47 replies to this topic

[Graham Clayton]

Apart from Jochen Rindt winning the 1970 F1 drivers championship,
have there been any other examples of a driver posthumously
winning a championship?

[jimclark]

Simply put....no; just Jochen.

[Luís Sampaio]

Paul Warwick won posthumously in 1991 British F3000 Championship

[Don Capps]

Gaston Chevrolet, 1921 AAA National Champion; killed 25 November 1920 at the Beverly Hills, Califormia boardtrack.

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by Graham Clayton
Apart from Jochen Rindt winning the 1970 F1 drivers championship,
have there been any other examples of a driver posthumously
winning a championship?

In U.S. racing, Danny Caruthers won the USAC Midget championship in 1971 having died from injuries suffered in a pre-main crash in a late season race at Corona Raceway, Corona, California.

Ironically (and the word truly fits here), his older brother Jimmy, won the 1975 USAC Silver Crown championship but died of cancer before the awards banquet. They are the only two U.S. touring series champions that were crowned posthumously that I am aware of.


Jim Thurman

[Marcor]

Jochen Rindt and Paul Warwick won 5 races and scored 45 points those fatal seasons...

Who was French F1-F2 champion in 1973 ?

[FEV]

Gaston Chevrolet, 1921 AAA National Champion; killed 25 November 1920 at the Beverly Hills, Califormia boardtrack.

Is the Tommy Milton / Gaston Chevrolet "dispute" set ?

Other AAA posthumus National Champions :
1924 : Jimmy Murphy - killed September 15, 1924 in Syracuse
1948 : Ted Horn - killed October 10, 1948 in Du Quoin. He still is the only driver to have won three consecutive National Championships.

Davey Allison won the 1993 IROC (killed July 13, 1993 in an helicopter crash in Talladega). For the last race of the four events series his car was driven by Terry Labonte who finished 6th givng Allison the points. In the same 1993 IROC Dale Earnhardt drove Alan Kulwicki's car in the last two races - the great Alan (1992 NASCAR Winston Cup winner) had died April 1, 1993 in a plane accident.

Who was French F1-F2 champion in 1973 ?

I can't check at the moment but you are right Cevert probably did (if Jarier's great F2 campaign didn't give him more points).

In U.S. racing, Danny Caruthers won the USAC Midget championship in 1971 having died from injuries suffered in a pre-main crash in a late season race at Corona Raceway, Corona, California.

And to add to the tragedy of this great american racing family, there had been a dispute between Danny and father Doug (owner of the brothers' cars) shortly before the end of the season. He went to drive for Jack Fitzpatrick for the remaining races and was killed at Corona.

[rdrcr]

I think that AAA driving champ Ted Horn won his third championship after suffering a fatal accident.
He competed in many Indy 500 races, of note, there was a nine race stretch where he never finished worse than fourth. Amazingly as well, he never won the classic event.


Marcor - Jackie Stewart won the F1 Championship in '73 and Jean-Pierre Jarier won the F2 crown the same year.

Rindt gave BMW their 1st win three years previous.

(edit)

Jeez FEV you're fast! I think that Jarier did take the title that year - here's a link that describes the rise of the BMW / March junior effort.

http://www.speedvisi...n in 1973&hl=en

[rtcoman]

This year, 2001, Mickael Neveu, 27, died in a hill-climbing accident in Lachassagne, France.
The accident happened in the second leg, which was cancelled after the crash, and only the first leg counted. He was first, so, he won the regional championship, as well as the race.
This makes me wonder: has it ever happened before that the pilot who won the race died, in the same race?

[FEV]

It almost happened for Ray Keech Juen 15, 1929. Winner of the Indy 500 two weeks earlier, Keech was leading the Altoona 200 AAA National Championship race when he had his fatal crash (after a collision with Cliff Woodbury). The race was halted and did not restart (120 of the scheduled 160 laps had been completed and the board track was damaged in Keech's accident). However the AAA Contest Board rules of the time stated that a car involved in a crash cuold be awarded points so the standings were reverted to the 119th lap ! The poor Keech was classified 10th, first among the non-finishers. He did not win the race posthumously but could have won the Championship poshumously without these strange rules. The winner of this race was Louis Meyer who took home 300 points. If Keech had won the race, Meyer would have scored only 160, giving a total for the year of 1300 points for Keech and 1190 for Meyer !

