barriers and rejoined just as Hakkinen was accelerating past him. Damon went into the pits for a new nose and rejoined in fifth place - although in doing so he went too fast in the pitlane. Coulthard then did exactly the same thing at Spoon, bouncing across the sand trap and filling his sidepods with gravel. He left some on the road and the rest was forced backward in the pods as he accelerated away down the straight. When he got to the next corner he braked and the gravel flew out into his path and he spun off on his own pebbles. Moments later Hill arrived at Spoon, anxious to make up for lost time, having just been told on the radio that he had to go back into the pits for a 10-sec stop-go penalty. He drifted onto the stones Coulthard had carried onto the track and spun into the gravel.

And so Benetton won the Constructors' Championship as well. Hakkinen finished second, which was remarkable, and Johnny Herbert came home third.

1999, Matt Hines set an NHRA Pro Stock Bike 1/4-mile ET record of 7.154 seconds at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas.

2000, John Force won his tenth NHRA Funny Car championship. Angelle Sealing becomes the first woman to win the NHRA Pro Stock Bike title.

Non-racing related:

1954, the Hudson Motor Company and the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation merged to form the American Motors Corporation, and Hudson, which had been suffering severe financial problems, signed on as the weaker partner. Soon after, it was announced that all 1955 models would be made in Nash's facilities, and that most of Hudson's recent innovations would be discontinued. On this day, the last step-down Hudson was produced. Although the Hudson name would live on for another two years, the cars no longer possessed the innovative elegance and handling of models like the Hornet of the early 1950s.

October 30,

1906, Grand Prix driver, Giuseppe Farina was born in Italy.

1917, Grand Prix driver, Maurice Trintignant was born in France.

1918, Pre-war driver, Eddie Rickenbacker made his 26th and final "kill" as an American fighter pilot in WWI.

1926, Grand Prix driver, Jacques Swaters was born in Woluwe, Belgium.

1951, CART team owner Tony Bettenhausen Jr. was born.

1954, Three-time Indy 500 winner Wilbur Shaw died in the crash of a single-engine airplane in a cornfield near Fort Wayne, Indiana. Although Wilbur Shaw may be recognized as a great race driver in his own right, he is perhaps best known as the man who, with Tony Hulman, saved Indianapolis Motor Speedway from becoming an industrial park and helping to promote it into one of the world's great motorsports facilities.

Shaw went to Indy races as a young man, where he idolized the great drivers of the time. He quit school to go to work with a storage battery company in Detroit. He was so adept at the job he soon was making $100 a week, a huge salary by 1919 standards.

He went racing in 1921 in a car built of used or junked parts. It was at Hoosier Speedway and, at first, he was forbidden to drive because the starter felt he would kill himself in the makeshift racer.
Shaw was so charming the starter helped him build a new car, which Shaw ran in 1922 and won repeatedly all over the Midwestern United States. He continued racing and made it to Indy in 1927. He finished fourth, utilizing his hard-charging driving style. He continued to race through the years, making a fair living driving other people's cars. But in 1936, he encountered the turning point of his career. He returned to Indy as the major owner of his own car. He placed seventh in that year, but the next year, he won the vaunted race. In that same year, he raced in Europe, becoming the first spark to unite Americans and Europeans at Indianapolis. He convinced a Chicago industrialist to sponsor a Maserati at Indy and, as one might expect, Shaw won with it in 1939 and 1940. By World War II, Shaw had given up all forms of racing but Indy.

During the war, he worked as an aviation sales manager for Firestone, but the routine work nearly drove him crazy. This may have sparked his interest in saving Indy, which was in decline after Eddie Rickenbacker had lost interest and tried to convert it into an industrial park. With Hulman's help, Shaw struggled to put on the 1946 race. The race was a success and Indy was saved.

The dapper Shaw was the ideal man to represent racing to automobile executives, whose cooperation Shaw realized was sorely needed. His efforts spurred the growth of auto racing in the United States, and he was still hard at it when he lost his life in a private plane crash.

Today, a rest stop on the Indiana Turnpike is named after him. He is honored along with Knute Rockne, poet James Whitcomb Riley and several governors. It is only fitting. His memorial might be one for a school dropout, bracketed by poets, college men and governors, but for those who today enjoy the fruits of his labors in motorsports, that is exactly where it should be.

