Racing History

There are lies, damned lies and statistics, so the old saw goes. But there are fundamental truths in numbers, too. John Surtees won 38 of his 68 world championship motorcycle Grands…

Back in 1977 Patrick Tambay won the Can-Am championship with Carl Haas’s team, thus earning himself aFormula 1 ride with McLaren for the following year. Tambay drove for McLaren in 1978…

Formula Atlantic, Mallory Park, July 12 1981 In contemporary single-seater racing, you can drive almost any chassis you like… so long as it’s a Dallara, or perhaps a Tatuus. There…

It was never really in doubt was it? As soon as the pace of the Mercedes was there for all to see, winning the 2014 Constructors’ Championship was merely a…

Forty years ago – a time when running a World Championship Grand Prix in Russia was only marginally more likely than running one in, say, Azerbaijan – Formula 1 staged…

“He was like a little brother to me and I think he appreciated me looking out for him as a big brother too,” says Giacomelli. “We raced together for only…

Main image: 1909 winner Harry Grant. Courtesy of vanderbiltcupraces.com – The Howard Kroplick Collection This week marks the 110th anniversary of the first Vanderbilt Cup race on Long Island, New York. Through the…

“Can we talk later on this afternoon?” he says. “I’m a bit tied up right now, working on a friend’s Morris 1000 Traveller. Is that OK?” Surely a Morris Traveller…

John Hugenholtz thought the project unfeasible at first sight. Soichiro Honda told him not to worry. Within days the paddy fields were drained and bulldozed. Honda had owned the land…

British Saloon Car Championship, Oulton Park, April 17 1981 More than 30 years have passed since this was taken, but the principal elements remain core parts of the British motor…

Happy birthday to the man in the green helmet. Henri Pescarolo is 72 today. Fifty years ago he was a third-year medical student – a young non-shaver – winning for…

As well as being Motor Sport's 90th year, 2014 is also a landmark for John Surtees – he turned 80 in February. In tribute to his career and the fact…

Last week the podcast team paid a visit to Pagham on the south coast to see Derek Bell. If you've heard our last podcast with the five-time Le Mans winner,…

You don’t have to venture far along the pitlane to find a Kiwi. Ever since Bruce McLaren made his way from New Zealand to England in the early ‘60s it’s…

If you are reading this on Wednesday and happen to have a glass in your hand, please raise it to Sir Stirling Moss on the occasion of his 85th birthday. He is,…

While Goodwood’s Revival Meeting was for the 17th time reminding us of everything glorious that made our sport great, a vision for the future was being sparked into life on…

When Rob Widdows started his 'Tales with Mechanics' series on this website, one of the first names to be put forward was that of Bob Dance. Dance worked for Team…