Post Type Archives: Events

Maurice Trintignant seems to struggle in his blue Gordini 16 (picture-above) at the 1953 French Grand Prix held on the fast Reims-Gueux circuit. Having not set a lap in practice, he started from the back, but was forced to retire on lap 14 with a broken transmission. The race was won by Mike Hawthorn (Ferrari), […]

South African Jody Scheckter rapidly ascended to the ranks of Formula One after moving to Great Britain in 1970. His F1 debut occurred with McLaren at the 1972 US Grand Prix held at Watkins Glen, where he ran as high as third place before spinning and finishing ninth. Nevertheless, his performance got noticed. He was […]

In the 50’s, the Belgian racing driver Paul Frère presented himself as a brilliant gentleman driver as well as a talented journalist. A fine technician, he was highly rated by the constructors and Enzo Ferrari took him regularly in the Scuderia for the endurance races: he thus won the 1960 Le Mans 24 Hours in […]

John Greenwood and Bernard Darniche in their impressive looking and rumbling 7.0L V8 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray during the 1976 24 Hours of Le Mans (picture above and below). The pairing was forced to retire after five hours, because of leaking fuel cell. John Greenwood (1945-2015) was an American race car driver, entrepreneur and automotive performance […]

For years the record of six victories at Le Mans was, held by Belgian Jacky Ickx, seemed unbeatable, then came Dane Tom Kristensen who won a record nine times! A frontrunner in the FIA F3000 series, Tom Kristensen had his eyes fixed on a Formula 1 drive that never materialised. A last minute call-up from Joest, […]

Tom Kristensen (at the wheel, picture above), JJ Lehto and Marco Werner won the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans in their Champion Racing-entered works Audi R8. It was Werner’s first, Lehto second and Kristensen’s seventh victory at La Sarthe. Kristensen eclipsed Jacky Ickx’s all-time record of six Le Mans wins, and Marco Werner completed […]

The 1984 Sandown 1000 km winning works Porsche 956 in its Rothmans livery of Stefan Bellof and Derek Bell is being driven from the Porsche Cars Australia workshop to the Sandown Park circuit, along the busy Dandenong Road (picture-above). Reader Paul Mollison remembers: “I was on my way to the track early when an ominous […]

Bruce McLaren’s performance in the New Zealand Grand Prix in 1958 was noticed by Australian driver and future three-time World Champion Jack Brabham. That year McLaren also raced in F2 and was entered in the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring in which F2 and F1 cars competed together. He astounded the motor racing fraternity […]

Three victories in eight starts for Klaus Ludwig at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. When Ludwig was on the grid, you could bet he was a genuine contender for the win. He is a winner in 1979, 1984 and 1985, always with Porsche. Picture above: victory in 1985 in a New Man Joest Racing […]

Australian Alan Jones, the 1980 F1 World Champion, raced for many years against the legendary Canadian Gilles Villeneuve, in his colourful style he remembers: “Know what I remember most about Gilles? I was behind him in the early laps at Monaco in ’81, me in the Williams FW07 and him in that shit-box Ferrari turbo.” […]