This Day in Reject History

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 16 Dec 2015, 00:22

December 16th

1982 - Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus and one of the great innovators in Formula One car design, died of a heart attack on this day aged 54. Why is one of the most successful figures in the sport's history being remembered here? Because he was a reject driver.

Yes, at one time Colin drove racing cars and in the 1956 French Grand Prix had the opportunity to drive the Vanwall VW 2, which he himself designed with Frank Costin. He set a time good enough for a most impressive 5th place on his first Grand Prix weekend, between his teammates Harry Schell and Mike Hawthorn. Yes, Colin was faster than a future world champion on his Grand Prix début! Sadly, a crash at the final corner of the fast Reims circuit put an end to Colin Chapman's racing career, as he focused more on the engineering side of the sport thereafter.

golic_2004 · Post by **golic_2004** » 16 Dec 2015, 12:53

December 16

1989- Argentinian driver Oscar Alfredo Gálvez died of pancreatic cancer on this day. Born in 1913, Galvez was a 5 time Turismo Carretera champion who started the 1953 Grand Prix in his home country, finishing 5th in what would be his only race in the series. The race track Autódromo Juan y Oscar Galvez is named after him and his brother Juan, who was even more successful in the TC series with 9 championships of his own.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 17 Dec 2015, 14:56

December 17th

1915 - Ludwig Fischer was born. He had a successful run in German Formula Two, Formula Junior and hillclimbing. He also entered an AFM for the 1952 German Grand Prix, where he was 31st fastest out of 32 qualifiers, but he failed to start the race.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 18 Dec 2015, 00:06

December 18th

1991 - George Abecassis, a reject driver, as well as founder of the reject HWM team, died aged 78.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 19 Dec 2015, 00:37

December 19th

2008 - Manchester-born Sam Tingle, one of three Rhodesians to take part in a Grand Prix, passed away aged 87. He was a regular sight on the South African Grand Prix grid in the 1960s, most often at the wheel of one of Doug Serrurier's LDS Specials. His best result was an 8th place driving a Brabham BT24 in the 1969 event. His death left Clive Puzey (currently 74) as the last living F1 driver from the country formerly known as Rhodesia, though he has since emigrated to Australia, having been a prominent anti-Mugabe figure in Zimbabwe.

2012 - Colin Davis, son of 1920s racing legend and Le Mans winner Sammy Davis, also passed away on this day aged 79 after a long illness. His F1 career consisted of a couple of outings for Scuderia Centro Sud in 1959, achieving a best result of 11th in their Cooper T51. He was much more successful in sportscars, going on to win the legendary Targa Florio in 1964.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 20 Dec 2015, 02:13

Guys, I'm in serious trouble for today. I can't find anything reject-related. The only thing I can find is that it's Karl Wendlinger's birthday. I could write some reject connections in his career (sharing a car with Olivier Beretta at Le Mans for example), but I would rather something more, well, rejectful. Any help is appreciated, thanks

WaffleCat · Post by **WaffleCat** » 20 Dec 2015, 14:36

December 20, 2000 -- Michelin's entertainment at Estoril.

The three Michelin-shod teams for 2001: Williams, Jaguar and Benetton all showed up at Estoril to carry out tyre testing for the French constructor. Today saw the only day of dry running after the near farcical incident the day before…

…where a water tanker was sent out by Michelin on the dry circuit to dampen the track. However, the wet-weather test was later abandoned when, you guessed it, it rained too heavily. The sheer irony of this little incident is enough to send this one to the reject books.

However, it's today in reject history. And today was…unspectacular. Well, apart from a few incidents. Both Jaguars consisting of Luciano Burti and Eddie Irvine had off-track excursions in the damp morning, which helped keep test driver Tomas Scheckter on the sidelines for another day. Speaking of sidelines, that was also where Ralf Schumacher was, being sidelined with the nasty, evil flu bug. This allowed Gene into his seat for today's test.