[Tony Kaye]

RTCOMAN asks if anyone died winning a race.

Rich Vogler was leading a USAC sprint car event at Salem Ind. in 1990 when his car hit the wall killing him instantly. In order to provide medical assistance, the race was immediately red-flagged and it was not restarted. In these circumstances the rule book puts the cars in the order in which they finished the last full lap. This made Vogler the winner of his final race, which was a fitting end to a remarkable career.

[Stefan Ornerdal]

In the fifties, a swedish speedwayrider fell when the chain broke. He hits the start-gate pole with his head and died instantly. As he tumbled on, on the right side of the pole, over the finish line still attached to his bike, he was declared winner of the heat.

Stefan

[Marcor]

Paul Warwick was declared winner at Oulton Park and received the nine points...

In 1953 (14 May) the winner of the Planfroy Hill Climb race (in France) had a crash after having crossed the finishing line. Herteaux couldn't stop his Jaguar C which hit a post and then a tree. The poor driver was ejected and died from his injuries.

[Muzza]

Nasif Estéfano won, posthumously, the 1973 Turismo Carretera championship.

[Pikachu Racing]

Not champs but winners posthumous

Blaise Alexander died at ARCA race when he clashed with Kerry Earnhardt. Alexander was leading the lap before crash at turn 1. Alexander was declared the winner.

Scott Brayton won the pole in one intense Indy moments. He did week after he won the pole. Pole was awarded to Tony Stewart while Danny Ongais drove his car.

[Doug Nye]

Levity perhaps has no place in such a thread as this, but there is a cricketing story about a provincial Indian side's batsman who was struck a fearful blow on the head by a fast bowler and collapsed onto his wicket.

This would normally have had the scorers marking the poor chap down as 'Out - Hit Wicket'. Sadly he did not get back on his feet, and was found to be dead at the scene. Doctors concluded that he had been killed instantly by the blow to the head - and was probably dead before he broke the wicket. Shaped by their Imperial British schooling the Indian scorers then faced a fearful dilemma - how to make their scorecard match the facts. If the unfortunate batsman was actually dead before he fell onto his wicket it could not be 'out hit wicket' because plainly a deceased person ceases to qualify as being 'A Player'. Nor could he have been adjudged "Retired Hurt" - because he was not alive to make the decision to retire.

Ultimately they came up with the formal, bureacratically accurate answer:

"I.R. Patel - Retired, Dead".

DCN

[Hieronymus]

Nice Story, Doug.

It reminds me of an almost similar incident we had at high school in a cricket match. One of our chaps was hit unconscious by a ball to the head. He was soon on his feet afterwards, but as precaution he was taken to hospital or a doctor. The scorer, wrote in error "fatally injured - retired".

The Monday morning the teacher in charge of our team saw this in the scorebook. I am sure the poor scorer got a lecture on the true meaning of the word "fatal", since at our next game he had made a correction in red ink, saying "fortunately not dead, just injured"...

[Frank de Jong]

Ab Goedemans might be the 1968 Dutch TC champion, group 5 850-1000 cc; haven't found evidence so far. But I keep searching...

[René de Boer]

Another tragic example, not champion, but posthumous race winner of some sort, must be Kieth Odor, who scored his first win in the German STW Series in the Sprint race at the Avus in Berlin in 1995 and then was tragically killed in the subsequent main race after Frank Biela's Audi ran into the side of Odor's Nissan, that was stuck on the track after a spin.

I reported on the STW series for Autosport and still have fond memories of Kieth, a most amicable and friendly caracter and a good driver.

[MCS]

Originally posted by Marcor
Who was French F1-F2 champion in 1973 ?

Don't understand the question here, Marc. What do you mean?

Was there an award for best F1-F2 driver in France in 1973?

Mark

[Muzza]

Originally posted by Frank de Jong
Ab Goedemans might be the 1968 Dutch TC champion, group 5 850-1000 cc; haven't found evidence so far. But I keep searching...

Hello, Frank,


According to our (and yours as well) friend and collaborator Hans Fohr, Goedemans did win the 1968 Dutch Touring Car Championship in that class posthumously indeed, driving a Fiat Abarth 1000 (http://www.motorspor...php?db=ct&n=777).

Hans cites as a source, amongst others, a small but touching biography of Goedemans published by the issue 18 of the Dutch magazine Autorevue, published on 06 September 1968 by Nortier & Harmsze, Den Haag. Such article was signed by the Autorevue editor Piet Nortier.

