You know how it is when a friend dies; you wish you had done more, visited him more, telephoned him...
One of my favorite motor racing personalities was Piers Courage, a talented young gentleman racer, as well as a member...
He was elusive. Confined to a wheelchair, but more difficult to pin down than most people with the full use of their legs. But I had heard so many good things about this Swiss gentleman that I was determined to find him and invite him to the Monterey vintage car...
The word had gone out, I was told for the thousandth time, but I felt no better. What if the...
Some say Graham Hill was not a natural, but one who had to work hard at his motor racing. I...
Gilles Villeneuve Biography “He’s different from the rest of us, on a separate level …” Jacques Laffite describing Gilles Gilles Villeneuve was born in Quebec on 18 January, 1950. He rose up through snowmobile racing and Formula Atlantic. In fact he credits some of his success to his snowmobiling days:...
Rallying was a total mystery to me until 1972, when a young man named Sandro Munari achieved the first of...
Immediately after the Second World War, Jean-Pierre Wimille, Louis Chiron, Philippe Etancelin, and Raymond Sommer carried France’s colors back into...
The amply proportioned Vincenzo Lancia was a double hero, if you will. He was a successful racing driver with over 20 victories to his credit and cars bearing his name won classics like the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio, Carrera Panamericana and, as part of the Fiat group, world rally and...
Juan Manuel Fangio was special. Not only as a racing driver but also as a human being. He was the...
Ronnie Peterson Biography Ronnie Peterson was born on 1944 in Örebro, Sweden, the son of an avid racer of moderate accomplishments....
The British are usually all for the underdog and just love a giant killer. Well, they certainly got their money’s worth with the cheeky little Mini Cooper S, 10-ft long, 4-ft 5-ins high and powered by a zesty transverse, 4-cylinder, 1,275-cc engine. This tiny car, which was originally designed to...
What can you say about a man who wins the 1992 Formula One World Championship, quits, moves to the states...
Pietro Bordino Biography Bordino was born in Turin, November 22, 1887. The son of a Fiat caretaker he would spend his early years around the factory before he was given a job as a mechanic. In 1904 he would become a racing mechanic to the works drivers, Vincenzo Lancia and...
John Michael Hawthorn was a Yorkshire lad of 24 with hardly any top-level motor racing experience when he drove the...
Niki Lauda Biography Andreas Nikolaus Lauda was born to a well-to-do Vienna family on February 22, 1949. His family’s social status...
Achille Varzi was the opposite of his capricious nemesis Tazio Nuvolari, who was steeped in instinctive talent. Varzi was a controlled, calculating driver, a ruthless opponent, ferocious in exploiting his adversaries’ weaknesses and was, of course, immensely fast. As a man, he could be charming, had a sardonic sense of...
This son of a German garage owner had never raced a car until May 26, 1935, at the superfast Avus...
David Purley was a hero you have probably never even heard of, but a hero he most certainly was. If...
Louis Chiron Biography Born in August 1899, the son of a French hotelier in Monaco he became that principalities most famous sportsman. Holding dual citizenship Chiron joined the French army prior to his 18th birthday, serving as an artilleryman during World War I. He later became the personal driver to...
Like Mario Andretti and Nigel Mansell, Emerson Fittipaldi is one of the elite. A driver who has won the Formula...
One was born in Shelbyville, Indiana, in 1902 and the other in a cramped workshop in Bologna, northern Italy, 35...
His contemporaries called him the “Garibaldino,” a term they reserved for the best of their select band. Like Giuseppe Garibaldi, the general who kicked the Austrians and French out of Italy in the mid-19th century, Antonio Ascari, was a courageous and determined fighter. He was the one who always got...
At the end of 1969, during the height of the Ferrari-Porsche World Sports Car Championship “wars,” Jo Siffert was wined...
There was never any doubt that Chris Amon was an exceptional talent. Mauro Forghieri, Ferrari’s chief designer for almost 20...
Until the outbreak of World War I (1914–18), a Targa Florio had been staged every year since 1906, so Vincenzo Florio was determined to get it going again before the end of 1919. However, it was May before the wealthy Sicilian began to tour Europe to drum up entries, so...
Richie Ginther Biography Those readers familiar with the Grand Prix History website know that central to this site is the...
Rene Arnoux learned his trade the hard way, as he fought for the European Formula Two Championship against tough nuts...
Tazio Nuvolari always used to say that if your car burst into flame, jump out and save yourself before it crashes. A similar philosophy to that of the bespectacled Masten Gregory, who often shocked fellow competitors and spectators alike by standing up and leaping from his troubled cars, once or...