Not exactly….rejectful, but it's the best I could come up with. Thanks to Crash.net for the source.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 20 Dec 2015, 17:14

WaffleCat wrote:December 20, 2000 -- Michelin's entertainment at Estoril.

The three Michelin-shod teams for 2001: Williams, Jaguar and Benetton all showed up at Estoril to carry out tyre testing for the French constructor. Today saw the only day of dry running after the near farcical incident the day before…

…where a water tanker was sent out by Michelin on the dry circuit to dampen the track. However, the wet-weather test was later abandoned when, you guessed it, it rained too heavily. The sheer irony of this little incident is enough to send this one to the reject books.

However, it's today in reject history. And today was…unspectacular. Well, apart from a few incidents. Both Jaguars consisting of Luciano Burti and Eddie Irvine had off-track excursions in the damp morning, which helped keep test driver Tomas Scheckter on the sidelines for another day. Speaking of sidelines, that was also where Ralf Schumacher was, being sidelined with the nasty, evil flu bug. This allowed Gene into his seat for today's test.

Not exactly….rejectful, but it's the best I could come up with. Thanks to Crash.net for the source.

That will do nicely

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 21 Dec 2015, 00:21

December 21st

1921 - Karl-Günther Bechem, or simply Günther Bechem, was born. He is perhaps the only driver in the history of the World Championship to race under two completely different names, competing in two German Grands Prix in the F2 years of 1952-53. In 1952 he raced a BMW Special under the name of "Bernhard Nacke", while in the 1953 race he drove an AFM under his real name.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 22 Dec 2015, 00:51

December 22nd

1905 - Pierre Levegh was born. He had a few outings in a Talbot-Lago in 1950-51, but he is perhaps most famous for two things: His doomed but almost successful solo attempt at winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1952, and his horrific crash at the same race three years later that would take his life and that of over 80 spectators, going down as the worst accident in motorsport history.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 23 Dec 2015, 00:12

Another tricky day: More birthdays (Marimón, Alboreto and Gachot) and the 30th anniversary of the passing of a driver with a name Rowan Atkinson would struggle to pronounce (Birabongse Bhanudej Bhanubandh, or B. Bira, or Prince Bira, or Prince Bira of Siam, or Prince Bira of Thailand and so on), so yeah, none of the aforementioned drivers are rejects, though they all have some association with rejectdom, as do most drivers. Once again, we may need to dig a little deeper. Failing at that, Bertrand Gachot had quite a rejectful career despite ridding himself of the shackles of rejectdom at Jordan...

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 23 Dec 2015, 18:15

Ah, screw it.

December 23rd

1962 - Bertrand Gachot was born. Gachot, while not a reject, has had plenty of reject association in a six-year F1 career, and had he not driven for Jordan in 1991 it's quite likely he would already be a profiled reject by now. His CV includes several of the less successful and rejectful teams of late eighties and early-to-mid-nineties F1 teams, and they are:

Onyx, where he achieved six consecutive DNPQs in a year where many of the teams stuck in pre-qualifying were actually somewhat decent, Onyx themselves getting a famous podium at Estoril thanks to Stefan Johansson. He was also the man who brought the infamous Jean-Pierre Van Rossem and his Moneytron sponsorship. He was later sacked for criticizing the team's lack of testing.

Rial, where he replaced Gregor Foitek and achieved... nothing because the car was too slow to qualify.

Coloni, where he drove the infamous Subaru-engine C3B. It was severely underpowered and overweight, second only to the Life in how slow it was. Subaru withdrew after Silverstone and the team switched to a Cosworth DFR, which was a noticeable improvement. Gachot still failed to qualify for every race of the season.

Jordan, where he unrejectified himself, scored a fastest lap at Silverstone, then attacked a taxi driver, which netted him a prison sentence. Jordan had to bring in a German sportscar driver to replace him.

Larrousse, where he failed to qualify for the shortest race in F1 history before doing a full season in the infamous Venturi, scoring the car's only point in Monaco.

