On this day in Motor Racing's past

[Andy]

Bottom post of the previous page:

On this day, July 2nd 2000, we lost the greatest road racer ever during a race in Talinn, Estonia.

[Everso Biggyballies]

On this day, Saturday 16th July 1955, we had the first ever British British Grand Prix Winner* when Stirling Moss won the race at Aintree, from a close following Fangio, and Kling further back in third, all in the all conquering Mercedes.

Despite it being said that Fangio had allowed Moss to win his home GP, it was also the first pole position for Moss, who made a day of it and recorded the fastest lap of the race.

As an aside it was also the first ever GP appearance for one Jack Brabham.

To get more obscure it was also the first time as a WDC event that the British GP had ever ventured from Silverstone.

(* We had of course already had a British driver win a GP with Hawthorn having won the 1953 French GP at Reims on the 5th July 1953. Hawthorn had also won the Spanish GP in October 1954) Hawthorn had also manage to finish second at the 1954 British GP,

Moss crosses the line at Aintree, with Fangio on his tailpipe, to win the 1955 British Grand Prix.



Moss with the spoils of Victory



British British GP winners through time:
(11 different winners of 24 races)

1955 Mercedes-Benz W196 - Stirling Moss
1957 Vanwall VW Grand Prix - Stirling Moss (**Edit: and Tony Brooks - shared car / joint winners.)
1958 Ferrari 246 F1 Dino- Peter Collins
1962 Lotus 25 Climax - Jim Clark
1963 Lotus 25 Climax - Jim Clark
1964 Lotus 25 Climax Jim Clark
1965 Lotus 33 Climax - Jim Clark
1967 Lotus 49 Cosworth - Jim Clark
1969 Matra MS80 Cosworth - Jackie Stewart
1971 Tyrrell 003 Cosworth - Jackie Stewart
1977 McLaren M26 Cosworth - James Hunt
1981 McLaren MP4/1 Cosworth - John Watson
1986 Williams FW11 Honda - Nigel Mansell
1987 Williams FW11B Honda - Nigel Mansell
1991 Williams FW14 Renault - Nigel Mansell
1992 Williams FW14B Renault - Nigel Mansell
1994 Williams FW16 Renault - Damon Hill
1995 Benetton B195 Renault - Johnny Herbert
1999 McLaren MP4-14 Mercedes - David Coulthard
2000 McLaren MP4-15 Mercedes - David Coulthard
2008 McLaren MP4-23 Mercedes - Lewis Hamilton .
2014 Mercedes-Benz W05 - Lewis Hamilton
2015 Mercedes-Benz W06 - Lewis Hamilton
2016 Mercedes-Benz W07 - Lewis Hamilton

** 1957 was the First win for a British Constructor, and also first win for a British constructor at the British GP. It was also the only win ever shared by two British drivers.

From the archives of MotorSport magazine here is a report as it appeared at the time, covering the 1955 British Grand Prix and Support events:

In view of then sweeping victories in the recent Grand Prix races in Belgium and Holland, the Mercedes-Benz team were rather naturally the centre of interest. In addition there was the possibility that the Daimler-Benz organisation might permit a reversal of normal team orders and allow Moss to set the pace ahead of Fangio, in deference to the young Britisher's first appearance in his home country with one of the German cars. Practice began after lunch on the Thursday before race day and as the 4.83-kilometre circuit was new to most of the teams and the drivers, everyone was away as soon as the circuit was open for training.

The German team brought along a selection of five cars, four to be used by the team drivers, as Taruffi had been taken on as the fourth member of the team, and the fifth was to be used as a hack. Fangio and Moss had the short-chassis models, with outboard front brakes; that of the latter having a new type of bonnet which hinged forward complete with the radiator cowling as on a DB2 Aston Martin. Kling and Taruiffi had the medium-length cars with outboard front brakes, as first tried at Spa, and the reserve car was an original 1955 model, which is to say a medium-length car with inboard front brakes. In all other respects the cars were unchanged from earlier races this season.

