February 12: Today in Racing

One hundred and one years ago on 12 February 1919 Ralph de Palma steered his WW1 Liberty powered Packard 905 to a 149.9 mph (241.2 km/h)  US World Land Speed Record at Daytona Beach. 

41 years later, Dan Gurney and Graham Hill raced to a BRM Formula1 1-2 in the 1961 Ballarat airfield Formula Libre race in Australia and still in Aussie, Jim Clark (pictured above) steered his Lotus-Climax to his 4th consecutive ’67 Tasman Cup series win in Petrie.

Three-time NASCAR Grand National champion Cale Yarborough became the first man to qualify for the Daytona 500 at a speed faster than 200 mph. in 1984, 21 yeards before while Sean McIntosh won the 2006 Malaysian A1 Grand Prix for Team Canada. In other news, the German town of Kerpen in renamed the road leading to the family's kart track after home hero Michael Schumacher.

The racing world bade farewell to British entrepreneur Dennis Poore 1987.  A two-time ‘50s grand prix starter for Connaught who ended fourth in the 1952 British GP, Poore also bankrolled the 1950 founding of motor racing journal Autosport.