Pacific, where he also became a shareholder and qualified for a few races early in the 1994 season. 1995 was more promising as he no longer had to worry about a limited number of grid slots, but in the mid-season he gave his seat up to pay drivers of no lesser caliber than Jean-Denis Délétraz and Giovanni Lavaggi. After further attempts to put Katsumi Yamamoto and Oliver Gavin in the car failed Gachot was brought back for the last three races.

Since retiring from Formula One Gachot has become the head of Hype Energy, who sponsored several F1 teams in the late ninties and of course sponsored André Lotterer in his one-off for Caterham in 2014.

EDIT: How the bathplug did I forget Coloni?

tBone · Post by **tBone** » 23 Dec 2015, 19:20

Simtek wrote:Since retiring from Formula One Gachot has become the head of Hype Energy, who sponsored several F1 teams in the late ninties and of course sponsored André Lotterer in his one-off for Caterham in 2014.

And Force India in 2015, as well. Also, I just wanted to tell I always read this topic with pleasure!

FullMetalJack · Post by **FullMetalJack** » 24 Dec 2015, 14:10

Since retiring?

That explains why he didn't join Footwork in 1995, he'd have probably scraped a point or two in that car.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 24 Dec 2015, 16:13

December 24th

1949 - Warwick Brown was born. He won the final edition of the Tasman Series in 1975 and won the Rothmans International Series twice, also finishing runner-up to Alan Jones in Can-Am in 1978. He also made one world championship F1 start, previously covered here.

novitopoli · Post by **novitopoli** » 25 Dec 2015, 10:41

December 25th

1943 - Wilson Fittipaldi was born. While not technically being a reject (he barely unrejectified himself during the 1973 season), he is mostly remember for having founded, alongside with his brother Emerson, the Copersucar-Fittipaldi team, for whom he raced during its first season. The infamous Divila-designed FD01 chassis the team started the season with had a rather radical approach, but was quickly dropped as it catched fire only 13 laps into the first race of the season. Wilson's 1975 was a rather rejectful example of the "having your team based in the Americas is never a good idea" rule, as he even failed to qualify three times, and he was replaced by his more famous brother for the following season.
His name is also linked to two records: Wilson and Emerson Fittipaldi were the first siblings to score points in the same Formula One race, and, way more surprisingly, Wilson and Christian Fittipaldi were the first father and son to score points in Formula One.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 26 Dec 2015, 00:21

December 26th

1935 - Moisés Solana, the first driver to race with the number 13, was born. His F1 career consisted of drives for some of the more successful European teams in his home race in Mexico and occasionally across the border in the States. He achieved a best result of 10th in the 1964 Mexican Grand Prix driving for Lotus. He was tragically killed in a hillclimb accident in 1969 when his McLaren overturned and caught fire. He was 33.

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 26 Dec 2015, 09:23

That's a top-notch bullet-point summary of Bertrand Gachot's litany of rejectfulness. And even in the season where he had a decent car, he still managed to screw it up spectacularly. As for that German bloke from sports cars, what was his name again... Shoemaker or something like that?

Incidentally, has anyone ever had a can of Hype, or seen it on sale anywhere?

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 27 Dec 2015, 03:34

December 27th

1900 - Hans Stuck, father of Hans Stuck, was born in Warsaw, then a part of the Russian Empire, although he was raised a German by Swiss parents. Very confusing, I know. He, like Raymond Sommer or Paul Pietsch, was an example of a pre-war Grand Prix driver who tried his hand at racing in the new Formula One. Stuck was highly successful in his early career, becoming so dominant in hillclimbing that he earned the nickname "Bergkönig". He was also highly successful in the era of the Silver Arrows, being part of the Auto Union team, highlights from this period including a victory in the 1935 Italian Grand Prix and finishing runner-up in the 1936 European Championship. After the war he continued to compete and, despite being over 50, drove Alex von Falkenhausen's unsuccessful F2 car in 1952-53, achieving a best result of 14th. In 1951 his wife gave birth to a son, Hans-Joachim Stuck, who went on to have a relatively successful F1 career in the 1970s.

