9 April: Today in Racing

There  were three grands prix over the years on 9 April, where Damon Hill took his Williams FW17 Renault to victory over Jean Alesi’s Ferrari and Michael Schumacher’s Benetton-Renault in 1995. 

Five years later, Schumacher driving a Ferrari F1-2000 had to fend pole man, world champion Mika Häkkinen’a McLaren-Mercedes off to win in San Marino with David Coulthard’s McLaren third.ewis Hamilton meanwhile mastered changeable conditions as he started from pole position and set the fastest lap as he led the 2017 Chinese Grand Prix from start to finish. 

Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel pitted to change from intermediate to slick tyres during a virtual safety car, dropping him to sixth position, but recovered to second place ahead of Max Verstappen, who rose to stand on the podium after starting 16th.

In other racing, Louis Chiron’s Bugatti 35B won the 1928 GP d'Antibes at Garoupe, while Jack Brabham’s Cooper-Climax took two of ‘61 GP de Bruxelles heats to win overall after race 1 winner Jo Bonnier crashed his Porsche. More recently, Pedro Rodriguez’ BRM P160 won the 1971 Oulton Park Spring Trophy and Tony Trimmer took the Fittipaldi Cosworth F1 car’s only ever race win in the 1982 Oulton International Gold Cup

Elsewhere, Ron Roycroft’s Alfa Romeo Tipo-B won the 1955 New Zealand Championship Road Race and Sonny Rajah’s March-Hart won the 1972 Selangor GP in Malaysia. In European F5000, Frank Gardner’s Lola-Chevrolet passed Brian Redman with 2 laps to go to win at Snetterton in 1971 and Graham McRae’s Leda Chevrolet won at Nivelles  in Belgium in ’72.  

Moving across the pond William Endicott in a Cole and Joe Nikrent’s Buick took a win apiece in two more 50 mile races to open the 1910 Playa del Rey Board track. Far more recently in US Champ Car racing Eddie Sachs took 1961 and Lloyd Ruby’ 67 USAC races, while Paul Tracy won in Phoenix in ’88 and Rick Mears, Al Unser Jr, Sebastien Bourdais and James Hinchcliffe took a Long Beach wins in 1989, ’95, ’06 and 2017 respectively.

World Sportscar winners on this day included Mauro Baldi and Jean-Louis Schlesser’s Sauber-Mercedes C9 at  victory at Suzuka in 1989, while Jean-Christophe Boullion and Emmanuel Collard’s Pescarolo C60-Judd won in Istanbul in 2006. Over in the ‘States, Scott Pruett Memo Rojas took a Grand-Am win in ’94.

Moving over to stock cars and tin-tops, Fred Lorenzen, David Pearson and Richard Petty won NASCAR Grand Nationals on this day, while Bobby Allison, Benny Parsons, Rusty Wallace, Dale Earnhardt, Mark Martin, Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson took Cup wins. Allan Grice, Peter Brock, Glenn Seton, Mark Skaife and Fabian Coulthard meanwhile took Australian Touring Car wins on this day over the years

In German Touring Cars, Roberto Ravaglia won both 1989 Zolder races in his BMW, while Alessandro Nannini did the DTM double in an Alfa Romeo 155 in ’94 and  Bernd Schneider’s Mercedes C-Class won at Hockenheim in 2006. John Fitzpatrick and Umberto Grano’s BMW 3.0 CSL took European honours at Mugello in 1978, while Esteban Guerrierez’s Chevy Cruze and Tiago Monteiro’s Honda Civic shared 2017 Marrakech WTCC wins  

In British Touring Cars, Brian Muir’s Camaro won at Snetterton in 1971, Gordon Spice won the big class in his Capri Win Percy’s Corolla the small class at Oulton Park’ 82 and Andy Rouse’s Sierra RS500 won at Silverstone in ’89. More recently, Alain Menu’s Mondeo beat Jason Plato’s Vectra two races to one  at Brands Hatch in 2000 and Plato again lost 1-2 against Seat teammate James Thompson in 2006.  

That was the same day that Sebastien Loeb won the only ever 9 April World Championship Rally in Corsica in his Citroen Xsara WRC.    

In other news on Jacques Villeneuve’s birthday, Alfa Romeo revealed its Enzo Ferrari-conceived 16-cylinder twin-engine Bimotore single-seater in 1935, Lotus built its first single-seat racecar in 1957. The under-funded, greying 50-plus Top Fuel dragster Eddie Hill meanwhile turned in the first ever sub-5-second ¼-mile run at 4.990 seconds at the 1988 Texas Nationals in spite of dropping a cylinder at the start.