Originally posted by René de Boer
Another tragic example, not champion, but posthumous race winner of some sort, must be Kieth Odor, who scored his first win in the German STW Series in the Sprint race at the Avus in Berlin in 1995 and then was tragically killed in the subsequent main race after Frank Biela's Audi ran into the side of Odor's Nissan, that was stuck on the track after a spin.

I reported on the STW series for Autosport and still have fond memories of Kieth, a most amicable and friendly caracter and a good driver.

Hello, René,


I was not as fortunate as you to have had the chance of meeting Kieth personally, but I watched several Supertouringwagen races in loco or by tv and Odor was a favourite of mine. The fact that I have (rather inexplicably) always had a special feeling for racing Nissans helped shaping that, but my preference was clearly emphasized by Kieth's driving style, at the same time clean and competitive.

I vividly remember the events of 11 September 1995, and I was shocked by the irony of Kieth's victory in that first race...

Regards,


Muzza


P.S.: As you may know, we are looking for evidence that can confirm the correct spelling of Kieth's surname - Ódor (as the original Hungarian name), Odor (adopted by his father János after he immigrated to the United Kingdom) or O'dor (used by Kieth in several racing seasons). Hopefully soon we will be able to clarify that. Once this happens I will post the information on this forum.

[Frank de Jong]

I've discussed the matter with Hans - he's unsure too. Local magazine "Autorevue" mentioned all Dutch touring car champions at the end of the season, apart from the 850-1000 cc class!
It is most likely he was champion, but since the points system was quite complicated back then I'd like to be 100% sure.

[D-Type]

Muzza,

Also Kieth or Keith? The latter is the more common British spelling (for example my firm has 38 Keiths and no Kieths).

[Tim Murray]

Originally posted by D-Type
Muzza,

Also Kieth or Keith? The latter is the more common British spelling (for example my firm has 38 Keiths and no Kieths).

We batted this around a bit in the 'Speed's Ultimate Price' thread; this is what I posted there:

Originally posted by Tim Murray in the ‘Speed’s Ultimate Price: The Toll’ thread

There was an interview with him in (probably) Autosport in the early '90s, in which he stated categorically that his name was spelled 'Kieth' (as opposed to the more usual 'Keith'). He joked that this was the Hungarian spelling. There was also mention of the Odor/O'dor variation. My memory of what he said is vaguer here, but I'm sure that Odor is the correct spelling - I think he said that O'dor was used with the aim of fooling people into thinking he was Irish (shades of Jack O'Malley).

If someone could dig out the relevant issue of Autosport, the mystery might be solved.

[John B]

Were Ritchie Evans (modifieds) and Lee Shepard (Pro Stock drag racing) champs when they deceased? They won a bunch of titles and IIRC both deaths were late in the year

[Pablo Vignone]

This is not a posthumous champion, but his story is a tragic and recent one.
Nicolás Vuyovich won last Sunday the San Juan round of the Argentinian TC 2000 series.
At 2pm he was at the rostrum, smiling. The team director, Gustavo Ramonda was cheering him.
At 7pm, they took a plane to Cordoba. At 7.29 pm, the plane crash down. Vuyovich, Ramonda and four more people were found dead.

[fines]

Originally posted by MCS


Don't understand the question here, Marc. What do you mean?

Was there an award for best F1-F2 driver in France in 1973?

Mark

Yes, there was - for several years stretching from the sixties to the eighties, I believe. We discussed it before here on TNF, I would recommend a search.

[fines]

While reading the 1952 Grands Prix de France thread again I suddenly remembered this French Championship started much earlier, in the thirties in fact! Here's the relevant TNF thread: http://forums.atlasf...&threadid=20126.

And yes, François Cevert was Champion in 1973, posthumously!

[MCS]

Thanks Michael. I'm sure I'll enjoy reading this - much appreciated

Mark

[HistoricMustang]

It hurts to even put this one up.

Rob Moroso 1990 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year.

Henry

[Muzza]

Karl Braun crashed his 600 cm3 DKW sidecar during the Schleizer Dreiecksrennen, the penultimate round of the 1937 Deutsche Motorradmeisterschaft, on 22 August of that year. He passed away later that same day in a hospital; his passenger was unhurt.