novitopoli · Post by **novitopoli** » 28 Dec 2015, 01:02

December 28th

1963 - The South African GP was held at the East London circuit, as Jim Clark ended his triumphant season with yet another win. As usual back then in South Africa, a bunch of (mainly) local drivers entered the race as privateers: among those who debuted in Formula One on the day were Sam Tingle, Trevor Blokdyk, Brausch Niemann, Peter de Klerk (who sadly passed away this year), and David Prophet. Motorcycle rider Paddy Driver had entered the race, but didn't start due to a crash after qualifying last: Driver (who later went on to finish 3rd in the 500cc class of the Motorcycle World Championship, yet never managed to win a race) would have had to wait as long as eleven years to finally start a Formula One race (the 1974 South African GP, where he DNF'd during the sixth lap).

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 29 Dec 2015, 10:11

December 29th

1962 - The first World Championship South African Grand Prix was held on the Prince George Circuit in East London. This marked the beginning of all the one-off entries from South African and occasionally Rhodesian drivers in the one race on the African continent. Kicking things off were:

- Neville Lederle, who came dangerously close to unrejectification in 6th
- John Love, who, while not a reject, is celebrated as an underdog hero for what he would later achieve in 1967
- Bruce Johnstone, who never raced in another SAGP
- Doug Serrurier, who built his own "LDS" Alfa Romeo Specials. They weren't that great
- Mike Harris, the only driver born in Zambia (well, Northern Rhodesia)

Oh, and Graham Hill won his first championship.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 30 Dec 2015, 18:42

Yeah, the power was out all day...

December 30th

1942 - Guy Edwards was born. He never achieved great success in F1, driving for middling teams Hill, Hesketh (post-Hunt) and the ailing BRM team of 1977. He came closest to scoring points in the 1974 Swedish Grand Prix when he finished 7th behind his world champion boss Graham Hill. He was also one of the drivers who helped save Niki Lauda's life at the 1976 German Grand Prix. Guy Edwards' greatest triumphs came in the Aurora series in the late seventies, when he scored the only win for a Fittipaldi chassis at the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, although he was 7th on the road behind six other World Championship F1 regulars, who were ineligible for points. He went on to score several podiums in the BTCC in the late eighties and his son, Sean Edwards would also have success in tintops, including a Nurburgring 24 Hour win in 2013, and also playing his father in the Ron Howard film Rush. Sean sadly passed away in an accident at Queensland Raceway later that year.

1956 - François Hesnault was born. He was rather successful in French Formula Three and made his F1 début with the nation's number one privateer team Ligier in 1984. He scored no points. Nevertheless, he still earned a drive at Brabham, the team having returned to their strategy of hiring drivers nowhere near Nelson Piquet's ability since the departure of Riccardo Patrese in 1983. Hesnault proved a little too slow and was shown the door after just four races and a failure to make the grid in Monaco, his place being taken by Teo Fabi. He did make one other appearance that season though, testing an experimental onboard camera for Renault at the German Grand Prix, a race which also marked the last occasion a team entered three cars in one race, as he was driving alongside Patrick Tambay and Derek Warwick.

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 31 Dec 2015, 00:14

And in that 1977 season, Guy Edwards was one of those who got to drive the very sexy - but very slow - BRM P207. This post has been brought to you by the letters D, N, P and Q.

See? Sexy - at least by the standards of the clunkers that the 1970s brought us. Yes, I know that's Larry Perkins driving, but given that he was the only one to get the P207 into a race, what choice did I have?

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 31 Dec 2015, 17:07

The P207 was a looker alright, but to say the seventies in general were of poor standard? You've got to love some of those wacky designs! The tea-tray March 711 and the top-heavy Ligier JS5. And then there were other genuinely beautiful cars like the Lotus 79...