Having been to Aintree before, the Maserati team were well under control and brought along four cars, three being the regular 1955 team cars, with unlouvred bodywork and large-port cylinder heads, driven by Behra, Musso and Mieres, while the fourth was one of last year's cars and was driven by Simon, who replaced Perdisa at the last moment. The car driven by Mieres was fitted with a new five-speed gearbox, outwardly the same as the others but distinguishable by reason of the extra slot on the gear-gate. As Behra had driven at Aintree last year he was familiar with the circuit and looked like providing the major opposition for the German cars.

The Ferrari team brought along three Tipo 625 cars, similar to the one with which Trintignant won the Monaco race, as they thought the comparatively slow Aintree circuit would not suit the stumpy Tipo 555 Super Squalo, it being more at home on a high-speed circuit such as Spa. The drivers were the same as at Zandvoort, being Hawthorn, Trintignant and Castellotti, and the English driver was the main hope for the team as he had driven at Aintree before.

The expected new eight-cylinder Gordini did not arrive and it was the usual three cars that were prepared for the race, Manzon on the 1954 car with 1955 engine and disc brakes, da Silva Ramos on the 1955 car, and a newcomer to Grand Prix racing, though well known in sports-car racing, Mike Sparken driving a 1954 Gordini. The Vanwall team entered two cars and both arrived, the drivers being Wharton and Schell, the American having his first try with one of these cars. In addition there was McAlpine with the original streamlined Connaught, Fairman with the factory-owned experimental car, Marr with his privately-owned car, the first production streamlined one, and Rolt with R. R. C. Walker's new car. All these Connaughts were the 1955 Grand Prix models, powered by Connaught-prepared Alta engines, with fuel injection. Rolt was sharing his car with P. D. Walker, no relation of the owner of the car, and this one was the newest Connaught and was fitted with a normal Grand Prix body and not the fully streamlined one.

There were four privately-owned Maseratis, Collins driving the Owen car and Macklin driving the Moss car, both having Dunlop disc brakes and wheels, Salvadori on the Gilby Engineering car and Gould with the ex-Bira car, now painted a dark green. In spite of normal International regulations the Macklin Maserati was painted grey with a sickly green bonnet top, and the Rolt car was dark blue.

To complete this excellent entry was a potentially fierce machine entered by Cooper's and to be driven by Jack Brabham, the Australian. It was a very slightly enlarged 1,100-c.c. rear-engined sports-car chassis fitted with a Bristol engine which had been bored out to 2.2 litres. Somehow, room had been found in the back for this unit and it was coupled to the Cooper-modified Citroën final drive and gearbox, only the top three ratios of the special box being fitted. Having the fully streamlined body, the car looked exactly like a Cooper-Climax except for headlights and number plates.

On the opening afternoon only four of the entry did not practise, these being McAlpine, Fairman, Gould and Brabham, while the Owen Maserati was not out for long. The existing lap record was officially held by Moss with his Maserati, set up last October, with a time of 2 min. 00.6 sec., and though at the time he thought it sounded too fast to be true and was probably an error in timekeeping, nothing could he done about it. It did not take him many laps in the short-chassis Mercedes-Benz to find that with a far more powerful car, greater driving skill and better conditions, he could not better the time. By the end of practice he had equalled it but only by trying all he knew, and Fangio could not get near it. All four Mercedes-Benz were going well and Taruffi was showing remarkable form, taking to the new car in a big way. It was interesting to hear the German engineer Uhlenhaut and the Italian driver/engineer Taruffi discussing the car using their only common language, which is English. All four drivers were doing a great deal of practice, as was Uhlenhaut, and when they were not driving their own cars they went out on the spare practice car, as the aim was to make it cover the distance of two full races, during the practice periods, as an endurance test. The only real opposition to the times set up by the German team came from Behra, who was feeling really at home on the flat northern circuit, though Simon and Mieres were supporting him well.

The Ferraris were not very happy and were barely faster than the Vanwalls, while Castellotti broke his gearbox before he even found the way round the corners. Practice lasted from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., which seemed ample time for most people as the activity was not intense, and the day ended with Moss and Fangio comfortably faster than the rest.

The next afternoon everyone was out again, with the exception of the Owen Maserati, and the missing cars from the previous afternoon appeared. The Cooper had trouble with its clutch before the track was opened, it being impossible to free it, so Brabham did a few laps to qualify and left it at that. All the Connaughts were out, once again Walker making better lap times than Rolt, with the dark blue car.

