54 replies to this topic

[KzKiwi]

Reading through the 'From 2 wheels to 4'thread got me thinking about how talented and capable some motor racing drivers are.
For example we have Jackie Stewart who was an Olympic games grade target shooter, Elio De Angelis was a concert grade pianio player, Guy Ligier represented his country in Rugby Union and to show how diverse they were we had Slim Borgudd as an ex drummer for ABBA.
But the Grandaddy of them all was the Italian bobsleigh team for the 1936 Olympic games at Garmisch, for Varzi was the captain, with Trossi, Taruffi and Cortese as his teammates. What talent!!!
Does anyone else know of any multi disciplined drivers from any era or level of racing?

[Ray Bell]

That's a staggering fact, if it just hasn't come out of the pages of the modern Motor Sport!
But this has to be tempered - Guy Ligier might have been pretty good at Rugby Union, but he was lowly regarded in F1. One of the classic comments was 'why Ligier in the good car while Anderson has to drive the old one?' - clearly a question of money in Jack's pocket, but nevertheless a valid expression of a quandary.
So how well did slim do in racing?
With dreams of the Ities going down the slope on opposite lock!

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[This message has been edited by Ray Bell (edited 04-09-2000).]

[Fast One]

Pierre Levegh was a "remarkable skater and and ice hockey player of international stature," according to a contemporary source. It goes on to say, " A versitile sportsman, Levegh has played golf and tennis and is a skilled yachtsman." The unnamed source is quoted in Mon Ami Mate.

[Don Capps]

Add Fon de Portago in several categories - bobsleds, riding, women....

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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps

Semper Gumbi: If this was easy, we’d have the solution already…

[Ray Bell]

When it comes to women, Moss was by reputation the master, but I believe Clark was very good too. What is that sport called?
Flying became another area of endeavour for many of them, Brabham leading the charge, then Clark and others. Lauda seems to have gone furthest down that track. Neubauer seems to have had a good margin over the others in the eating category, but that was not so evident in his racing days.

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[This message has been edited by Ray Bell (edited 04-10-2000).]

[Fast One]

Wasn't Guy Ligier a rugby or lacrosse player of some note?

[Ray Bell]

I think so... didn't he have a Cooper Maserati, too?

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Paul Hartshorne]

The Marquis Fon De Portago was the only Grand Prix driver to also ride in the Grand National steeplechase horse race.

There are probably several more multi-talented drivers - who wants to be the first to dig out Steve Small's Who's Who?

Best

[Leif Snellman]

Let me quote my own homepage:

6-16 FEBRUARY 1936: The Olympic Games were held in Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany. Australian Voiturette driver Frederick McEvoy, competing for Great Britain, wins a Bronze Medal in the four man bobsled race.

This is as far as I know the only time a racing driver has won an Olympic medal. Frederick McEvoy also finished 4th in the two man bobsled race.
Some sources claim that the Italians entered a bobsled team with Varzi, Trossi, Taruffi and Cortese. I have been unable to confirm this as I only have found the top 8 results from Garmish.
Other good Olympic results by racing drivers during the years include: Karl Ebb, 5th in 3000m Steeplechase (That's athletics, not horse racing), Paris 1924 , Alfonso de Portago, 4th in Bobsled (Cortina 1956) and Divina Galica 8th in Giant Slalom (Grenoble 1968) and 7th in Giant Slalom (Sapporo 1972).
Jackie Stewart just failed to make it to the British Trap Team for the 1960 Olympics in Rome.



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Leif Snellman
The Golden Era of Grand Prix Racing
http://www.kolumbus.fi/leif.snellman

[Keir]

There is this British driver, I believe his name is Nigel, and he can whine for hours and not take a breath. Amazing!!!!!

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"I Was Born Ready"

[BRG]

In addition to the whining, Mansell is also a bit handy at golf - he played in the Australian Open and did respectably.

Also, I believe that Andrea de Caesaris was in the Italian junior ski team.

