That Was The Week That Was: Anniversaries and Milestones From Motorsport's Past

July 4

1948: Happy 68^th birthday to René Arnoux. The Frenchman won titles in European Formula Renault and European F2 before joining F1 in 1978. He contested 149 GPs for Martini, Surtees, Renault, Ferrari and Ligier, winning seven races – four for Renault and three for Ferrari. He’s still a popular part of the Goodwood Festival of Speed

1954: Mercedes made its return to international motorsport at the French Grand Prix at Reims. Three W196s were entered for Juan Manuel Fangio, Hans Herrmann and Karl Kling. Fangio led King to a one-two, a lap ahead of the third-placed Ferrari, while Herrmann’s car suffered early engine failure.

1960: Austrian Roland Ratzenberger was born.He made his Grand Prix debut with the tiny Simtek team in the 1994 Pacific Grand Prix but was killed during qualifying for the San Marino GP at Imola – what would have been his second start.

1976: James Hunt took advantage of an early retirement for Niki Lauda in the French GP at Paul Ricard to take his second win for McLaren. Engine failure on lap eight for Lauda’s Ferrari while he was leading allowed Hunt to jump from fourth in the points to second.  

July 5

1981: Alain Prost broke his F1 duck with victory on home soil at Dijon for Renault. ‘Le Professeur’ beat John Watson’s McLaren and the Brabham of Nelson Piquet and would go on to win another 50 races and four world titles over the next 12 years.

2004: Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rodger Ward died at the age of 83. He won the great race in 1959, when it was a round of the Formula 1 World Championship, and 1962 – both times in Watson-Offenhauser roadsters. He also won the USAC National title in the same two years and took part in the United States GP – at Sebring in 1959 in a Kurtis Kraft Midget, and ’62 at Watkins Glen in a Lotus-BRM.

July 6

1958: Mike Hawthorn’s third and final Grand Prix win, in the French GP at Reims, was overshadowed by the death of his Italian Ferrari team-mate Luigi Musso. Musso crashed at the fast first corner while chasing Hawthorn. The race also marked the 51^st and final appearance by five-time World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio. The great Argentinian finished fourth for Maserati.

2008: Lewis Hamilton took the first of three British Grand Prix victories at Silverstone, winning by more than a minute for McLaren in torrential rain. Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) and Rubens Barrichello (Honda) completed the podium.

July 7

1936: Swiss ace Jo Siffert was born. He raced in 96 GPs, for Lotus, Brabham, Cooper, March and BRM, winning the 1968 British GP at Brands Hatch in a Rob Walker Lotus 49B and the ’71 Austrian GP for BRM. He also won 14 rounds of the World Sportscar Championship for Porsche, including the Daytona 24 Hours, Sebring 12 Hours and Targa Florio. He was killed in a BRM during a non-championship F1 race at Brands Hatch in October 1971, aged 35.

1959: Alessandro Nannini was born. The Italian raced in 76 GPs for Minardi and Benetton, winning in Japan in 1989 after Ayrton Senna had been disqualified. He lost part of his arm in a helicopter accident in October 1990, forcing him to race in touring cars, where he was successful, particularly for Alfa Romeo in the DTM.

1967: Happy birthday Tom Kristensen! The Dane won the Le Mans 24 hours on nine occasions – for Porsche in 1997, Audi in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2013 and Bentley in 2003 – and is a previous winner of the St Mary’s and RAC Tourist Trophies at the Goodwood Revival.

1968: Jacky Ickx’s maiden F1 win – for Ferrari in the French GP at Rouen – was overshadowed by the death of Jo Schlesser who crashed his Honda in the opening few laps. Guy Ligier used Schlesser’s initials in the designation of all his F1 cars as a tribute to his fallen friend.

July 8

1962: Porsche’s only World Championship Grand Prix win came in the French GP courtesy of Dan Gurney, the American taking the 1.5-litre flat-eight 804 to a dominant win at Rouen.

1984: Keke Rosberg won the first and only GP in the Texan City of Dallas. Rosberg’s Williams FW09 led home the Ferrari of René Arnoux around the Fair Park street circuit, amid searing temperatures.

1986: Finn Juha Kankkunen’s third win of the year came in Rally New Zealand in the Peugeot 205 T16 E2. He beat the Lancia Delta S4 of title rival Markku Alén by 1m40s.

1990: Italian Ivan Capelli came with a few laps of a fairytale maiden win for himself and the Leyton House team at the French GP. Leading for more than 40 laps at Paul Ricard, Capelli was hunted down by Alain Prost’s Ferrari and passed with three laps to go – for the Scuderia’s 100^th win. Capelli hung on to second, ahead of Ayrton Senna’s McLaren.

July 9

2000: Valentino Rossi secured his maiden top-class motorcycle Grand Prix win, taking the 500cc spoils for Honda in the British GP at Donington Park. Sixteen years later, he’s still winning at the top of the two-wheeled tree!

July 10

1946: Jean-Pierre Jarier was born. He made a one-off F1 start for March in the 1971 Italian GP at Monza before embarking on a dual attack on F1 and the European Formula 2 Championship for the British squad in 1973. He won the F2 title in the BMW-powered 732 and tackled 10 GPs. He remained in F1 until the end of 1983, having raced for Shadow, Penske, Ligier, ATS, Lotus, Tyrrell and Osella. One of the stars of the 73^rd Goodwood Members’ Meeting, he was reunited with one of the high-airbox Shadow DN5s with which he secured two pole positions in 1975.

1988: The Czech Republic circuit of Brno hosted its only World Sportscar Championship qualifier. The race was won by the Sauber-Mercedes C9/88 of Jochen Mass and Jean-Louis Schlesser, the pair beating the two TWR Jaguar XJR-9s of Martin Brundle/John Nielsen and Jan Lammers/Johnny Dumfries.