Er, sorry.

December 31st

1964 - Prepare to have your minds blown, for the first qualifying session of the 1965 season was held in 1964! How on earth can that be? Well, the simple reason is the 1965 South African Grand Prix was held on New Year's Day. The second qualifying session was held on New Year's Eve, with the first session and pre-qualifying held the day before. The race was originally to be the final round of the 1964 season, but the race was pushed back by just one week, making it the opening round of 1965! Some teams, such as Cooper, still brought their 1964 cars to the event, with their new 1965 models either not ready or not enough examples had been built in time. This second qualifying session, held early in the morning at 6 a.m., ultimately decided the grid, with Jim Clark taking pole, foreshadowing what would be another record-breaking season for the Scot, while the only non-qualifiers were local drivers Trevor Blokdyk, Neville Lederle, Doug Serrurier, Brausch Niemann and Ernie Pieterse.

golic_2004 · Post by **golic_2004** » 31 Dec 2015, 23:25

It's January 1st over there, so I will mention the 1965 South African Grand Prix.

This featured a list of local talent from the country:
Dave Charlton
Jackie Pretorius
Trevor Blokdyk
Neville Lederle
Tony Maggs (non-reject)
Brausch Niemann
Ernie Pieterse
Doug Serrurier
Peter de Klerk

A list of withdrawals from the race included Alex Blignaut, David Clapham and Brian Raubenheimer, none of whom made another Formula 1 attempt.

The list of entrants was so high there was even a pre-qualifying session (the first if I'm not mistaken) with Charlton and Pretorius, along with Rhodesian entrant Clive Puzey, being the first victims of DNPQ.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 31 Dec 2015, 23:46

golic_2004 wrote:It's January 1st over there, so I will mention the 1965 South African Grand Prix.

This featured a list of local talent from the country:
Dave Charlton
Jackie Pretorius
Trevor Blokdyk
Neville Lederle
Tony Maggs (non-reject)
Brausch Niemann
Ernie Pieterse
Doug Serrurier
Peter de Klerk

A list of withdrawals from the race included Alex Blignaut, David Clapham and Brian Raubenheimer, none of whom made another Formula 1 attempt.

The list of entrants was so high there was even a pre-qualifying session (the first if I'm not mistaken) with Charlton and Pretorius, along with Rhodesian entrant Clive Puzey, being the first victims of DNPQ.

Also among the withdrawals was Ray Reed and his "Realpha", who sadly passed away in a plane crash on the way to the event.

But, on a happier note: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6777&start=160#p353318

Post by **Miguel98** » 01 Jan 2016, 11:25

January 1st

1965 - The first race of the 1965 was held. The 1965 South African Grand Prix, as detailed by Simtek, had the pre-qualifying, practice and qualifying sessions held in 1964, while the race beeing run in the first day of the new year. Jim Clark would start what would become one of his most dominating seasons, by taking pole position, fastest lap and race win, 30 seconds ahead of defending world champion John Surtees and 32 seconds ahead of Graham Hill. Mike Spence finished 4th, Bruce McLaren finished 5th and Jackie Stewart scored his first career points. The race was also marked by beeing the first time a podium was repeated in the history of F1 (thanks Tommykl for that information in a quiz a while ago!), the debut of Goodyear tyres with the Brabham squad which now challenged the Dunlop monopoly in the grid. In terms of regional drivers, Peter de Klerk finished 10th and Tony Maggs finished 11th, with the last classified finisher beeing David Prophet, 14 laps down on Clark.

If anyone wants to add something extra, feel free to it.

golic_2004 · Post by **golic_2004** » 01 Jan 2016, 15:35

Well 2016 isn't good for me so far. I post about the Grand Prix yet Simtek takes credit. :facepalm:

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 01 Jan 2016, 16:44

1st January 1981: the birth of our lord and master, HWNSNBM.