1966, NASCAR Grand National champions, Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson retire from racing, both with 50 NASCAR Grand National wins.

1966, F1 and Current CART driver, Mika Salo was born in Finland.

1988, Suzuka, With Yannick Dalmas out of action with Legionnaires Disease, the Larrousse team hired Japanese Formula 3000 Champion Aguri Suzuki for the Japanese GP. The focus, however, was on the battle for the World Championship between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in their McLaren-Hondas. In qualifying Senna was ahead of Prost with Gerhard Berger in his habitual third place for Ferrari. Ivan Capelli was fourth in his Leyton House March ahead of the two Lotus-Hondas of Nelson Piquet and Satoru Nakajima. Derek Warwick was seventh in his Arrows-Megatron with Nigel Mansell (Williams), Michele Alboreto (Ferrari) and Thierry Boutsen (Benetton) completing the top 10.

At the start, Senna stalled his car and was engulfed by the field. Fortunately, the start line is on a hill and as the car rolled forward Ayrton was able to bump-start the engine and get going but by then he was down in 14th place and Prost was leading. In order to take the title, Senna needed to win and so he set off to make up for lost ground. It was an impressive drive.

Up at the front Prost led early on but he then came under extreme pressure from Capelli and on the 16th lap the Italian went into the lead. Capelli's hopes of a victory lasted only a few hundred meters before Prost reasserted himself. Three laps later, he went out with an electronic failure. By then Senna was second and on lap 28 the Brazilian took the lead and went on to win the race and the World Championship. Prost, troubled by a small gearbox problem, had to settle for second ahead of Boutsen, Berger, Nannini and Riccardo Patrese (Williams). Nakajima delighted the Japanese fans by finishing seventh.

1994, Kenny Bernstein became the first man to run faster than 310 mph in the 1/4-mile when he ran 311.85 mph in his Top Fuel dragster, Pomona, California.

Non-Racing Related:

1963, Sports car maker Ferruccio Lamborghini served as a mechanic for the Italian Army's Central Vehicle Division in Rhodes during World War II. Upon his return to Italy, he worked on converting military vehicles into agricultural machines, and in 1948 began building and designing his own tractors. His well-designed agricultural machinery proved a success, and with this prosperity, Lamborghini developed an addiction for luxury sports cars.

In the early 1960s he purchased a Ferrari 250 GT, made just a few miles away in Enzo Ferrari's factory. After encountering problems with the car, Ferruccio reportedly paid Enzo a visit, complaining to him about his new Ferrari's noisy gearbox. Legend has it that the great racing car manufacturer Ferrari responded in a patronizing manner to the tractor-maker Lamborghini, inspiring the latter to begin development of his own line of luxury sports cars--automobiles that could out perform any mass-produced Ferrari.

On this day in 1963, the Lamborghini 350GTV debuted at the Turin auto show. But Lamborghini had not completed the prototype in time for the deadline, and the 350GTV was presented with a crate of ceramic tiles in place of an engine. With or without the engine, Lamborghini's first car was not particularly well received, and only one GTV was ever completed. But the former tractor-maker was not discouraged, and in 1964 the drastically redesigned 350GT went into production, and Lamborghini managed to sell over a hundred of the expensive cars. The GT was a quiet and sophisticated high-performance vehicle, capable of achieving 155 mph with a maximum 320 hp. The elegant Lamborghini 350GT indeed provided a smoother ride than most of its Ferrari counterparts, and Ferruccio's old tractor factory, located just a few miles from the Ferrari factory, began constructing some of the most exotic cars the world had ever seen, such as the Miura, the Espada, and the legendary Countach.

October 31,


1941, F1 and Sports car driver, Derek Bell was born in Pinner, Middlesex, England.

1976, Johnny Rutherford won the Texas 200 in a McLaren-Offenhauser. This was the last USAC Championship victory for a Drake-Offenhauser engine.

1983, Richard Petty announced he was leaving Petty Enterprises to drive for Mike Curb in 1984. Kyle Petty would then be in charge of Petty Enterprises.

