Danny Ongais is an American former racing driver, born in Hawaii. He is the only native Hawaiian to compete in the Indy 500. And fast he was. Ongais competed professionally in Indycar/CART, Sports Cars, Formula One and drag racing. A flamboyant and charismatic figure on the racing circuit, Ongais was soon nicknamed “On-Gas” and “The […]
Year Archives:
Practice with the Scuderia.
Great little movie following the Scuderia Ferrari in practice for the 1977 British Grand Prix in Silverstone. Note, Carlos Reutemann and Mauro Forghieri speak to each other in Italian while Niki Lauda prefers to express himself in English. James Hunt (McLaren) won the race from pole, while Niki Lauda finished 2nd and Gunnar Nilsson (Lotus) […]
Don Nichols
Don Nichols was a Formula 1 and Can-Am entrant and constructor. A former intelligence officer in the US Army, Nichols established a company in California called Advanced Vehicle Systems in 1968. The company was later renamed “Shadow”, perhaps a subtle reference to the founder’s past. Shadow first tackled the Can-Am series with a radical low-profile […]
An extraordinary performance
The Martini-Porsche 936 won the 1977 Le Mans 24 Hours against the works Renault and the Mirage Renault, with an extraordinary driving performance by Belgian legend Jacky Ickx. His #3 car that he shared with Henri Pescarolo and that had won the race the year before broke down, so Ickx joined Hurley Haywood and Jurgen […]
Divina Galica
Divina Galica, born 13 August 1944, is a British racing car driver and skier. Indeed, she competed in four Winter Olympics as a skier, and also pursued a career in motorsport, entering three Formula One Grand Prix, but failed to qualify for the races. 1976-1977 ShellSport Series: 3 podiums 1978-1980 British F1: best result 2nd […]
Gordon Murray
Gordon Murray CBE, is a South-African born British designer of Formula One racing cars and the McLaren F1 road car. Picture above taken in 1975, at the South African Formula One Grand Prix held at Kyalami, where Gordon oversees the efforts of his two Brabham drivers: Carlos Reutemann and Carlos Pace. He designed the Brabham […]
Alain Prost, Formula Renault years
Alain Prost won several karting championships in France, in his teens. In 1974, he left school to become a full-time racer. His prize for winning the 1975 ELF Winfield racing school, was a season in French Formula Renault, a category in which he won the title and all but one race in 1976. Picture above: […]
Patrese – Giacomelli – Brancatelli
Italian frontrunners in Formula 2 in 1977: Riccardo Patrese drove a Chevron-BMW for the Trivellato Racing, and finished 4th in the standings with 5 podiums. Bruno Giacomelli drove a March-BMW for Team Euroracing, finished 4th (tied with Patrese) with 3 victories. Gianfranco Brancatelli drove a Ralt-Ferrari for Team Everest, with one 4th place at Rouen.
Patrick Nève
Patrick Nève made great impression early 1977 when, driving a Formula 2 works March 772P-BMW, he dominated the first race at Silverstone, and should have easily won but a puncture send him in the pits and he finished 3rd. He then moved up to Formula 1 with the newly formed Williams Grand Prix Engineering, driving […]
Gilles and Jacques Villeneuve
Happy days for Gilles Villeneuve, with son Jacques Villeneuve on his lap, when he was racing in the Formula Atlantic Series in Canada. Happy times in Canada. Gilles won his first Atlantic race in 1975 at Gimli Motorsport Park in heavy rain. In 1976, he dominated the season by winning all but one of the […]