Hopefully nobody forgot that! Make your offerings of papayas at the altar.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 02 Jan 2016, 16:06

January 2nd

1967 - The South African Grand Prix was held at Kyalami for the first time, and the world of Grand Prix racing was in for a shock as Rhodesia's John Love almost won the race in a two-year-old Cooper that was built for the Tasman Series and with which he had been dominating South African Formula One. He took the lead on lap 59, when Denny Hulme had to pit for brake fluid. Sadly, an upset that Rodger Ward must have been aiming for in 1959 would not come as Love had to pit for extra fuel seven laps from the end, handing the lead to Pedro Rodríguez, who was on trial for the works Cooper team. Rodríguez won the race and stayed with the team for the rest of the season, which suggests that John Cooper was sufficiently impressed with the young Mexican's ability. As for Love, he became ineligible for a profile on F1 Rejects, but a Reject Centrale article was dedicated to this, one of the great underdog moments in the sport's history. As for the other rejects, Dave Charlton and Luki Botha were not classified in their three-year-old Brabhams, though Charlton amazingly qualified eighth ahead of the likes of Jackie Stewart and Dan Gurney, who were in more up to date machinery. Sam Tingle, the other Rhodesian in the race, crashed his LDS 24 laps from the end.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 03 Jan 2016, 14:11

January 3rd

2008 - Jimmy Stewart (no, not the actor), elder brother of Jackie Stewart, passed away, aged 76. His career way back in 1951 with a Healey Silverstone that he drove in hillclimb events, doing well enough to attract the attention of Ecurie Ecosse owner David Murray. His time driving their blue cars included a single World Championship start at Silverstone in 1953, driving a Cooper-Bristol. He outqualified most of the other Coopers in 15th and climbed up to sixth place in the race before spinning off 11 laps from the end. In 1954 he got a drive for the works Aston Martin team at Le Mans, where he suffered a badly broken arm in a crash. Another crash at the Nurburgring 1000km the following year was when Jimmy decided to give it up for good. Jackie was more well-known in his early career simply as "Jimmy Stewart's younger brother", but would nevertheless forge his own legacy as a pretty handy driver in his own right. Jimmy moved to America after retiring, where he unfortunately began struggling in a long battle with alcoholism, which he finally overcame in 1999. He was a great influence on his younger brother:

Jackie Stewart, in his autobiography wrote:"What do I owe Jim? I owe him almost everything because when I was a youngster struggling at school [with dyslexia], the world seemed an extremely dark place. I . . . found my real salvation in motor racing, and I found it because, in my difficult time of need and confusion, it was my elder brother who carried the torch and selflessly showed me the way. It was almost as if Jim was beckoning me to join him on a magic carpet ride, carrying me out of the wilderness at school into the exciting, glamorous, colourful world of motor racing."

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 04 Jan 2016, 00:36

January 4th

1971 - After the overcrowding incident at the previous year's Mexican Grand Prix, the race organisers paid the FIA for the chaos that resulted in the race being dropped from the calendar.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 05 Jan 2016, 00:11

I now have the rest of this thread pretty much planned out, as I have begun the long process of examining each and every day of the year for the best reject content in preparation for when this is moved to the main site, though I don't want to stop anyone from contributing something better that I may have missed

January 4th

1978 - Coke baron Franck Montagny was born. Yes, the man who last year tested positive for benzoylecgonine after the Putrajaya ePrix turns 38 today. Franck of course drove for everybody's favourite reject team of the 2000s, Super Aguri, after Yuji Ide's superlicence was revoked. His F1 career lasted seven races with a best result of two 16th places, when he was replaced by Sakon "He of the dodgy neck" Yamamoto.

1938 - Keith Greene was born. His career mostly consists of drives for his father Syd Greene's Gilby Engineering effort, who even built a car for him. It was not very competitive and Keith's best result was a 15th at his home race in Aintree in 1961. Keith later went on to manage the privateer Goldie Hexagon Racing team in the 1970s, giving John Watson his first full-time drive in 1974.

