604 replies to this topic

[Stefan Ornerdal]

We have Baconin Borzacchini named after Mikhail Bakunin, a russian who organized the communist party in the 1800s. (what did "l Duce" say about that?)
And
Jarno Trulli, named after Jarno Saarinen, a bike racer in the 70s.

Do we have more unusual names or names with a "story" behind?

For obvious reason, my favourite name is Swede Savage:p

Stefan

[Gary Davies]

I believe there was a Swedish touring car driver with the glorious name of Bengt Axel.

And if there wasn't, there should have been!

Vanwall.

[BertlF]

In the early 1960's there was an Austrian touring car driver named Peter Peter - this was his real name! I believe he was a close friend of the late Jochen Rindt.

Bert

[Stefan Ornerdal]

Vanwall, never heard of "Bent Axle" but some years ago there was a speedwayrider in Scotland who called himself "the Danish International Speedway Star Bent Mudgaard"

Stefan

[LittleChris]

There was also Bengt Tragaard who raced in F3 in the late 70's IIRC and was known in the paddock as Bent Trackrod.

[Pikachu Racing]

NASCAR driver Lake Speed......I wonder how did he ended up with that name.
One-time Indy 500 driver Racin Gardner (glad I didn't hear anything about him anymore)
USAC/CART driver Salt Walther

[FEV]

In the 60s there was a famous belgian Endurance driver who raced under the pseudo "ELDE". That was the spelling of hoiw his initials sound in french : L D. His real name was Léon Dernier... so we know why HE changed his name for racing (for those who don't speak french "dernier" means last !! ).

[Kuwashima]

My favourite is a successful Czech touring car driver named Vaclav Bervid.

No particular reason, but his name made me laugh ;) I always pictured him making F1 one day ...

[William Dale Jr]

I always liked the name of Alexander Jakovljevic. A driver in the Australian Formula Ford Driver to Europe series in 1988, he was known to his friends for obvious reasons as 'Alex Alphabet'

[Barry Lake]

I remember Bengt Axel, also.

Another that leaps out of my soggy memory (was he a racing driver or a speedway rider) is Bernt Persson. I wasn't sure if he spent too much time sunbaking, or whether he'd had a serious crash and burn.

While it's getting slightly off the original topic (I think) you have to wonder about parents who call their sons Dick Seaman or, even worse, Dick Trickle (NASCAR).

And there's another similar NASCAR name that I just can't bring to mind at the moment.

[Gary Davies]

Now Barry, I'll see your off topic and raise you! I've always wondered about Mr. and Mrs. Lear, of Lear Jet fame. They named their son, King

Vanwall.

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by Pikachu Racing
NASCAR driver Lake Speed......I wonder how did he ended up with that name.
One-time Indy 500 driver Racin Gardner (glad I didn't hear anything about him anymore) USAC/CART driver Salt Walther

Racin's father raced (he ran one of the Daytona 125 qualifiers and Talladega in '73...car destroyed in the massive 26 car pile-up there)...his name, Slick Gardner.

It gets better, the pale green Mercury was sponsored by a restaurant alongside Highway 101 (a main route between San Francisco and Los Angeles)...Pea Soup Andersen's! (the Andersens were big racing backers. There were photos all over the wall, one of Slick in the pale green Merc on the banks!).

There have been others, and just like the racing family members thread, more than I can name here...but, in the early 1950's there was a NASCAR driver named:

Dick Passwater.



Jim Thurman

[Barry Boor]

I have always had a soft spot for the name BEN PON.

Another NASCAR driver with an odd name is Mr. and Mrs Stricklin's son. What on earth posessed them to name him after a garden shed?

Billy Boat and Lake Speed are amusing too.

But then, who am I to talk..............?

[Eagle104]

During the late '40s/early '50s there was an Indianapolis 500 driver that went by the name of Spider Webb. His given first name was Travis.

[Jim Thurman]

He was just a local short track racer in the San Diego area in the 60's, but a classic name...

Gid Goins

Many thought it was an alias, but...a look in the phone book revealed a Gideon P Goins!!!.


Jim Thurman

[prettyface]

As a Latin American/Spaniard I always found the name Onofre Marimon funny, with all due respect.

[FLB]

Well, I've got to say if find the name "Dick Trickle" worth a laugh...

Jigger Sirois is also a pretty unusual name. It's always strange for me as a francophone to hear that name pronounced in English (to me it's "Sea-Rwah" and not "Suh-Royce")...