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BRG

"all the time, maximum attack"

[Huw Jenjin]

Jonathon Palmer was a doctor, I think Tony Brookes was a dentist, Gilles villeneuve a Skidoo champion. Derek Warwick was Stock car world champion, and James Hunt pretty effective at Squash.
I believe the Sport at which Stirling, James and many other drivers were really dedicated athletes was horizontal bed sports.

[Ray Bell]

Just a thought - All But My Life again, I think - didn't Stirling and Pat Moss spend time on horses, too? I'm fairly sure he made that comparison with himself and Portago benefitting from the balance...

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Laphroaig]

Not a 4-wheel race driver, but Max Biaggi had to choose early on whether he wantet to continue racing bikes or take up the offer to play in the AC Milan youth soccer team.

[BRG]

Wasn't Julio Iglesias a top class goalkeeper? I know that he isn't a driver, but he should be with a name like that ("another fastest lap for Iglesias in the Ferrari" - sound right doesn't it!) and he certainly has a great reputation for those horizontal bed sports...

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BRG

"all the time, maximum attack"

[Ray Bell]

By the reputed stats it would be "...another fastest lap for Iglesias in the redhead."
Did he have any songs with motor racing connotations (or the ability to read them in)?

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Roger Clark]

Wolf Barnato ws, I feel confident to suggest, the only Le Mans winner who also played county cricket.

[Dennis David]

Don is that riding and women or riding women? ;-)

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Regards,

Dennis David
Grand Prix History

Life is racing, the rest is waiting

[Art]

Carlos Minditege was a world class Jaili player. Flipped a Maserati 40 feet from me at Sebring. Destroying one side of his face and drove again 2 months later.

Art

[Art]

De Portago the ladies man.

Spun his Ferrari in the esses at Sebring hitting a parked car I was leaning on. It burnt down while I was high tailing it out of the way. He must of been very rich or had one big Schlong as he sure wasn't good looking.

Art

[Ray Bell]

I'm sure the owner of the car would have thought him dead set ugly! (and kept him away from his wife)
You seem to make a habit of being near the Sebring crashes, Art.

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Eric McLoughlin]

David Purley's comprehensively crashed LEC is on display at the Donnington Museum. Unfortunately, years later, he also comprehensively crashed a Pitts Special - with fatal results.

I suppose you could include Didier Pironi (Ferrari's and Off Shower power boats) in that category too.

[Dennis David]

Taruffi was also an engineer. In fact that's why I like the drivers from long ago as many had talants beyond motorsport which made them so much more interesting than the current lot.

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Regards,

Dennis David
Grand Prix History

Life is racing, the rest is waiting

[Dennis David]

Don't forget Drs. Benjafield and Farina. Checkout http://www.rollsroyc...ley/heroes.html

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Regards,

Dennis David
Grand Prix History

Life is racing, the rest is waiting

[Darren Galpin]

Slim Borgudd was a session drummer for Abba, not their regular drummer. He has since done reasonably well in the European Truck Racing series (and that isn't a series for old ATS F1 cars.....)

Drivers with other careers. Well, Ian Ashley was a commercial pilot who ferried drivers such as Emerson Fittipaldi around the world. Nigel Mansell was a qualified engineer, and one Bernie Ecclestone was a used car dealer.

[KzKiwi]

Darren, Shock horror. Do not tarnish the reputation of engineers by admitting that Mansell was a qualified engineer. We have been sworn to secrecy ever since the shocking truth was revealed. I thought he received honours in an Whining apprenticeship??
Just touching briefly on current F1 drivers, was Fisichella not a very good footballer, who had to decide between Motor racing or football?

[Marcel Schot]

As far as I know Divina Galica is still holder of the downhill speed skiing world record for women or whatever you call that In short she's the lady who went down a hill in the snow on ski's faster than any lady ever or since.

[Leo]

Alexander Wurz was the 1986(?) Bicycle Cross world champion and former Rally driver and Dakar winner Ari Vatanen is in the European Parliament for Finland. Dutch Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendijk has owned a rather impressive art gallery (no work by himself, though) in Scottsdale, Arizona, but I'm not sure if he stills owns it.

[Art]

Let me make a correction.

That was Ruberosa that wrecked the Ferrari not De Portago.