The last race of the championship was held at Schottenring on 19 September, and Braun was still in the lead of the series. Hermann Böhm won this race and tied points with Braun for the title. Braun was posthmously awarded the championship.

Credit for information: Hans-Hugo Boecker.

[petefenelon]

Although not a champion, wasn't Mark Colton leading the British hillclimb championship when he was killed at Craigantlet?

[philippe charuest]

Originally posted by MCS


Don't understand the question here, Marc. What do you mean?

Was there an award for best F1-F2 driver in France in 1973?

Mark

yes then the ffsa (maybe even now?) was giving a cup to best french driver in f1 -f2 -f3 so yes techniclly francois cevert was the 1973 french f1 champion , of course j.p jarier was the clear f2 winner

[Frank Verplanken]

Originally posted by philippe charuest
yes then the ffsa (maybe even now?) was giving a cup to best french driver in f1 -f2 -f3 so yes techniclly francois cevert was the 1973 french f1 champion , of course j.p jarier was the clear f2 winner

Not exactly Philippe : due to the small amount of French drivers engaged in Grand Prix, the title (sometimes named "Champion de France Courses" for instance) combined race results of both F1 and F2. A sort of International class of drivers, as opposed to the national level F3 series.

[lustigson]

Originally posted by René de Boer
Another tragic example, not champion, but posthumous race winner of some sort, must be Kieth Odor, who scored his first win in the German STW Series in the Sprint race at the Avus in Berlin in 1995 and then was tragically killed in the subsequent main race after Frank Biela's Audi ran into the side of Odor's Nissan, that was stuck on the track after a spin.

I reported on the STW series for Autosport and still have fond memories of Kieth, a most amicable and friendly caracter and a good driver.

I remember that crash. Tragic, indeed. Didn't he race a right-hand-drive car? And didn't Biela hit him on the right side?

[Frank de Jong]

BTW, Goedemans did receive the 1968 Dutch TC title posthumously I've learned in the meantime.

IIRC, in 1979 a few drivers tried to get the Dutch TC title to Slotemaker after his tragic accident by blocking the driver who could pass him in the championship standings. Lots of emotion, but they did not succeed.

[wildman]

Along the same tragic lines as the Odor incident is that of Larry Schwarzbach, who earned his first win in AMA 600 Supersport at Mid-Ohio in 1992, and was killed later that day in the Superbike race.

[Carlos Jalife]

I am not sure about this one, but in Mexico we have always counted Pedro Rodríguez as the champion of the 1970 and 1971 Sports Car title, for drivers.
He was postuhomuos in the latter one since he had more points than anyone else and couldn't be caught with only Watkins Glen remaining.
yet, the championship was for makes and they didn't quite keep the account for dirvers, but it can be done as the TATS book did or just by your own adding and substracting counting results, best of whatever. If you add them, Pedro was the champion those years, Seppi was in 1969, and I have never made the others further back.
Just a thought.
Carlos Jalife

[daallo1]

In Mexico, the driver from Guadalajara, Jalisco Bernardo Obregón Tamariz, probably our best Touring Car driver ever (after the Rodriguez brothers & possibly Solana) became the posthumos champion for Copa Corona's SuperTouring Car Cup 1999 after being killed in the Mil Cumbres stage of The Carrera Panamericana with his co-driver Arnauda Rodríguez, in his scheduled last race

Now the Guadalajara tri-oval holds his name

[Hugo Boecker]

According to M.Louche the French 1973 F1/F2 Champion was Fracoise Cevert
Here is a list from 1966 - 1980
1966 Beltoise
1967 Beltoise
1968 Beltoise
1969 Beltoise
1970 Pescarolo
1971 Cevert
1972 Beltoise
1973 Cevert
1974 Depaillier
1975 Depaillier
1976 Depaillier
1977 Depaillier
1978 Depaillier
1979 Lafitte
1980 Lafitte

[Frank Verplanken]

and most likely 1981-82-83-84-85-86-87-88-89-90-91-93 : Prost with maybe only Laffite to challenge in 1981 ?

[Hugo Boecker]

Originally posted by Frank Verplanken
and most likely 1981-82-83-84-85-86-87-88-89-90-91-93 : Prost with maybe only Laffite to challenge in 1981 ?

