21 March: Today in Racing

One motor racing’s greatest legends, Brazilian superhero and triple Formula 1 World Champion, the late Ayrton Senna was born on 21 March 1960. Senna would however not enjoy much success on his birthday, but his future arch rival Alain Prost put in a dominant performance to win the 1982 Brazilian Grand Prix off pole position. 

Prost’s progress was eased when another Brazilian triple world champion, Nelson Piquet was excluded from the race to allow John Watson and Nigel Mansell up to second and third.

Twenty-two years later, Michael Schumacher blasted to Malaysian Grand Prix victory off pole position for Ferrari ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya’s Williams-BMW and Jenson Button, who took his first ever F1 podium for BAR-Honda. In other Formula 1 action, Clay Regazzoni took 1971 non-championship Race of Champions victory driving a Ferrari 312B2 at Brands Hatch.

Looking further back in history, there was already racing on this day in the nineteenth century when Albert Lemaître piloted his Peugeot to victory in the 120km Nice-Castellane-Nice race at the breakneck average speed of 42km/h after pulling off a standing start mile in 1 minute 35 seconds. Then in 1926, Alessandro Consonno won Verona Grand Prix in a Bugatti T35 at the Pozzo Circuit and Chico Landi took 1948 Interlagos Grand Prix victory in Brazil driving an Alfa Romeo 308.

Also in 1926 in the US of A, Bennett Hill won the Culver City 250 AAA Champi Car race on a high banked California Speedway at the wheel of his Miller. Sixty-six years later, Nigel Mansel powered to ‘93 CART Australian Indy victory, before Greg Moore won the ‘99 Grand Prix of Miami and Tony Kanaan later won the 2004 Indy 200.

Moving on to sportscars, Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass won the 1976 Mugello 6-hour in a Porsche 935, but the big action on this day was once again at Sebring, where no less than nine 12-hours went down over the years. Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Chuck Daigh and Olivier Gendebien won the 1959 race in a Ferrari 250 TR 59, Jim Hall and Hap Sharp scored a home win with their Chaparral 2-Chevrolet in 1965 and Ferrari was back in front when Mario Andretti, Ignazio Giunti and Nino Vaccarella won the 1970 race in a 512 S.

Al Holbert and Mike Keyser took the ’76 win in a Porsche Carrera RSR, Bobby Rahal and Jochen Mass succeeded in a Porsche 962 in 1987 and Juan Manuel Fangio II repeated his great uncle’s Sebring successes in ‘91 alongside Andy Wallace in an Eagle MkIII-Toyota. In 1999 it was Tom Kristensen, JJ Lehto and Jörg Müller’s BMW V12 LMR that took the flag first, while Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish won for Audi in 2009 and Joao Barbosa, Sebastien Bourdais, and Christian Fittipaldi’s Coyote Corvette won in 2015.

21 March NASCAR action saw Herb Thomas' Fabulous Hudson Hornet beat Buck Baker to 1954 Grand National victory at Lakewood by a car’s length, while Cale Yarborough drove a Wood Brothers Mercury to 1966 victory in Atlanta, Georgia. Richard Petty won in 1971, David Pearson in ’76 and Darrell Waltrip in ’82. In 1999 Jeff Burton crashed on lap 163, but managed to keep ahead until rain stopped play, while Jimmie Johnson won in 2010. Norm Beechey, Kevin Bartlett, Marcos Ambrose and Jamie Whincup all also won in Australian Touring Cars on this day.

In other relevant race history, Henry Segrave drove a 4 litre Sunbeam Ladybird to a new 240km/h world land speed record at Southport, England in 1924, Earl S MacPherson applied for a United States patent for his MacPherson strut suspension system in 1942, which was to become the motoring norm; and in 1999, John Force set a 521km/h NHRA Funny Car drag racing speed record at Gainesville, Florida, the same day that Tony Pendragon set an new quarter mile ET record of 4.7 seconds.

Indycar driver Kenny Brack shares Ayrton Senna’s birthday, while another racing legend, multiple pre-war Grand Prix, Kaiserpreis and Targa Florio winner Felice Nazzaro passed away at 60 years old in 1940. (Photo: Paul Velasco)