It was again Moss and Fangio who set the pace, and they were comfortably faster than Behra, the former recording 2 min. 00.4 sec., fractionally faster than the race lap record, while Fangio managed 2 min. 00.6 sec. Behra got down to 2 min. 01.4 sec. and on the corners it was very obvious that these three drivers were really trying and doing some very good Grand Prix driving. Kling and Taruffi were in good form, recording 2 min. 02.0 sec. and 03.0 sec., respectively, followed closely by Mieres, who gets steadily better and will surely win a Grand Prix one day, with 03.2 sec. Outstanding was Schell, who proved that a Vanwall could really be made to go and put in a best lap of 2 min. 03.8 sec., after which came a big gap and Manzon and Castellotti equal with 05.0 sec. The former had been driving hard and kept ahead of Trintignant for a number of laps, while the latter had never looked at all fast, driving very smoothly and relaxed. No one was having any really serious trouble, the Gordini disc brakes were occasionally playing the fool, and the five-speed gearbox on the Maserati of Mieres was not always selecting properly. By 5 p.m. most teams were fairly happy but McAlpine was thrashing round right to the bitter end trying out experiments with the fuel injection.

The afternoon of race-day was very hot and an enormous crowd turned up to witness this 8th British Grand Prix, the loudspeakers welcomed everyone in four different languages, a nice Continental touch, and the drivers were paraded round the circuit sitting on the backs of a line of Austin-Healey sports cars. A minute or two before 2.30 p.m the familiar pandemonium of starting the cars broke out, some mechanics push-starting, others running from one team car to another with the portable electric starter trailing long lengths of cable.

On the front row were Moss, Fangio and Behra, in that order, with Kling and Taruffi in row two, and Neubauer indicated to his drivers when there were ten seconds to go. An inspiring sight for the British spectators was the green Vanwall, driven by Schell, in the middle of the third row of the grid, completely surrounded by red cars, while less inspiring was the motley array of greens on the cars on the back of the starting grid. In his usual manner Fangio shot into the lead, with Moss close behind, and Behra made a hesitant getaway.

As the dust and smoke died down it was seen that Schell and Marr had both stalled and mechanics rushed to their aid to push them off into the fray. Streaming round the first corners, the 24 cars, Fairman being a non-starter due to some experimental parts failing, could be seen heading infield across the great Aintree stadium and rounding Country Corner Mercedes-Benz were 1-2-3-4 in the order Fangio, Moss, Kling and Taruffi. Behra swept through the field after hesitant start and was third at the end of the opening lap, but already Fangio and Moss were off on their own.

In the general bumping and boring of the opening lap Simon and Hawthorn received dented tails and the former had to stop as his gear selector was not working properly. On lap three Fangio let Moss go by and it became pretty obvious that the British Grand Prix was under control by the Mercedes-Benz team, barring another mechanical fiasco such as Monte Carlo. Clearly Moss was going to be allowed to set the pace, and probably win, so interest turned to the rest of the field. Behra was hanging on to the leaders, as best he could and was leaving the rest of the runners behind, while Mieres was in great form and passed Taruffi, taking fifth place behind Kling; Musso was not far behind the last of the German cars. As the long line of-cars came down the straight towards the main stands colour classification formed a very definite pattern, in order silver, red and green, with blue cars filling the odd gaps along the line.

The rear-engined Cooper was disappointing, being left far behind, while the Connaughts could not really cope with the Gordinis. Wharton's Vanwall was near the back, but Schell was trying hard, and successfully, to make up for his bungled start. At five laps the two masters were lapping at 2 min. 04 sec. and were comfortably out on their own, and behind them came Behra, Kling and Mieres, in a close group. Already the Cooper was lapped by the first two cars, and the only green hope was the Vanwall of Schell which was gaining ground rapidly, being in 11th place and in sight of Trintignant. Behra began to pour out smoke and finally came to rest at Waterway Corner, and at 10 laps Moss was leading Fangio by 1½ seconds and Kling was over 30 seconds behind, with Mieres, Taruffi and Musso in very close attendance. At 50 seconds from the leader came Hawthorn, with Collins pressing him hard, and a little way back Trintignant, with Schell still gaining. Castellotti came into his pit to complain that the thing wouldn't go and after looking at a plug the mechanics sent him off again.

