Today in Racing: 18 April

Jackie Stewart won the 1971 Spanish Grand Prix in a Tyrell Cosworth at Montjuich Park in Barcelona from Jacky Ickx’ Ferrari 312B2 with Chris Amon third in the Matra. Jenson Button’s McLaren MP4/25 Mercedes won 2010 Chinese Grand Prix from teammate Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes after early Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari was handed drive-through penalty for jumping the start.

In other major race action on this day, Giovanni Alloatti won the 1926 Circuito di Alessandria  in Italy with a Bugatti, while Prince Birabongse Bhanudej Bhanubandh, better known as Prince Bira of Siam, now Thailand, won the 1938 Campbell Trophy at Brooklands, driving am ERA B-Type, on the same day that Peter Whitehead also drove an ERA to win the Australian Grand Prix at Bathurst.

Post-War, Juan Manuel Fangio drove a Maserati 4CLT to 1949 Pau Grand Prix victory in France, ten years before Jean Behra took his Ferrari-Dino 246 to ‘59  BARC Aintree 200 honours. Innes Ireland lifted the 1960 Goodwood Glover Trophy in a Lotus 18 Climax and Jack Brabham won 1964  Aintree 200 in a Brabham BT7 Climax, all in England.

Meanwhile back in Australia, Alec Mildren took his Cooper T51 Maserati to 1960 Bathurst 100  victory, while Bill Patterson’s Cooper T51 Climax won that race at Mount Panorama in 1961 and Bib Stillwell’s Cooper Coventry-Climax in ’65. Graeme Lawrence  won the 1971 Selangor Grand Prix at Batu Tiga, Singapore in a Brabham BT29 Cosworth.

Crossing the Atlantic, Charles Weymann and Robert Bloch’s Hispano-Suiza defeated the Stutz Black Hawk driven by Tom Rooney and Gil Anderson in a 1928 Indianapolis Motor Speedway match race, while more recently, Jud Larson drove his Watson to 1965 USA victory on the high banked ½-mile Eldora Speedway in Ohio.

18 March is Indycar Long Beach Grand Prix time, with no less than five races over the years as Al Unser won in a March Chevrolet in 1988 and Paul Tracy was twice victorious in a Penske PC93 Chevrolet in ‘93 and a Lola-Cosworth in 2004. That was each side of Juan Pablo Montoya’s ’99 in in a Reynard-Honda, before Ryan Hunter-Ray’s Dallara-Honda won the 2010 race.

In Sportscar racing, Giorgio Francia, Henri Pescarolo and Jean Rondeau’s Rondeau-Ford won the 1982 Monza World endurance race, while over in the ‘States, Peter Gregg and Hurley Haywood’s GTU class, Porsche 914/6 GT pulled off giant-killing IMSA overall win to beat Dave Heinz’ GTO Corvette at Virginia.  

Juan-Manuel Fangio II took his Eagle-Toyota to 1993 Road Atlanta IMSA honours, where Mimmo Schiattarella and Eric van de Poele’s Ferrari 333SP took ALMS victory in 1999. Gil de Ferran Simon Pagenaud Acura ARX won the 2009 Long Beach ALMS round and Taylor brothers, Jordan and Ricky’s Dallara Corvette took the 2015 Long Beach United Sportscar race win.

There were two World Rally Championship rounds that ended on 18 April over the years; Petter Solberg steered his Subaru Impreza WRC to 2004 Rally New Zealand honours, while Sebastien Loeb took the 2010 Turkish rally win in a Citroen C4 WRC

In tin top-racing on track meanwhile, Bernd Schneider steered his Mercedes 190E to double DTM wins at Hockenheim in 1993, while a Mercedes was back in front there in ‘04 as Gary Paffett won in a C-Class. Hugues de Fierlant and Patrick Neve’s BMW 3.0 CSL took 1976 Salzburgring honours and Alfa Romeo 156 men Gabriele Tarquini and Fabrizio Giovanardi won at Valencia 2004 in European action.

Ivor Bueb took his Jaguar 3.4 to top class British Touring Car honours at Aintree in 1959, while Doc Shepherd’s Austin A40 won in the smaller class at Brands Hatch this day 1960. Jack Sears’ Ford Galaxie topped the podium at Aintree ’64, while Laurent Aiello’s Nissan Primera and Jason Plato’s Renault Laguna shared Silverstone’s 1999 BTCC wins.

NASCAR was busy as always over the years on 18 April, where Herb Thomas won the 1954 Grand National, Curtis Turner won in ‘58, Glen Wood ’60, Junior Johnson ’65, Bobby Isaac in ’68 and Richard Petty in 1970. Petty won again in NASCAR’s first Cup year in 1971, while Darrell Waltrip also won in Cup in 1982, Rusty Wallace in ’93, John Andretti ‘99 and Mark Martin in 2009. Charlie O'Brien, Allan Moffatt, Dick Johnson, Alan Jones and Jamie Whincup meanwhile all found Australian Touring Car success on this day.  

On the day that F1 world champion Jochen Rindt, NASCAR hero Geoffrey Bodine and F1 and sportscar driver Anthony Davidson share birthdays, Alfa Romeo’s sadly stillborn rear-engined V16 Type 162 grand prix prototype race car was completed as war broke out. A prototype Corvette Stingray made its race debut at Maryland, US in ’58 and the Ford GT40 Mk1 had a troubled debut at the Le Mans test weekend, while Audrey Zavodski won Panoz’ inaugural Women's Global GT Series race at Road Atlanta. (Photo: McLaren)