Today in Racing: 23 April

Ayrton Senna drove his McLaren MP4/5 Honda to 1989 San Marino Grand Prix victory over teammate Alain Prost at Imola, while Alessandro Nannini had a great drive from seventh on the grid to finish third for Benetton, albeit a lap down. The race was marred by Gerhard Berger's massive accident at Tamburello corner, after which the was stopped for an hour.

McLaren was back on top as David Coulthard steered his Mercedes-fired MP4/15 to home victory in the 2000 Silverstone British Grand Prix from teammate Mika Häkkinen. It was the first race in which third-placed Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari was beaten in that season.  

Schumacher made no mistakes as he steered his Ferrari 248 to his seventh San Marino GP win in the last running of that race at Imola 2006. Schumacher beat Fernando Alonso’s Renault and Juan Pablo Montoya in a McLaren Mercedes in his and Ferrari's first win of the season.

Looking further back, Achille Varzi’s Bugatti 51 overcame a furious dice with Tazio Nuvolari to win the 1933 Monaco Grand Prix – the first GP where grid positions were decided by practice times, rather than by ballot.

Five years later, René Dreyfus’ Delahaye 145 1938 Cork Grand Prix at Carrigrohane.  

Post-war, Maurice Trintignant won the 1962 Grand Prix de Pau in a Lotus 18/21 Climax on the same day that  

Graham Hill BRM P57 won the Goodwood Glover Trophy. That race is perhaps better remembered for the accident that ended Stirling Moss’ racing career after an accident in a Lotus Climax that left him in a coma for 38 days and partially paralysed on of his left side.  

23 April 1962 was a very busy day all in all, as Bruce McLaren also took his Cooper T55 Climax to win the Goodwood Lavant Cup, Bib Stillwell drove a similar car to Bathurst 100 success at Mount Panorama and Ernie Pieterse’s Lotus Climax won the Coronation 100 at Westmead in Durban, South Africa.  

Emerson Fittipaldi drove a Lotus 72D Cosworth to win the 1972 Silverstone International Trophy, a year before

Dave Charlton drove the same car to win the 1973 Mercury 100 at Roy Hesketh, Pietermaritzburg South Africa. More recently, Lucas di Grassi won the  Formula E Paris ePrix on this day 2016.

Over in the ‘States meantime, Mario Andretti won the ’67 Trenton USAC round in a Brawner-Hawk, Gary Bettenhausen  won that race in 1972 and Gordon Johncock won in 1978 driving his Wildcat-DGS to the great Offenhauser engine’s final race win. Emerson Fittipaldi was back in Indycar victory lane in 1995, 23 years after his F1 win on the same day in ’72, while Josef Newgarden also won at Alabama in both 2017 and 2018.

In other race action, in the World Rally Championship, Shekhar Mehta won the ‘73  Safari in a Datsun 240Z , Markku Alen Portugal ‘78  in a  Fiat 131 Abarth  and Bjorn Waldegard the 1984  Safari in a Toyota Celica, the same day that Derek Bell and Stefan Bellof won the Monza 1000 in a Porsche 956. More recently, Mattias Ekstrom won the 2017 Portuguese World Rallycross in an Audi S1 at Montalnegre.  

F1 drivers Pierluigi Martini and Paul Belmondo share 23 April birthdays on the date that Bob Burman set a 141mph mile record in his 200 bhp Blitzen Benz at Daytona Beach in 1911. The record stood until 1924 – think about that for a second! The FIA banned the Lotus 88 F1 car in 1981 despite the rules did not excluding its twin-chassis and the first man to race for Honda in F1, Ronnie Bucknum  passed away aged 56 in 1992.  (Photo: Paul Velasco)