Jan Magnussen · Post by **Rob Dylan** » 05 Jan 2016, 14:14

Wow, I did NOT know about the cocaine story until you mentioned it just now. Am I so far behind in the news? It was only recently I found out Jaime Alguersuari retired from motorsport :facepalm:

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 06 Jan 2016, 00:06

January 6th

1998 - In a most bizarre turn of events, German prosecutors announced that Michael Schumacher could face legal charges for his infamous Jerez collision. After the Ferrari driver had already been stripped of his 2nd place in the 1997 World Championship, what more could be done? Well, in the (presumably translated) words of one prosecutor, he could be charged with "attempted murder, inflicting grievous bodily harm, coercion, and driving offences". Not surprisingly, no one bothered to press these rather... excessive charges.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 07 Jan 2016, 12:44

January 7th

1946 - Mike Wilds was born. Mike raced in F3 with some success before stepping up to F5000 and then F1 in 1974 with an old March, failing to qualify for the British Grand Prix with it. He was snapped up by Ensign later in the year, making his first start at Watkins Glen after three previous attempts and outqualifying the likes of Graham Hill and Vittorio Brambilla. A move to BRM in 1975 didn't translate into good results as the team was in decline and he was gone after the South American rounds. One final fruitless attempt to qualify for the 1976 British Grand Prix in a Shadow would see him make a move into sportscar racing, the highlight of this career being World Sportscar Champion in the C2 category for Ecurie Ecosse in 1986.

1939 - Brausch Niemann was born. Like most South Africans, his F1 career consists of a couple of attempts at his home race. In 1963 and 1965 Brausch entered a Lotus 22 at East London, finishing 14th on the first occasion and failing to qualify in the latter. He later switched to endure motorcycle racing, winning the South African championship in 1979.

1923 - Jean Lucienbonnet was born. He attempted to race in the 1959 Monaco Grand Prix in a Cooper F2, but failed to qualify. Three years later he was killed in a Formula Junior race at the Pergusa circuit in Sicily, aged 39.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 08 Jan 2016, 00:02

January 8th

1972 - Dave Charlton kicked off the 1972 South African F1 season by winning in Kyalami at the wheel of a brand-new Lotus 72D, with only Peter de Klerk in an older Lotus 49C finishing on the same lap. Charlton would go on to win 9 of the 12 races that season, with only John Love and Eddie Keizan providing some variety.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 09 Jan 2016, 00:12

January 9th

1960 - Pascal Fabre was born. As a rookie, he led the AGS team in their first full season in 1987. He may not have been the fastest man in the world, but he was able to bring the car home in one piece. Out of the 11 Grand Prix starts he made, he only retired twice, and both were due to mechanical problems, which is also a testament to the reliability of the AGS JH22, essentially an updated version of the JH21C. Unfortunately, the addition of a second Osella at the Italian Grand Prix, as well as the addition of the Coloni team meant that there were now more entries than there were grid slots. Pascal failed to qualify for three of the next four races and was sacked after the Mexican Grand Prix. He was replaced by Roberto Moreno.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 10 Jan 2016, 16:03

January 10th

1918 - Harry Merkel was born. He was one of the many German privateer entries at the Nurburgring when the German Grand Prix ran to F2 regulations. Merkel was entered for the 1952 event, driving Willi Krakau's BMW Special, but failed to set a time in qualifying.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 11 Jan 2016, 00:56

January 11th

1985 - Kazuki Nakajima, son of Satoru Nakajima, was born. His F1 record wasn't great, as he was soundly beaten by Nico Rosberg at Williams and was the only driver to go the full 2009 season without scoring a point, but that didn't matter to one Zoran Stefanovic, who snapped him up to join Jacques Villeneuve at Stefan GP for the 2010 season, but, because the FIA are no fun, the team's entry was rejected. Kazuki did have more success at home in Japan, winning the Super Formula championship twice and also becoming a race winner in Super GT. He's also part of Toyota's WEC lineup.