1999, Suzuka, In the days before the race at Suzuka the FIA Court of Appeal ruled that the Ferraris had been legal at the Malaysian Grand Prix. That meant that McLaren and Ferrari were going head-to-head for both World Championships. Ferrari's Eddie Irvine was four points of ahead of McLaren's Mika Hakkinen in the Drivers' title and Ferrari was four ahead in the Constructors'.

Michael Schumacher did well in qualifying to take pole position but he was nowhere near as quick as he had been in Malaysia a fortnight earlier. Hakkinen was second on the grid with his McLaren team mate David Coulthard third and Heinz-Harald Frentzen fourth in his Jordan-Mugen Honda. Irvine was only fifth. The Ulsterman could only hope that Schumacher would win the race and take points away from Hakkinen.

Hakkinen beat Schumacher away at the start and it was obvious that the Ferrari could not match the McLaren. Coulthard ran third for a long time but then made a mistake, tore the nose off his car and had to pit. That ended McLaren's hopes of the Constructors' title. Coulthard rejoined and Schumacher later made a fuss about being held up by the lapped Scotsman, but there was little substance to the allegation.

Hakkinen drove a fabulous race and duly won to take the World Championship. Schumacher was second with Irvine third, a minute and a half behind. Frentzen was fourth with the final points going to Ralf Schumacher and Jean Alesi in his last race for the Sauber team.

1999, Larry "Spiderman" McBride made the first sub-6-second 1/4-mile Top Fuel Motorcycle pass, at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas. His record–breaking run was recorded as 5.993 seconds at 243.68 mph.

Non-Racing Related:

1957, On this day, two months after a three-man Toyota team flew to Los Angeles to survey the U.S. market, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. was founded in California with Shotaro Kamiya as the first president. Toyota's first American headquarters were located in an auto dealership in downtown Hollywood, California, and by the end of 1958, 287 Toyopet Crowns and one Land Cruiser had been sold. Over the next decade, Toyota quietly made progress into the Big Three-dominated U.S. car market, offering affordable, fuel-efficient vehicles like the Toyota Corolla as an alternative to the grand gas-guzzlers being produced in Detroit at the time. But the real watershed for Toyota and other Japanese automakers came during the 1970s, when, after enjoying three decades of domination, American automakers had lost their edge.

On top of the severe quality that plagued domestic automobiles during the early 1970s, the Arab oil embargoes of 1973 and 1979 created a public demand for fuel-efficient vehicles that the Big Three were unprepared to meet. The public turned to imports in droves, and suddenly Japan's modest but sturdy little compacts began popping up on highways all across America. The Big Three rushed to produce their own fuel-efficient compacts, but shoddily constructed models like the Chevy Vega and Ford Pinto could not compete with the overall quality of the Toyota Corollas and Honda Civics. Domestic automakers eventually bounced back during the 1980s, but Japanese automakers retained a large portion of the market. In 1997, the Toyota Camry became the best-selling car in America, surpassing even Honda's popular Accord model.

November 1,

1898, Grand Prix driver, Authur Legat was born in Belgium

1912, David Bruce-Brown, the first American to win a Grand Prix, died in practice accident for the American Grand Prize race in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Born in 1890 to wealthy parents, he was a natural who as an 18-year old schoolboy bluffed his way into the 1908 Speed Trials at Daytona first as a mechanic then as a driver. Emanuele Cedrino - manager of Fiat's New York operations too the young man under his wing where he was jokingly known as Cedrino's millionaire mechanic. His mother horrified that her son might actually drive a racing car threatened legal action against the organizers if they allowed her son to drive but drive he did. In a Fiat he promptly beat the 1904 record of 92.30 mph set by William "Willie K" Vanderbilt. When Bruce-Brown's mother heard the news she momentarily got caught up in a wave of enthusiasm but the dread was always there that her son would die at the wheel of a racing car.

In 1908 he won the Shingle Hillclimb driving a 120hp Benz. In 1909 he beat Ralph DePalma's Fiat in the Dewar Trophy and DePalma would later remark that Bruce-Brown was "one of the greatest drivers who ever-gripped a steering wheel". By 1910 this 20-year old won international fame through his victory in the American Grand Prize at Savannah in a factory 120hp Benz by 1.42 seconds over Victor Hemery. Hemery was one of the best drivers in the world but even he was taken in by the charms of the young lad. He became the sensation of American motor sports, the rich kid taking on the best that the Europeans had to offer.