Although the first two cars were running round unchallenged they were not going slowly and Moss was having to drive impeccably to be allowed to stay in front of the World Champion, while behind came the other two German cars, each with a Maserati worrying at its tail, and for a brief moment Musso got past Taruffi. The real interest lay in the progress of Schell, who swept past Trintignant's Ferrari and closed tight up on the Hawthorn/Collins duel. Collins got his Maserati past the factory Ferrari and then Schell went past, and while the Ferraris were not happy on the circuit, it was also obvious that Hawthorn was not his usual self, and in point of fact he was suffering from the heat, which was pretty intense for the north of England. Manzon petered out and walked back to the pits, and Rolt arrived at his pit with a very flat-sounding Connaught, the throttle linkage causing trouble. Moss and Fangio were now catching the tail-enders, and as they lapped the numerous green cars their "traffic driving" was a joy to watch, neither of them wasting a second nor hesitating as they weaved their way through the backmarkers.

On lap 17 Fangio retook the lead, probably from force of habit, or else to remind "the boy" that he was still about the place, and Simon rejoined the race, while Gould and Wharton left it for a short time to make adjustments. On lap 20 the pair were 40 seconds ahead of Kling and Mieres, who were still close together, and then came Taruffi, Musso, Collins, Schell and Hawthorn in quick succession. Almost immediately after this Schell broke his accelerator pedal off at the roots, so hard had he been pressing on it, Marr spun off and stalled his engine, also damaging a brake pipe, and Castellotti withdrew with faulty transmission. Although Fangio and Moss were comfortably in the lead they were setting a good pace and the rest of the runners were suffering. McAlpine went past with his Connaught sounding rough and woolly, and, in very direct contrast, Wharton went by with the Vanwall sounding beautifully crisp.

Moss had a go to regain the lead as they rounded Tatts Corner but Fangio did not give way, and then on lap 26 he got by at the end of the long straight and it was clear that if Moss was going to be allowed to win, he was going to have to work for it. On the next lap they arrived at Tatts Corner at the same time as McAlpine and he hastily stepped sideways to let them through, nearly stopping in the process. They were still lapping in 2 min. 06 sec. and giving a nice demonstration of good clean driving.

The other two Mercedes-Benz cars still had their satellite Maseratis with them and every one sounded very healthy, but at the back of the field Salvadori had gone out with gearbox trouble and then Collins had the clutch break and coasted the Owen Maserati back to its pit and withdrew. Rolt had had his throttle put right and let Walker set off in the car, while on lap 32 Wharton broke an oil pipe and trailed oil all the way back to the pits to get the car repaired. On lap 37 Musso got by Taruffi once more and this time stayed in front, and Moss had got a 4-sec. lead over Fangio, while yet another green car fell by the wayside when McAlpine withdrew his Connaught with a very flat-sounding engine and no oil pressure.

By lap 40 Moss had twice lapped his own Maserati, driven by Macklin. Walker was now having trouble with the dark blue Connaught, and on the next lap Brabham withdrew the Cooper due to engine trouble, and Moss increased his lead to 9 seconds due to nipping through some gaps in the traffic, while Fangio had to wait. At half-distance Moss and Fangio were given the "RG" sign, which means keep stations and carry on at the same lap speeds, and Taruffi was urged to try and get past Musso once more. At this point Macklin, in Moss' Maserati, spun off at Tatts Corner on the oil spilt by Wharton, and, leaving the car in the straw bales, he walked back to the pits.

Next time round Moss wondered how much it was going to cost him to put it right, and was greatly relieved to see it motoring again after a short time, Macklin having returned with his mechanics and restarted the car. Hawthorn was feeling decidedly unwell due to the heat and handed his car over to Castellotti, and soon after this Schell rejoined the race at the wheel of Wharton's repaired Vanwall. The comparatively slow Aintree circuit, plus the heat, was taking its toll and as one car rejoined the race so another would fall out, and this time it was poor Mieres who retired in a cloud of smoke, after having driven a spirited race.

