27 February: Today in Racing

In a relatively quiet day in racing history, Italian Dario Resta raced his Peugeot to victory in the 1915 American Grand Prize, while Ralph DePalma steered his Mercedes to win the 1921 Beverly Hills Grand Prize. 

There were two Daytona 500s on this day — Richard Petty overcame a two-lap deficit to be in a runaway lead over Cale Yarborough when a thunderstorm halted the 1966 race two laps early, while Matt Kenseth won the 2012 edition 46 years later.

In other NASCAR action on this day, Tim Flock won the 1955 Daytona Grand National, while Ned Jarrett repeated that feat ten years later in ’65. Richmond saw Richard Petty take a 500 victory in 1972, while Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison won the 400 there in ’77 and ’83. Rusty Wallace meanwhile won the '94 Goodwrench 500, Bobby Labonte the 2000 Kmart 400 and Jeff Gordon the 2011 Subway 500, while Australian Touring Car action saw Mark Skaife take a '94 Amaroo Park double, while Jamie Whincup won the 2010 Desert 400 in Bahrain.

Mark Webber meanwhile kicked off the 2005 Formula 1 season by driving the previous year’s BMW-Williams across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, while 27 February birthdays included US great, F1 winner and Indy 500 pole man Peter Revson in 1939, 

NASCAR racer Todd Bodine in 1964 and Pedro Chaves, who failed to qualify for 13 Grands Prix, in 1965. Ettore Chimeri (35) died in a practice crash at the 1960 Cuban Sports Car Grand Prix and Dennis Wing (25) was killed in practice for the ‘65 Australian Grand Prix in Hobart. (Photo: Red Bull)