28 March: Today in Racing
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Ayrton Senna 1984 Formula 1 debut and a star is born
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In Formula 1 on this day, Argentine Carlos Reutemann won the 1981 Brazilian Grand Prix after ignoring pit signals to give up the lead to his teammate to teammate Alan Jones, who finished second. Disgusted, Jones skipped the podium ceremony, but most intriguing is that Sebastian Vettel did precisely the same to his Aussie teammate Mark Webber in Malaysia this same week 31 years later...
Also in Brazil in 1998, Mika Hakkinen stormed to his third straight Grand Prix victory over teammate David Coulthard in McLaren’s third 1-2 on the trot too, with Heinz-Harald Frentzen third for Williams.
Again in Australia in 2009, Jenson Button delivered on pre-season promise to storm to a dream debut 1-2 for the fledgling Brawn-Mercedes outfit ahead of teammate Rubens Barrichello. And in 2015, Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari overcame Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to score his 40th Grand Prix win in the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix.
In other 29 March race action over the years, Achille Varzi won the 1931 Tunis Grand Prix in Bugatti T51L, Nello Pagani won the 1948 Grand Prix de Pau in a Maserati 4CL and Stirling Moss took 1951 Goodwood Lavant Cup honours driving a HWM-Alta. In the ’States meanwhile, Scott Dixon, Will Power and Juan Pablo Montoya won the respective 2008, 2010 and ’15 IndyCar Grands Prix of St. Petersburg and Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas. Riley Lexus won the 2008 Grand-Am sportscar Grand Prix of Miami.
NASCAR Grand National action on this day saw Herb Thomas win in 1953 before Junior Johnson went from 22nd to win in ’59 and Bobby Allison won in 1970. Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt, Bill Elliott, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin won in Cup races to make 29 March seem like a who’s who of NASCAR winners over the years. John Bowe, Russell Ingall and Jamie Whincup also made Australian Touring Cars their own on this day.
In other race action on 29 March, Wilhelm Werner won the 15km 1901 Nice to La Turbie hillclimb as he shattered the previous 19km/h record at in a 51km/h tun to score Daimler’s maiden race victory and in 1927 Major Henry Segrave set a new 327km/h World Land Speed Record driving his 1000 horsepower Mystery Sunbeam at Daytona Beach, Florida.
29 March racing birthdays include pre-war Grand Prix legend Ernst von Delius in 1912, Indy star Billy Vukovich Jr. in 1944 and F1 drivers Gary Brabham in 1961 and Marc Gene in 1974. Keen amateur British 2-time Grands Prix racer and a regular at British, European and South African racing, David Prophet died aged 43 in 1981.
