15 March: Today in Racing

Notable as the date that Romans set as the deadline for settling debts, the Ides of March also has a rich racing history that includes two Formula Grands Prix. Defending World Champion Alan Jones finally got the troubled 1981 season underway by winning the US Grand Prix West from his Williams teammate Carlos Reutemann at Long Beach following winter of discontent through the 'FISA-FOCA war.’ In the other Grand Prix on this day, 

Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg similarly picked off where they had left off the previous season in the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, as Hamilton put it on pole before leading Rosberg home in another dominant Mercedes 1-2 ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

Looking considerably further back, Cliff Durant won the 1919 Santa Monica 250 AAA Champ Car race in California aboard a Stutz, while Harry Gray and Larry Kulok drove thier Frazer Nash to win the 1952 Sebring 12 hour. There was drama at the ’97 Sebring 12-hour, when IMSA president Andy Evans, Fermin Velez, Yannick Dalmas, and Stefan Johansson won in Evans' Ferrari 333SP, after which the new ALMS series was formed.

Frank Biela, Philipp Peter and Marco Werner went to win the ALMS-sanctioned 2003 Sebring 12-hour for Audi; Timo Bernhard, Emmanuel Collard and Romain Dumasdrove took their Porsche to the 2008 win and Marino Franchitti, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas won the 2014 race in a Riley Ford. Also on this day, Sébastien Buemi, Fernando Alonso and Kazuki Nakajima steered their Toyota to World Endurance Championship Sebring 1000 mile victory.

Also in the ‘States, Bobby Allison won the 1980 International Race of Champions Oval Final on 15 March and Michael Andretti the 1998 CART Grand Prix of Miami. In NASCAR, Curtis Turner and Richard Petty took the 1958 and ‘70 Grand Nationals, while Cale Yarborough won in 1981,  Ricky Rudd in ’87 and Bill Elliott in ’92. 

Peter Brock and Glenn Seton both scored double Australian Touring Car wins on this day, while Glenn Seton, Greg Murphy, former multiple world motorcycle champion Wayne Gardner, Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin all won races too.

In other race relevant history on this day Gustav, son of ICE pioneer Nikolaus Otto established aero-engineering firm Flugmaschinenfabrik Munchen. Otto would later merge with Karl Rapp to form the Bayerische Motoren Werke — you may know it as BMW. 

There were also a few 15 March record attempts — Kurt Volkhart hung on as his rocket-propelled Opel-RAK-1 sped to 75km/h in 1928, before Cliff Woodbury drove his front-drive Miller 91 to a new 290km/h measured mile record at Daytona Beach.

Le Mans racer Jean-Louis Lafosse was born on 15 March 1941, while New Zealanders, Bruce McLaren and race engineer Colin Beanland packed their bags and headed for England on this day in 1958 and Jaguar unleashed its new E-Type in 1961. 

Twenty years later, 20-year old future triple world champion Ayrton Senna won his second ever car race in a soaking 1981 Brands Hatch Formula Ford round, 13 years to the day that his future arch rival and four-time F1 champion Alain Prost would rule out a second F1 comeback. “I'm not ready to take risks anymore," he rued. (Photo: Motorsport Images)