The leaders were now signalled to slow down and, barring accidents, the race was over, Kling being in a very secure third position half a lap behind, and Taruffi was now fourth, having made a big effort and re-passed Musso, whose car was beginning to show signs of the distance and slowing visibly. Castellotti, in Hawthorn's car, and Trintignant were having a private dice together, until the Frenchman's car had a plug break up which ruined the cylinder head. Schell began to display the ability of the Vanwall once more and caught and passed Castellotti very convincingly, though many laps behind, finding that the second Vanwall handled far better than his original one. Sparken had the only remaining Gordini running, getting weaker and weaker, but he struggled on and by lap 75 the ten cars that were left running seemed lost on the vast open space that is the Aintree stadium. The end was now in sight, 90 laps being the full distance, and Moss was 4 seconds ahead of Fangio and had lapped everyone except Kling, who was at Bechers Bend as they went past the start. Nose to tail the two short, squat-looking Mercedes-Benz completed the closing laps and as they approached the finishing line Fangio drew up alongside Moss, finishing half a car's length behind him, just as Moss had done with the sports Mercedes-Benz at the Nürburgring earlier in the season. Kling and Taruffi finished third and fourth, respectively, the former not having blotted his copybook for once and the latter showing remarkable form in his first race with the German car.

After the prize-giving Moss paid a nice tribute to Mercedes-Benz for giving him the opportunity to be the first Britisher to win the British Grand Prix, and especially to Fangio for allowing him to do it. With Mercedes-Benz cars finishing 1-2-3-4 it would seem that their decision to withdraw from Grand Prix racing next year due to lack of opposition is not a wild misstatement.

Results:
British Grand Prix — Formula 1 — 90 laps — 435 Kilometres — Very Hot
1st: S. Moss (Mercedes-Benz W196) ... 3 hr. 07 min. 21.2 sec. ... 139.19 k.p.h. (86.47 m.p.h.)
2nd: J. M. Fangio (Mercedes-Benz W196) ... 3 hr. 07 min. 21.4 sec.
3rd: K. Kling (Mercedes-Benz W196) ... 3 hr. 08 min. 33.0 sec.
4th: P. Taruffi (Mercedes-Benz W196) ... 3hr. 07 min. 36.0 sec. — 1 lap behind
5th: L. Musso (Maserati 250/F.1) ... 3hr. 09 min. 29.2 sec. — 1 lap behind
6th: J. M. Hawthorn / E. Castellotti (Ferrari 625) ... 3 hr. 08 min. 27.2 sec. — 3 laps behind
7th: M. Sparken (Gordini 1954) ... 3 hr. 08 min. 19.0 sec. — 9 laps behind
8th: L. Macklin (Maserati 250/F.1) ... 3 hr. 08 min. 28.0 sec. — 11 laps behind
9th: K. Wharton/H.Schell (Vanwall Special) ... 3 hr. 08 min. 02.8 sec. — 18 laps behind
Record lap: S. Moss (Mercedes-Benz), in 2 min. 00.4 sec. — 144.37 k.p.h. (89.70 m.p.h.).

Retired:J. Behra (Maserati), R. Manzon (Gordini), H. Schell (Vanwall), E. Castelloti (Ferrari), A. Simon (Maserati), R. Salvadori (Maserati), P. Collins (Maserati), L. McAlpine (Connaught), L. Marr (Connaught), A.P. Rolt (Connaught), J. Brabham (Cooper-Bristol), R. Mieres (Maserati), H. da Silva Ramos (Gordini), H. H. Gould (Maserati), M. Trintignant (Maserati).

*****

As an introduction to the British Grand Prix the B.A.R.C. occupied the morning with a Formula III race and a sports-car race (divided into capacity classes), each of 17 laps or 51 miles.

The 500s became spaced out along the Aintree straights, for after the first lap, when Russell, Bueb, S. Lewis-Evans and Boshier-Jones were out in front in close company in their Cooper-Nortons, Lewis-Evans and Russell drew well away from the field, to commence an exciting race-long duel. Bueb hung onto Boshier-Jones for a while, then the latter drew away, in third place, until he pulled off the course by the Melling Crossing on lap seven with a run big-end. His Norton engine normally lasts 500 racing miles between overhauls, with a maximum of 7,000 r.p.m., and was just about due for stripping.

Bueb having broken a drive-shaft on lap four, third place was now taken by the South African newcomer. A. J. F. Fergusson, and these three dominated the race to the end.