Lafitte 80, 81,
Pironi 82 (nearly posthumous)
Prost 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93

[LB]

Originally posted by Hugo Boecker


Lafitte 80, 81,
Pironi 82 (nearly posthumous)
Prost 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93

I assume it would be Alesi in 1992 with 18 points in F1

F1 side it would be
Alesi again 1994 (24) 1995 (42) 1996 (47) 1997 (36) 1998 (9) 2000 (for turning up)
Panis 1999 (2) 2001 (5) 2002 (3) 2003 (6) 2004 (6)
No french drivers in 2005
Montagny 2006( for turning up occasionally)

F3000/GP2 side it would be
Collard 1992 (13)
Panis 1993 (32)
J-C Boullion 1994 (36)
Emmanuele Clérico 1995 (15)
Christophe Tinseau 1996 (18)
Ayari 1997 (12) 1998 (20)
Sarrizin 1999 (22)
Minassian 2000 (45)
Bourdais 2001 (26) 2002 (56)
Yannick Schroeder 2003 (13) 2004 (13)
Premat 2005 (67) 2006 (66)



Though to be honest Bourdais should have had a monopoly for a fair few years.

[Hugo Boecker]

I don`t think the best placed French pilot in the WC would bekome french Champion. There was a joint F1/F2 Champion in some Years there was a F1 and F2/3000 Champion. I think there was a special point system. And if a french "overall racecar" championship still exist you cann't forget the US sieres. My source is M.Louche book Un Siecle de Grands Pilotes Francaise 1895-1995. And there were no Champs given for 94 and 95. But Boullion isn't listed in this book. He might have been Champion in 94.
But I think this is not the place to discusse it here. A new thread would fit better

[Frank Verplanken]

You're right Hugo, plus we've already discussed this subject in other threads in what seems ages ago... I had started this one : http://forums.autosp...on france prost
and there is also this one : http://forums.autosp...4020#post554020
Might be others aswell...

[Muzza]

Milan Fistonic informed me via e-mail that Phil Cooper was posthumously crowned champion of the Improved Road Sports class of the Historic Sports Car Club Championship in 1990.

[rx-guru]

Belgian Noël Dewulf, posthumous 1982 Belgian Rallycross Champion (–1600cc category) with NSU TT.

http://motorsportmem...=LWF&db2=&n=288

[Michael Ferner]

I recently discovered that US racing driver Bert Karnatz was a posthumous champion, too, but never got credit for it.

 

In 1933, the Detroit Motor Speedway, a half-mile dirt track also known as Veterans (of Foreign Wars) Speedway, Eight Mile Speedway or Motor City Speedway, went independent mid-year after nine months as a AAA track, and the Motor City Racing Association (MCRA) was chartered as its sanctioning body, at wich most of the local AAA drivers switched camps, amongst them future AAA National Champion Henry Banks. Weekly races right in the neighborhood induced Karnatz, modestly successful in AAA so far, to follow suit in early 1934, and he won the first six races of that year in succession. In the programme for the July 1 races, he was shown leading the championship with 315 points, from Carmie Frazzini (who'd won the one race in which Karnatz had failed to start because of transmission trouble) at 140 and Charles Greenberg at 32.5 points - Banks was fourth. During the main event on July 1, Karnatz crashed badly, dislocatíng a shoulder, but he was back the next Sunday, gritting his teeth and finishing second behind Howard "Windy" Jennings, whose sponsor had just bought the Tarbet/Cragar in which Bob Carey had established the still standing one-lap track record in 1932, making it two wins in two races for this new combination, and moving Jennings from fifth to third in the standings.

 

On July 15, the tenth round of the championship, Jennings and Karnatz started next to each other on the front row for the main, and coming out of Two onto the backstretch the two cars made contact, with Karnatz flipping and Jennings going over the banking, out of the ballpark. Karnatz came off worst, with a fractured skull and a broken neck; Jennings was back a week later to take his third win of the year. Unaccountably, though, he hit a bad patch, and did not win again for the rest of the year, and neither did Frazzini until the penultimate championship round - he didn't even finish another race in eleven tries between his two wins! Going into the last race of the season, an extra-distance/extra-points event, Frazzini was shown as leading the standings with 170 points, from Glen Myers (160), Jennings (134) and Cliff Miller, younger brother of AAA veteran Al Miller, and last one to be in with a chance at winning the title with 129 points. Conveniently forgotten was Karnatz with his 330 points, as well as Ray Campbell (135), who'd been injured two weeks before. Myers eventually won the season's finale, and was feted as the new Champ with 260 points, still 70 short of Karnatz!