Art

[SteveB2]

Nige, an engineer !! I offset this with Mark Donahue being a mechanical engineer. I know everyone knows this, but they hadn't mentioned it yet.

[BRG]

Mansell was an apprentice at Lucas in Birmingham (UK not Alabammy, or he would be a multiple NASCAR champion by now!) but I am not sure if he qualified as a real engineer. It may have only been some sort of diploma (HND or HNC). He never seemed to demonstrate any great engineering nous when he was driving.

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BRG

"all the time, maximum attack"

[Ray Bell]

Art - does that mean we have to amend the information about either the facial appearance or the wedding tackle?

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Don Capps]

DD, you read it correctly....

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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps

Semper Gumbi: If this was easy, we’d have the solution already…

[Huw Jenjin]

Nigel Mansell the brummie definately demonstrated "nouse" in his career because he and his wife gave up the motgage on one to finance his career.

[Ian McKean]

James Hunt played at Junior Wimbledon as well as being a good squash player later. In one of his articles in Autosport he described a match (he'd won) with the champion of Switzerland or some such place. Still, the champion of Switzerland or some such place would probably struggle against a typical British county player. But having said that, it still means that Hunt was a good squash player and a damn sight better than me on a squash court. (No jokes about him being a damn sight better in a car too please.) After retiring from motor sport Hunt tried briefly to get into squash at an international level but found it rather hard.

Carlos Sainz was Spanish squash champion and also good at other sports. I read somewhere he was something to do with Real Madrid, in the junior team or offered a contract or something. (Football is not my sport.)

Graham Hill stroked London Rowing Club. Did they win the Grand at Henley? They were certainly one of the top crews.

I wonder what sports Otto Merz did? Bear wrestling probably. Caracciola's autobiography described how Merz could hold a six inch nail in his hand and with one blow push it through an inch thick oak table. (When I mentioned this feat to my father he remembered the story from before the war). And pick up a chair by the leg with one hand - while Caracciola was sitting on it. He used to boast that he was sorry for the milestone that his head would break one day if he had a crash. But he did die on a racetrack in the end.

[Ian McKean]

Thinking of Otto Merz again after my post yesterday I remembered another driver who must have had prodigious strength - Dan Gurney. He broke gearlevers quite a few times and a spoke of his steering wheel once when he was driving for Brabham. Yet he was very smooth and took a very precise line on corners. He was at his best on high speed road circuits like Spa (not that there was much else like Spa but you know what I mean).

Patrick Head had a holiday job as a student at Weslakes (Brigadier Head knew Harry Weslake) in '67 when they were doing the Eagle V12. Pat told me that Gurney had to borrow a Ford Cortina one day to drive up to London. Dan was too big for it and it didn't have reclining seats. So he leant in, put one hand on the squab and the other hand on the cushion and just bent the seat frame. Then he got in and drove off.

I haven't looked at the topic Gurney vs P Hill yet. Perhaps I should put this story there! No contest in my opinion; Dan was "the Man" as far as I was concerned in the mid 1960's. A bit more careful than than Jim Clark at dangerous places like Indy but a master at the difficult road circuits and never had spins or accidents (unlike Clark).

Someone will probably post details of Gurney's massive accidents now but I can't remember any. I don't mind being contradicted - what is so nice about this forum is that we all keep learning. I am amazed at the level of knowledge displayed here and the international flavour adds so much.

[Ray Bell]

There was one at Zandvoort where a harmless bit of a run off the road turned nasty when there were kids there who shouldn't have been. Can't remember if there was one or two killed. Interesting that he didn't have many crashes, a good thing to put on your CV, and something very few modern drivers could claim..

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Graham Clayton]

Bentley boy Woolf Barnato was a wicket-keeper for the Surrey county cricket team in the late 1920's and early 1930's:

http://www.cricketar...ls_results1.cgi

Here are some examples of footballers in Australia having motor racing careers:

1. Troy Wilson played Australian football with the West Coast Eagles in the AFL before racing speedway sprintcars:

2. Jack Elsgood played Rugby League with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and Sydney City Roosters in the NRL before racing V8 Utes

3. Sam Newman played Australian football with the Geelong Cats in the VFL before racing a Ferrari in the Nations Cup championship.