The Russell/Lewis-Evans duel proved the highlight of the race. Lewis-Evans closing right up on lap 13, but after this falling away with a trace of misfiring from his engine. Leston, in Beart's Cooper-Norton, was a long way behind in fourth place, followed by Allison's Cooper, while Don Parker's Kieft was amongst the also-rans on this occasion.

Howard (Cooper-Norton) ran off the course at Anchor Crossing and didn't restart. Marsh (Cooper-Norton) succumbed to engine trouble, Wicken (Cooper-Norton) was in trouble with gearbox and brakes, and the Ray Martin Special retired with an overheating engine and the Erskine Staride seized-up.

Williams’ Emeryson was lapped twice by the leaders, being passed one on each side by the duellists Leston and Allison on the Railway Straight on lap 16, and Bicknell had his Revis-Norton sideways-on at the corners. So the race ended, with Steve Lancefield-tuned Cooper-Nortons with R. R. Jackson heads in first and third places.

*****

The sports-car race was a great triumph for David Brown's disc-braked 3-litre DB3S Aston Martins, for after Hawthorn's tail-finned works D-type Jaguar had led the first two laps, Salvadori took the lead and a lap later Collins was second, while after five laps the Aston Martins were 1, 2, 3, 4 in the order Salvadori, Collins, Walker, Parnell. On lap seven Parnell passed Walker and left him behind, but otherwise the order remained unchanged, Reg trying hard but unable to catch Collins.

Hawthorn, hampered by a less effective chassis and not in his usual state of fitness, had to be content with fifth place, although driving hard, and far behind the other D-type Jaguars of Berry and Sanderson, the latter the Ecurie Ecosse entry, tagged along. The 2-litre class was depleted early in the race, for Scott-Brown, obviously much fancied, stopped a short way from the line in the familiar Lister-Bristol, and Rogers lost his Cooper-Bristol at Melling Crossing on the second lap, coming very fast into the corner, sliding onto the grass on the right, to shoot across the course, miraculously missing following traffic, to stop against a straw bale protecting a tree, the car half-overturned and badly damaged, and the driver half out of it from the position he had assumed in the passenger's seat. He was scarcely hurt, and rested until the race ended and he could be taken to hospital for a check-up.

David Hampshire, driving neatly, led in Green's Lister-Bristol, from Alan Brown in the Gilby Engineering Cooper with Maserati engine, Cliff Davis' Lotus-Bristol taking third place. However, the 2-litre cars were overshadowed by the 1½-litres, Colin Chapman staging a fine comeback in his M.G.-powered Lotus to lead Hampshire, while McAlpine's Connaught held off Bueb's Cooper-Climax, its engine enlarged to 1,200 c.c.

Of the others, Alan Moore's Lister-Bristol was delayed at the pits after an incident which damaged a wing, Scott-Russell's Lotus-Bristol lost its fan-belt and Sopwith's Cooper-Connaught retired with clutch trouble, while Coombs' Lotus-Connaught, with dual exhaust pipes emerging above the near-side rear wheel, the upper from cylinders two and three, the lower from cylinders one and four, made expensive noises on the warming-up lap, other non-starters being Hamilton's D-type Jaguar, the other Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar, Crook's Cooper-Bristol, Keen's Cooper-Bristol, and Brooks' Frazer-Nash, so that the race was robbed of some of its interest.

[MonteCristo]

He drove without full gloves?

[EB]

Don't we want to give Tony Brooks a joint credit for 1957?

[Everso Biggyballies]

Don't we want to give Tony Brooks a joint credit for 1957?

My bad, thanks for pointing my omission out.

Original post edited and amended to include the shared win of the Weybridge based racing dentist / car dealer.

[erwin greven]

[PTRACER]

Happy 40th birthday to...ALEX YOONG He was a baby when we saw him in F1, how did he reach 40 years old already?

[hollie3sa]

25 years back, on 21th July 1991, Paul Warwick died.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/brita ... ed-800510/

Very interesting read

[erwin greven]

40 years ago Niki Lauda experienced a heavy accident at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.