[josh.lintz]

Josh Lintz (oops...) Part of the fun of being a "snotty American" is making fun of those odd foreign names. Roelof Wunderink always induced a giggle out of me. Well, he got to drive an F1 car, and I didn't...

[ffiloseta]

Met a Richard Head once. The guy was not into diminutives...

Also unbelievable but true was Enzo Finocchio. Finocchio is used in some parts of Italy for homosexual.

Oh, they were not drivers, but still lots of fun !

[Kuwashima]

I have always had a soft spot for the name BEN PON.

Of course, Ben stands for 'Bernardus' in this instance, which (IMHO) is an unusual name in its own right...

Bernardus Pon I like it...

[birdie]

NASCAR driver Lake Speed......I wonder how did he ended up with that name.

I'll find out maybe, I know the guy's team manager from when he was the only ever US World Kart Champion.

I always think Jenson Button is a bit weird (the name!!), he's named after the Jensen Interceptor but his dad wanted to use a more English spelling. John Button chose Jenson's name intending that he would be a racing driver all along

[Bjorn]

All those Randys over there in America make me giggle

[Barry Lake]

Don't forget US F5000 driver Tony Adamowicz, known to his fellow drivers as "Tony A-to-Z".

[Barry Lake]

Over on Racing History (US oval track racing history) they've had an enquiry from a fellow (obviously not young) who is chasing information on his father's racing history.
The father's name was Lake Shore, born 1899. He was nick-named "Smiling Jack".
Wouldn't have thought he needed a nick name...

[LittleChris]

Jyrki Jarvilehto ( aka JJ Lehto ), who shortened his name as he didn't think most people would be able to pronounce it properly as he rose from FF2000 to F3 in the late 80's. Bit like Ayrton Senna Da Silva who shortened his name at the same point in his career.

[Frank de Jong]

Tony Adamowicz reminds me of German Touring car racer Sigmund Ogrodowcyk, renamed Ogottogot by his colleagues.
Dutch Porsche racer of the 70's, Toon Suykerbuyk (=Tony Sugarbelly), is my personal favourite.

[coyoteBR]

Hélio Castroneves also changed his name (Castro Neves are two names)

I really don't know why, but I can't say "Memo Glidey" without laughing. Likewise "Sito Pons"

And the name with the best sound, by far, is Luca Cadalora

[Stefan Ornerdal]

Gerino Gerini:D

And I have found this man driving in the Targa Florio: Libero Pesce. I do not speak Italian but does'nt this mean "Free Fish" ?

Stefan

[Don Radbruch]

I'm told that I have an ususual name for a racer but this would be in German. Does radbruch really mean "broken wheel".

Don Radbruch

[FEV]

One particularly strange sounding to me (at least the way I pronounce it !!) was Thorkild Thyrring.
Another funny one was Ed Pimm, sounds like a too tiny kinky name for a racer !
A real good one for french guys is the one of 30s driver John Duff. Doesn't sound that funny in english, but in french it sounds exactly like the yellow part of an egg.

[ffiloseta]

John Duff may actually sound funny in English if you watch "The Simpsons".

[Stefan Ornerdal]

Swedish girls always blush when they hear "Fittipaldi".

And the new Honda Fitta will never ever be for sale in Sweden. No way. Absolutely not.

Stefan

[Vitesse2]

Originally posted by Stefan Ornerdal
Swedish girls always blush when they hear "Fittipaldi".

And the new Honda Fitta will never ever be for sale in Sweden. No way. Absolutely not.

Stefan

Stefan: this is the second time in a week you've mentioned this without giving details!

Please explain ...

[Barry Lake]

Yes Stefan. Please explain.

Speaking of Swedish names, what about Tina Thorner (sorry, there should be an accent over the 'o' on Thorner).

Tina must have been co-driving in rallies for almost 20 years now. I first met her when she was with Susanne Kottulinsky (daughter of F3 driver Freddy) in the early 1980s, I think it was.

When I asked her name, she told me "Tina Turner". I didn't believe her at first, but that is how her name is pronounced.

[Barry Lake]

Originally posted by Don Radbruch
I'm told that I have an ususual name for a racer but this would be in German. Does radbruch really mean "broken wheel".
Don Radbruch

Don

Better to retire "wheel broken" than to retire "piston broke"!

(I wonder if that needs explaining to non-English speaking posters?)



Oh, all right!

piston broke

pist'n broke

pissed 'n' broke

pissed and broke

drunk and with no money...