[B Squared]

I seem to remember during IndyCar telecasts, that Raul Boesel was touted as an accomplished equestrian rider. (not sure if that term is correct)

Brian

[Pils1989]

Jacques Villeneuve is apparently a good downhill skier when he was at L'Aiglon boarding-school in Swizterland. Same school Alberto Tomba went to, IIRC.
I remember when my school was competing against them, we were quite demoralized when each of their skiers brought several pair of skis during races.

[Jerome]

Robert Doornbos was a category 2 player in tennis in the Netherlands when he was 16... and that is very, very good. If you want to compare it with soccer: close to the Premier League, but not quite. To compare: when Richard Krajicek (winner of Wimbledon in 1996) was 16, he wasn't a category 2 player yet...

[raceannouncer2003]

Originally posted by Marcel Schot
As far as I know Divina Galica is still holder of the downhill speed skiing world record for women or whatever you call that In short she's the lady who went down a hill in the snow on ski's faster than any lady ever or since.

Dean Hall, who raced Formula Atlantic and Indy 500, was, I believe, also a holder of the downhill speed skiing world record. Some other skier/drivers here:

http://forums.autosp...?postid=1717076

Vince H.

[Graham Clayton]

As well as winning the 1930 Morocco/Casablanca Grand Prix, Charles Benitah represented Morocco in fencing at the 1960 Rome Olympics:

http://www.sports-re...-benitah-1.html

[Michael Ferner]

Dale Blaney was apparently very good at basketball, and on the brink of a professional career when a knee injury forced him to reconsider his career prospects. He choose the family sport instead, following father Lou (Eastern Ohio & Western Pennsy Super Modified and Sprint Car legend) and older brother Dave Blaney into dirt track racing. Didn't do badly, either: Lernerville Speedway Champion in '91, Eldora Speedway '95, All-Star Circuit of Champions co-Rookie of the Year '94 and Champion in '95 & '96, and World of Outlaws Rookie of the Year in '98. I hear he's still at it, at 51 these days.

[john aston]

For the record JYS wasn't  a 'target shooter' but a clay pigeon shot .

[Sharman]

...and also for the record Ligier played the 13 man game.

[Vitesse2]

...and also for the record Ligier played the 13 man game.

His French Wikipedia entry suggests otherwise - "Sportivement, Ligier devient champion de France d'aviron en 1947 et connaît une carrière méritante en rugby à XV: il est international en équipe de France B et militaire à la fin des années 1940."

 

However, that is sourced to a Caradisiac article, which doesn't specify which code he played. The only suggestion he played League seems to be a very incomplete list (mainly players from the 1990s and later) on English Wikipedia - and his English Wikipedia page doesn't specify which code either. It just says 'rugby'. Since it was probably written by someone who knew a little about about motor sport but (probably) even less about rugby, I'd take that with a large pinch of salt. And outside the few nations which actually play the 13-man game, the difference just isn't understood!

 

Added to that, if you search google.fr for "Guy Ligier" + "rugby à treize" (or variations thereof) there are no meaningful results.

[Tim Murray]

The link below is a history of the French rugby club Racing Club Vichy. It lists Ligier as one of their players in the immediate post-war years, and notes that during that period the club reached the last eight of the French Rugby XV championship.

http://fr.m.wikipedi...lub_Vichy_rugby

[Ray Bell]

And nobody mentioned Elio de Angelis...

Concert pianist.

Weren't the Rodriguez brothers also multi-talented?

[byrkus]

Let me quote my own homepage:

6-16 FEBRUARY 1936: The Olympic Games were held in Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany. Australian Voiturette driver Frederick McEvoy, competing for Great Britain, wins a Bronze Medal in the four man bobsled race.

This is as far as I know the only time a racing driver has won an Olympic medal.

 

One other candidate for the very short list: Nasser Al-Attiyah. Dakar Rally winner, Production WRC Champion - and an olympic medalist in shooting.