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23 March: Today in Racing

Editor23.03.2020

The 1986 Brazilian Grand Prix started with a bang when Nigel Mansell went out after his first lap overtaking attempt on pole man Ayrton Senna saw the Englishman's Williams-Honda in the Rio di Janerio wall. The otherwise relatively uneventful race saw local hero and Mansell’s teammate Nelson Piquet take the win from Senna’ Lotus-Renault and Jacques Laffite in a Ligier-Renault.

Kimi Raikkonen has good memories of the 23rd of March — he won his first Grand Prix in Malaysia for McLaren-Mercedes ahead of Rubens Barrichello’s Ferrari and Renault man Fernando Alonso in 2003. Five years later it was Räikkönen again in Malaysia, but this time in a Ferrari ahead of Robert Kubica’s BMW Sauber  and Heikki Kovalainen in a McLaren-Mercedes.

Looking far further back to 1899, Georges Lemaitre powered his Peugeot to the fastest time at the Nice Speed Trials at a time of 95.6 seconds as he averaged 60km/h on Promenade des Anglais. 20 years later, Roscoe Sarles won the 1919 Ascot AAA Champ Car race in his Duesenberg, Baconin Borzacchini won the 1930 Tripoli Grand Prix in a Maserati and Juan Manuel Fangio the 1952 Uruguayan Grand Prix in a Ferrari 166.

More recently, Jim Guthrie won the '97 Indy Phoenix 200, which Tony Kanaan also won in 2003, on the same day Paul Tracy took the rival CART Mexican CART GP, while Jean-Eric Vergne won the 2019 Formula E Sanya ePrix. In sportscar racing, John Surtees and Ludovico Scarfiotti won the '63 Sebring 12-hour in a Ferrari 250 P and Jacky Ickx and Jackie Oliver's Ford GT held on to win '69 race of attrition, while Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Gérard Larrousse won the ’75 Mugello 1000 in a Renault and Fredy Lienhard Jr. and Didier Theys' Dallara Judd won the 2002 Grand Am California 400.

Buck Baker took NASCAR Grand National honours on 23 March 1958, the same day that Bobby Allison won in 1969, Richard Petty in ’75, Dale Jarrett in 97 and brothers Kurt and Kyle Busch in 2003 and ’14, respectively. Also in tin-tops Bob Jane,Mark Skaife and Scott McLaughlin tool Australian Touring Car wins on this day.

In other news, Hans Stuck powerd his Auto Union to a number of speed records on a closed a 70-mile straight on the new German Autobahn between Frankfurt and Heidelberg lined by 10 000 troops in 1936. Stuck and his enlarged 6-litre V16 monster set several new marks including  the flying start 5 kilometre at 312km/h and 100 miles at 267km/h in spite of having to slow to turn around en route.

23 March birthdays include NASCAR legend Johnny Beauchamp born 1923 and F1 drivers Ricardo Zonta (1976), Jaime Alguersuari (1990) and current Red Bull pilot Alexander Albon born in 1996. 23 March 1981 proved a black day for racing when nine time motorcycle world champion and F1 driver Mike Hailwood aged 42 died in a car crash along with his young daughter Michelle, when a truck veered into his car's path while they were on the way to pick up a fish and chips dinner. (Photo: Sutton)

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