A week before the 1976 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, (even though he was the fastest driver on that circuit at the time) Lauda urged his fellow drivers to boycott the race, largely because of the 23 kilometre circuit's safety arrangements. Most of the other drivers voted against the boycott and the race went ahead. On 1 August 1976 during the second lap at the very fast left kink before Bergwerk, Lauda's Ferrari swerved off the track, hit an embankment, burst into flames and rolled back into the path of Brett Lunger's Surtees-Fordcar. Unlike Lunger, Lauda was trapped in the wreckage. Drivers Arturo Merzario, Lunger, Guy Edwards and Harald Ertl arrived at the scene a few moments later, but before they were able to pull Lauda from his car, he suffered severe burns to his head and inhaled hot toxic gases that damaged his lungs and blood. As Lauda was wearing a modified helmet, the foam had compressed and it slid off his head after the accident, leaving his face exposed to the fire. Although Lauda was conscious and able to stand immediately after the accident, he later lapsed into a coma.

Lauda suffered extensive scarring from the burns to his head, losing most of his right ear as well as the hair on the right side of his head, his eyebrows and his eyelids. He chose to limit reconstructive surgery to replacing the eyelids and getting them to work properly. Since the accident he has always worn a cap to cover the scars on his head. He has arranged for sponsors to use the cap for advertising.

Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=809_1394 ... Kk4KXpW.99


News real BBC after August 1st 1976

1976: Lauda fights for life after Grand Prix crash
Formula One racing driver Niki Lauda is in a critical condition in hospital after an horrific accident at the Nurburgring Grand Prix in Germany.

The Austrian-born driver became trapped inside his Ferrari after it swerved off the track before bouncing back into the path of the oncoming cars and catching fire.

Fellow driver Guy Edwards managed to avoid the blazing wreckage but Harald Ertl and Brett Lunger both hit it.

All three drivers raced to the burning Ferrari and, with the help of the Italian driver Arturo Merzario, who also stopped, eventually managed to pull 27-year-old Lauda from his vehicle.

Lauda, who has led this drivers' championship since the beginning of the season, began the race second on the grid behind James Hunt in pole position.

'Conscious'

Guy Edwards said they had had problems getting the trapped driver out.

"Lauda was basically sitting in the middle of a fire and I would guess it would be about a minute before we managed to get the belts undone.

"In the meantime Ertl had got a fire extinguisher from somewhere and was aiming it towards the central cockpit area so he was able to keep the fire under some sort of control."

"Lauda was conscious most of the time and was saying 'get me out'."

Mr Lauda was taken to nearby Adenau hospital with serious burns. From there he was flown to the University Hospital in Mannheim where his condition is described as critical.

[erwin greven]

Not really in the past:

One of my favorite drivers (maybe not back in those days as a Patrese fan), but today it is the birthday of mr. Moustache:

[erwin greven]

On this day in 1975 at the Österreichring, Vittorio Brambilla in his March 751 scored his only win in F1.

[erwin greven]

Stefan Bellof 20th November 1957 - Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium), 1st September 1985

Stefan Bellof's five best sportscar moments

We look at the late German's greatest moments in sportscar racing.

Despite his untimely death, Stefan Bellof’s performances for Porsche ensured he would go down as one of the great sportscar drivers. Here are five of his best moments.

First WSC Race with Porsche



After strong seasons in German F3 and F2, Bellof found himself with a one-off drive in a Group C Kremer at Spa alongside Rolf Stommelen. The duo retired from the race but Bellof had attracted the attention of the factory Porsche team; in 1983 he was partnered with Derek Bell in the Rothmans-backed 956.

His first race at Silverstone could scarcely have gone any better. His pole position time of 1:13.150 was almost two seconds quicker than the next fastest car, and would have been good enough for 12th on the grid at that year’s British Grand Prix. In the race he and Bell completely dominated, winning by almost a minute over the Bob Wollek/Stefan Johansson 956 having taken the lead at half distance.

Setting Records at the Nordschleife



The next round of the 1983 World Endurance Championship took place at the Nordschleife, the final international race to be held there for 32 years. In qualifying Bellof was on pole yet again – his time of 6:11.130 was not only the ‘unofficial’ fastest ever lap of the Nordschleife, but a massive 5.7 seconds faster than the next car.

