17 March: Today in Racing

Remembered more for the first lap clash between his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya and brother Michael’s Ferrari on this day, Ralf Schumacher won the Malaysian Grand Prix for Williams-BMW today in 2002. Montoya was handed a drive through penalty that even had the elder Schumacher admitting that the decision was "overly harsh" on his rival.

Kimi Raikkonen was the last driver to win a Grand Prix in any car other than a Mercedes a Ferrari or a Red Bull when he steered his Lotus-Renault to 2013 Australian Grand Prix victory over Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel in a Red Bull-Renault. In 2019 it was Valtteri Bottas who took the Melbourne win when he beat his pole sitting Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton to victory with Max Verstappen third after 'Winter World Champions’ Ferrari failed to deliver with Vettel and Leclerc down in fourth and fifth.

In non-championship Formula 1 action, Rhodesian John Love drove a LDS-Porsche to victory in the 1962 South African championship Rand Autumn Trophy in Kyalami and a little further north, Bruce McLaren drove his eponymous M7A to 1968 Race of Champions victory. That was a race Jacky Ickx also won at Brands Hatch driving a Lotus-Cosworth 72E in 1974.

In the year 2000, it was British prime minister Tony Blair who incurred Bernie Ecclestone’s wrath on this day when a £1 million donation to the Labour party had to be returned after it became public knowledge. There were accusations the donation was a bid to earn Formula 1 an exemption from the looming tobacco advertising ban, on which Ecclestone kept mum and Blair "started talking without warning..."

In other 17 March race action, Barney Oldfield won the AAA Champ Car Venice Grand Prix in California driving a Maxwell, Gordon Johncock and Mike Mosley took USAC Champ Car wins in California in 1968 and in Phoenix in 1974 respectively, John Andretti won the ’91 Gold Coast Grand Prix, Andre Ribeiro the ’96 Rio 400 and Helio Castroneves the 2002 Indy 200, while Jean-Eric Vergne won the ’18 Formula E Punta d'Este ePrix.

In sportscar action, 17 March is all about the 12 hours of Sebring, where Bob Wollek and AJ Foyt drove a Porsche 962 to victory in 1985. Audi won three times in this day with Laurent Aiello, Michele Alboreto and Rinaldo Capello in a R8 in 2001, with Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner in ’85 and with Capello again alongside Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish in a 2012 R18. Pipo Derani, Nicolas Lapierre and Johannes van Overbeek drove a Nissan to victory in 2018.

In tin-top racing Neil Bonnett took the 1979 International Race of Champions on a busy day for NASCAR over the years, starting with Ralph Moody, Jack Smith, Fred Lorenzen and David Pearson’s  1957, ’62, ’63 and ’69 Grand National wins. March 17 Cup action saw Cale Yarborough win 1985, Sterling Marlin in 2002, Kasey Kahne in ’13 and Kyle Busch in 2019. Australian Touring Car winners on this day include Peter Brock in 1974, triple winner Craig Lowndes in ’96, Mark Skaife in 2002 and Scott McLaughlin in 2019.

The first ever Porsche was unveiled and the 1949 Geneva Motor Show. Ferdinand Porsche, who had been jailed two-year prison sentence for his engineering service to Hitler's Nazi regime and his son Ferry went to work on the prototype soon after Ferdinand was released. The Porsche 356 was a sportscar version of the Volkswagen Beetle that Porsche Sr. had designed at Hitler's request.  

On a sad note NASCAR Legend Bobby Hamilton announced on 17 March that he had been diagnosed with cancer and bowed out of the 2006 season, only to lose his battle with the ­disease aged 49 on January 7 2007.