[tombe]

Why the Swedish girls would blush when they hear "Fittipaldi", I don't know.......... But then, I'm a Norwegian......
BUT, I know why Honda won't market their new car under the name "Fitta" in Sweden and Norway. (Moderator, throw this post out if you think the following is too rude......).
Translated to English it would simply mean Honda .........."****".......

[fines]

Originally posted by Don Radbruch
I'm told that I have an ususual name for a racer but this would be in German. Does radbruch really mean "broken wheel".

Don Radbruch

I'm afraid yes, Don! :chuckle:

[Vitesse2]

Originally posted by Stefan Ornerdal
For obvious reason, my favourite name is Swede Savage:p

Stefan

http://swedesavage42.tripod.com/

[Winegod]

Translated to English it would simply mean Honda .........."****"..

Well and if 'paldi' means "shaved," then you might know why those girls were giggling.

[Stefan Ornerdal]

Vitesse2, thanks for the link. I wonder why he was called Swede? Isn't it a sort of a cabbage in english?

The Honda F***a (C**t), what about this in advertising:
"Nothing is better to glide in"
"The only one which get bigger when older"
"For a man"
"With directly induction"
"Better when wet"
"Feels thight, but there is room for more than you think"
"Every mans dream"
"It's hairy"
"It's the inside that counts"
etc etc
but the C**t is leaking every 28th day!





Stefan

[dmj]

What about Skip Barber - a hairy guy, it seems...

Karl Kling - it sounds like a broken car.

Ligier - in Croatian it sounds just like an order: "Lick her!"

Ricardo Londono-Bridge (!!!) - is he falling down?

Mika Salo - "salo" is Croatian word for pig's fat!

[Vitesse2]

Originally posted by Stefan Ornerdal
Vitesse2, thanks for the link. I wonder why he was called Swede? Isn't it a sort of a cabbage in english?

Stefan

He was probably called Swede purely because he was blond and looked vaguely like a Viking: simple folk these Americans!

[Vitesse2 ducks hail of invective directed across the Atlantic ...]

And a swede is a root vegetable like a turnip: when the England football team lost to Sweden a few years back in some important game or another (couldn't care less what it was! ) that splendid example of British journalism The Sun produced a morphed picture of the England manager as a turnip, headlining the result something like (can't remember the score, but this will do)

SWEDES 2 TURNIPS 0

[Stefan Ornerdal]

Sauerkrauts - Turnips 1-5 (Turnips manager - a Swede!)

Time to get out of this (vegetable) soup, way off topic!

Stefan

[Chris Bloom]

Going even further off topic. A few years back there was an article in the local paper about strange names parents inflict on their kids. One which sticks in my mind was Mr & Mrs Kock naming their daughter Iona:lol:

Chris

[Rob G]

Other than the aforementioned Dick Seaman and Dick Trickle, the two names that always make me laugh are Fred Wacker and the late NASCAR driver Slick Johnson.

[Vitesse2]

Originally posted by Chris Bloom
Going even further off topic. A few years back there was an article in the local paper about strange names parents inflict on their kids. One which sticks in my mind was Mr & Mrs Kock naming their daughter Iona:lol:

Chris

Cruel, I call that!! Although I used to drink in the same pub as a chap (now long dead from cirrhosis!) whose father had named him Bernard Arthur Leonard Stanley Albert Wood ....

[Barry Boor]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm...........;)

[FEV]

Hey, I found one of my all-time favourites : Cowboy O'Rourke . He DNQ at Indy in the 50s (can't check the year at the moment). Anybody knows his christian name ?

About Salo: same in french, Salo meens b*stard. This led to numerous (bad) play on words by french journalists...

Stefan, is Eje Elgh the complete name of this great F3, F2 & Endurance driver of the 80s or is it shorten ?

Little trivia : Norberto Fontana raced in a series (CART) where a track as the same name as him. Can you see other drivers in that case ?

[Stefan Ornerdal]

Stefan, is Eje Elgh the complete name of this great F3, F2 & Endurance driver of the 80s or is it shorten ?

It's his complete name. Elgh is pronounced as "Älg" which is swedish for Moose! Eje does the "expert" commentary in Swedish TV.

Little trivia : Norberto Fontana raced in a series (CART) where a track as the same name as him. Can you see other drivers in that case ?

I am not a racing driver but as a speedway fan I have visited the Ornerdal speedway track in Denmark:D

Anyone here with the name Avus or Nürburgring:p

Stefan

[David McKinney]

There was a British driver a few years ago called (IIRC) Phil Silverstone, who frequently raced at you know where