In 1911 Bruce-Brown drove for FIAT in the inaugural Indianapolis 500 and finished 3rd. He added another American Grand Prize later that year. He went to Europe in 1912 for the legendary A.C.F. Grand Prix at Dieppe. The French press called him the errant schoolboy in a man's world. Driving a 14.1 liter Fiat with DePalma and Wagner. The Grand Prix was the most prestigious race in the world. Held over 2 days the race totaled 956 miles. At the start Bruce-Brown leapt into the lead in front of a start-studded field. Setting the fastest lap he won the first day's race by over 2 minutes. On the second day Bruce-Brown struck a dog and ruptured his fuel tank. After lengthy repairs he was able to continue but only after adding more fuel which unfortunately was against the rules. He finished a disappointed though not classified third.

A product of New York society he was an amateur competing on equal terms with the best drivers in the world. On October 1, 1912 the fairy tale ended when David Bruce-Brown still only 22 died while practicing for his third American Grand Prize at Milwaukee. A tire on his Fiat had burst sending the car cartwheeling into a ditch. It all seemed so pointless as he was warned that his tires appeared worn and when out on the circuit he proceeded to race with his teammate,Teddy Tetzlaff in a display of youthful exuberance. What he might have accomplished during his lifetime can only be guessed. The racing world, especially the Americans were stunned. The legendary Louis Wagner declared him to be the greatest road racer he had ever seen.

1923, Eddie Rickenbacker took control of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

1926, AAA and Grand Prix driver at Indy, Bob Veith was born in the USA.

1928, One time. Grand Prix driver, Ted Whiteaway was born in England.

1936, Grand Prix driver, Jack Lewis was born in England.

1962, F1 driver, Ricardo Rodriguez died. The younger brother of Pedro, Ricardo Rodriguez stunned fans at Monza by qualifying his Ferrari 156 second on the grid behind Wolfgang von Trips for the 1961 Italian Grand Prix on his Formula 1 debut. He was 19 years old, utterly fearless and totally confident that nothing could touch him.

In 1962, he was a full-time member of the Maranello Formula 1 squad, but the team was now entering an uncompetitive trough and the best he could manage was fourth in the Belgian and sixth in the German Grands Prix. However, he drove a Dino 246SP to a fine victory on the Targa Florio, sharing the car with Willy Mairesse and Olivier Gendebien.

Rodriguez clearly had a glittering career mapped out ahead of him, although many people felt he was in the wrong environment at Ferrari where young and inexperienced drivers found themselves put under intense pressure far too early in their careers. He was also slightly irked that Ferrari declined to send a car to contest the first non-title Mexican Grand Prix at the end of that season, instead fixing himself up a drive in a Rob Walker Lotus 24. Annoyed that John Surtees had posted a faster time in the similar car he had borrowed from Jack Brabham, Ricardo crashed heavily on the banked Peraltada corner before the pits and suffered fatal injuries

1976, The Vauxhall Chevette 2600 HS was homologated as a Group 4 rally car even though the required 400 road cars had not been built. This fact went unchallenged for over a year.

1979, CART announced that PPG will be the organization's new title sponsor and the PPG Indy Car World Series was created.

1987, Suzuka, Formula 1 returned to Japan for the first time in 10 years with an exciting World Championship showdown between Williams-Honda team mates Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell. The Brazilian was 12 points ahead on points so Mansell was the man under pressure and in qualifying, he cracked and crashed heavily the fast sweepers behind the paddock. The accident left Mansell with severe bruising to his backbone and it was decided that he should not be allowed to race. Having spent Friday night in hospital, Mansell flew back to Europe on Saturday evening. Nelson Piquet was World Champion for the third time.

The entry was much as it had been in Mexico although AGS decided to replace Pascal Fabre with Roberto Moreno.

With Piquet having nothing to prove and Mansell out of the way Gerhard Berger took pole position in his Ferrari ahead of Alain Prost's McLaren, Thierry Boutsen's Benetton-Ford and Michele Alboreto in the second Ferrari. Then came Piquet and Teo Fabi (Benetton) with the top 10 completed by Ayrton Senna (Lotus), Riccardo Patrese (Brabham-BMW), Stefan Johansson's McLaren and the second Brabham of Andrea de Cesaris.

