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23 February: Today in Racing

Editor23.02.2020

23 February is a dramatic and varied day in racing and motoring history. On this day, Rudolf Diesel received a German patent for the diesel engine in 1893, Baroness Mercedes Adrienne von Schlosser Weigl nee Jellinek, after whom Mercedes cars were named, died in aged 39 in 1929 and submachine gun-toting communist guerrillas led by Castro henchman Manuel Uziel kidnapped multiple Argentine F1 world champion Juan Manuel Fangio on the eve of Cuba's Havana Grand Prix...

On track, Reg Parnell powered his ERA to win the 1947 Stockholm Grand Prix at Vallentuna, Paul Tracy won the 2003 CART Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and Geoff Brabham raced his Nissan to IMSA GT victory in Miami in 1992. Richard Petty led 184 of the 200 laps to win the 1964 Daytona 500 in a Plymouth Hemi Cuda 1-2-3 as he racked up his first super-speedway win, Lee Roy Yarbrough chased down and passed Charlie Glotzbach to win the ’69 race with a final lap pass, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. took the 2014 Daytona 500 win.  

Also in NASCAR over the years, Paul Goldsmith won the 1958 Daytona Grand National, dad Richard won the ’75 Richmond 500 and son Kyle Petty the 1986 Miller 400, while Jeff Gordon won the ’97 Goodwrench 400 and Dale Jarrett the 2003 Subway 400. Peter Brock and Mark Skaife shared ’86 Australian Touring Car honours at Amaroo Park, 16 years before Jamie Whincup won the Clipsal 500  

Other 23 February racing landmarks include Peugeot launching its 205 Turbo 16 AWD Group B rally monster alongside the front-wheel drive road version in 1983, while the Jaguar XJR-14 made its race debut in Miami in ’92. F1 racer 

Alberto Colombo was born this day 1946 as was Satoru Nakajima in 1953. The Japanese driver made 74 F1 starts with spells at Tyrrell and Lotus, at the latter he was Ayrton Senna's teammate. 

Nakajima is pictured above with the Camel Lotus team and the 99T which he shared with the great Brazilian for the 1987 season.

Sportscar and GT racer Justin Bell was born in 1968. 1911 and '14 Targa Florio winner Ernesto Ceirano passed away at 79 in 1962 and Le Mans winner, F1 runner-up and distinguished motoring journalist, Paul Frere passed away at the age of 91 in 2008.

On a less savoury note, the notorious F1 Spygate case against McLaren engineers Paddy Lowe, Jonathan Neale and Rob Taylor and Ferrari spy Coughlan was dropped in exchange for their accepting hefty fines and not contesting charges of stealing Ferrari data. McLaren would later pay a US$ 100-million fine in relation to the case. (Photo: Camel)

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