6 replies to this topic

[simonlewisbooks]

Amongst all the retirement-induced fawning over a certain Ferrari driver there were constant references to the huge number of wins he'd notched up. In Grand Prix terms it certainly is a vastly impressive statistic - even if many of those wins have some kind of cloud hanging over them...

However it made me wonder which driver might have won the most car races during their career?

I know the late great Gerry Marshall famously won over 600. I find it hard to imagine anyone in circuit racing is likely to top that - although I'd be interested t hear if anyone has?

There are drivers on both the US, Australian and British short ovals who have run week-in-week-out for decades, sometimes several nights a week, something Big Gerry wasn't able to do, so I assume the really big numbers will be among their ranks.

I seem to recall NASCAR driver Dick Trickle had notched up something like 900 wins in assorted short track racing before he reached the lofty Winston Cup ranks quite late in his career while Steve Kinser, the 'King of the Outlaws' was at the top of sprint car racing for something like 20 years. His tally must be spectacular.

Midget legend Bob Tattersall had a long and stellar career racing several times a week in the US during the summer and then again in Australia during the winter. The mind boggles at how many chequered flags he must have collected.

In Britain Stuart Smith dominated F1 stock cars from the late 60s to the late 80s when it was at it's peak and he could run in almost 100 events each year. How many races did he win?

As 'The Prisoner' always asked "Who is Number 1 ?"

[Jerry Entin]

Richard Petty born June 2, 1937- From 1960-1992 had 200 wins out of 1,185 starts. He had 7 Championships. He won 41 races with distances of 500 miles too them. AKA- The King. If you want to go for twilight zone records. This would include heat race wins and non main Feature races. I am sure Steve Kinser would hold the record for wins. He has won 20 Series Championships. Almost 3 times that of Richard Petty's record. In 1997 Steve Kinser won 12 races in a row. That is the longest win streak I have heard of in professional racing.

[Collombin]

Doesn't Ralph De Palma's book credit him with something like 2,500 wins (from less than 3,000 starts)?

[Jerry Entin]

Ralph De Palma born 1883 died 1956 claimed to have won 2,000 of the 2,800 races he entered. That is a hard record for anyone to beat. It is also hard to prove that he accomplished this feat.

[Gregor Marshall]

I might have a vested interest in this post.

Dad either won 623 or 624 races, but you have to remember in the '70s & '80s he would race on the Saturday and Sunday and maybe the Bank Holiday, but he still had to beat people and by no means did he always have the best car. You could say there days he had the best car by miles but there were infinitely more times he didn't and still won and entertained, which was the most important thing to him.

I personally am not a Michael Schummacher fan but I cannot see anyway in this world that anyone car argue against his statistics and his status as the best current F1 driver, and I really don't like him!!

It's a bit like saying Senna was the greatest, but Prost/Mansell/Piiquest took records off him, but he was still the best. I think people forget that in Schummacher's years he lost out to Hill & Villneuve (definitely better cars), Hakkinen twice (arguably a better car) and then Alonso (similar cars, but getting to his end), but also within these periods he beat all of them and won championships. You still have to be there to win and yes he built a teams around him, but if you look closer to home, F3, BTCC, DTV, all the people successful in these championships and teams are because the team worked around them and made them successful and vice versa.

I personally think, and I'm sure Dad would agree, that in the last 15 years, no matter what, Schummacher has been the best and deserves to be in the top three of all-time F1 drivers.

Briefly going back to the original post, a lot of people would accuse Dad of "Pot hunting", but I can assure you he didn't, he did make sure people were organised around him and made the team better prepared than most "clubbies" but it didn't mean his car was the fastest because it was the cleanest! I can tell you many stories from the '80s when Dad should have been "professionally" racing and he wasn't for whatever reason and whatever he was driving was on the back of his car on a trailer and we would go and beg the tyre man to re0cut the tyres because they were ***ked and he'd go out and win, not coz of tyres, but because not just his skill but also his enthusiasm and desire.

Anyway, I don't think there is any way that any "serious" driver will beat Dad's record in British Club and international racing, you just need to see who was second when he did win a race and then try and call them rubbish!! If someone does beat his record, then hat's off, but I cannot see it happening without some tweaking or "lesser" competition, but that's just my opinion.

[Graham Clayton]

According to a Knoxville Raceway website, Steve Kinser had won 882 feature races in both 410ci and 360ci divisions in his long and distinguished career.

[Andretti Fan]

I don't have any numbers, but someone I have heard mentioned as having a race win total in the upper hundreds is Red Farmer. I think I remember a number close too or higher than Dick Trickles. Kinser definitely has to be up there close too or at the top.