In the race, Berger took the lead at the start and was never threatened, winning a dominant victory. Boutsen chased him early on but dropped behind Senna, Piquet and Johansson. Piquet's race ended with an engine failure in the closing laps and so fourth place went to Alboreto with Boutsen fifth and Satoru Nakajima sixth.

1998, With five weeks between the Luxembourg and Japanese Grands Prix Ferrari and McLaren spent their time testing and playing psychological games in preparation for the World Championship showdown in Suzuka. In qualifying Michael Schumacher beat Mika Hakkinen to pole by a tenth of a second. This was an astounding performance by Schumacher as his Ferrari team mate Eddie Irvine was almost two complete seconds slower. Irvine could not explain what had happened because he had no problems with his car and felt that fourth place was the best he could do. The feeling in the paddock was that Michael's result was a little fishy but the FIA said the car was legal.

David Coulthard was third on the grid only a second slower than Hakkinen. Behind the top two teams everyone else was in team order with Williams on the third row (Heinz-Harald Frentzen ahead of Jacques Villeneuve), Jordan on the fourth (Ralf Schumacher again outpacing Damon Hill), Benetton on the fifth (Alexander Wurz ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella), Sauber on the sixth (Johnny Herbert outgunning Jean Alesi on this occasion) and Prost on the seventh (Olivier Panis beating Jarno Trulli).

Everyone was very edgy at the start with Trulli stalling as they waited for the lights to go out. The start was aborted. At the second attempt Michael Schumacher's Ferrari stalled. He would have to start at the back. Suddenly the pressure was off Hakkinen. He was on pole and there were 20 cars between him and Schumacher.

At the third attempt, the race got underway with Hakkinen leading Irvine, Frentzen and a slow-starting Coulthard. Schumacher drove a storming first lap to be 12th and his progress in the early laps continued until he became stuck in seventh place behind Villeneuve and Hill. In the laps that followed he lost half a minute to Hakkinen and all realistic chance of winning the race and the championship seemed to disappear.

The frontrunners soon began to pit and thanks to some very fast laps Schumacher emerged in third place ahead of Coulthard, Frentzen, Hill and Villeneuve. In the next few laps Irvine was unable to make much of an impression on Hakkinen and on lap 28 he stopped again, indicating that he was on a three-stop strategy.

The World Championship was settled moments later when Schumacher suffered a right rear tyre explosion after running over debris from a crash between Esteban Tuero's Minardi and Tora Takagi's Tyrrell. Hakkinen had little time to celebrate and stopped immediately for new tyres to stay ahead of Irvine, who had another pit stop to make. The Ulsterman managed to stay ahead of Coulthard but was in no position to challenge Hakkinen.

The new World Champion duly won his eighth victory of the year, trailed home by Irvine and Coulthard. The battle for fourth place was only decided at the last corner when Hill dived past Frentzen.


Non-Racing Related:

1895, The first automobile club in the United States, the American Motor League, held its preliminary meeting in Chicago, Illinois, with sixty members. On this day, Dr. J. Allen Hornsby was named president of the new organization, and Charles Edgar Duryea, the car manufacturer, and Hiram P. Maxim, car designer and inventor, were named vice-presidents. Charles King, who constructed one of the first four-cylinder automobiles in the following year, was named treasurer.

1927, For the first time since the Model T was introduced in 1908, the Ford Motor Company began production on a significantly redesigned automobile on this day--the Model A. The hugely successful Model T revolutionized the automobile industry, and over fifteen million copies of the "Thin Lizzy" were sold in its nineteen years of production. By 1927, the popularity of the outdated Model T was rapidly waning. Improved, but basically unchanged for its two-decade reign, it was losing ground to the more stylish and powerful motor cars offered by Ford's competitors. In May of 1927, Ford plants across the country closed, and the company began an intensive development of the more refined and modern Model A. The vastly improved Model A had elegant Lincoln-like styling on a smaller scale, and used a capable 200.5 cubic-inch four-cylinder engine that produced forty horsepower. With prices starting at $460, nearly five million Model As, in several body styles and a variety of colors, rolled onto to America's highways before production ended in early 1932.