In the race Porsche instructed their drivers to take it easy in order to save fuel and save the cars. Bellof promptly ignored these orders and rocketed away into the lead. After six laps he was 36 seconds ahead of second-placed Mass and two and a half minutes ahead of third-placed Rosberg. Bell then took over the car, slowed the pace and gradually lost the advantage they had built up. On lap 15 Bellof was back in the car and, incensed by the loss of his lead, set off at an alarming rate once more. On lap 18 he set a fastest lap of 6:25.910 – officially the fastest ever lap of the Nordschleife to this day. Two laps later he was lucky to walk away from a huge crash at the Pflanzgarten section, but a marker had been set down.

Another Dominant Pole

By now qualifying was becoming something of a speciality for Bellof, a trait he displayed perfectly in a non-championship race at the Norisring in 1983. The tiny German street track is only 2.3km in length and has just five proper corners, yet somehow Bellof managed to take pole position by almost a second from Jochen Mass. Things were rather closer in the race as Bellof won by less than five seconds, but the Norisring would prove to be a happy hunting ground for him – he won there in 1985 too, again from pole.



Two Titles, One Year

It’s very uncommon in modern times for a driver to compete in more than one championship at once, but in 1984 Bellof competed in three – and won titles in two of them. Now with a year of experience under his belt, he took the World Endurance Championship for Drivers at a canter (of the eleven rounds, he won six and completely missed two) and also won the German DRM championship in the process, all whilst having a successful debut season with Tyrrell in Formula One.

Nurburgring Super Sprint

The final round of the 1984 DRM championship was a one-hour ‘super sprint’ at the new GP circuit at the Nurburgring. Bellof put his Brun-entered 956 on pole by a staggering 1.5 seconds over Theirry Boutsen, and finished 52 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Franz Konrad over the 32 lap distance. http://www.sportscarone.com/stefan-bell ... r-moments/

http://www.sportscarone.com/stefan-bell ... r-moments/

[erwin greven]

Today it is 21 years ago that Kieth O'dor died at the AVUS.

Kieth O'dor
Kieth O'dor (5 April 1962 – 11 September 1995) was a British racing driver, born in Salisbury, who competed primarily in touring cars before being killed during a race at the AVUS circuit in Berlin.

Background
He raced under the surname O'dor or Odor (changing from one spelling to another from year to year) but the original family name is the Hungarian Ódor. Kieth's father, János Ódor (better known as Jan Odor of the Janspeed racing team) emigrated to the United Kingdom after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956.

Touring cars
Kieth built his reputation in Britain with several seasons of racing in the BTCC with his father's Janspeed team, primarily with uncompetitive Nissan equipment; his results were generally good but not spectacular, although he took an excellent high-profile win at Silverstone in the BTCC support race at the 1993 British Grand Prix—a race famous for the collision between Toyota team-mates Julian Bailey and Will Hoy which left Hoy's car on its roof, leading commentator Murray Walker to quip "The car upside down is a Toyota", parodying the company's advertising slogan at the time, "The car in front is a Toyota". Odor finished in the top six in the BTCC standings that year, but then endured a difficult 1994 season in an uncompetitive car before Nissan chose to (temporarily) end their involvement with touring car racing in Britain.
Death

He moved to a works drive with the Nissan team in the ADAC Super-Tourenwagen-Cup (the German 2-litre touring car championship) in 1995.

Fatal crash

Kieth won the first race of the double header meeting at AVUS (giving Nissan its first win in the series), defeating eventual champion Joachim Winkelhock's BMW. He was running third behind Winkelhock and Peter Kox in the second race when his Primera was pitched against the left wall by a front left suspension failure, which was probably triggered by the way he was riding the high kerbs of the chicanes installed in the temporary track. The Nissan spun twice and stopped sideways in the middle of the track, in the fast approach to Nordkurve. The close-following Altfrid Heger and Hans-Joachim Stuck managed to avoid the stricken Nissan, Heger clipping the spinning Primera, but it was then hit square in the right-side door by Frank Biela's Audi.

Because of his British racing background, and unlike most other competitors in the German series, Kieth was racing a right hand drive (RHD) touring car, and so he suffered serious injuries when the door on that side of the car was struck. He was airlifted to a Berlin hospital, but died later the following night.

[Cheeveer]

Happier anniversary:

[MonteCristo]

Happier anniversary:

Dirty then, dirty now! Track limits, eh?

[Cheeveer]

"Track limits" wasn't an issue in 1996.