Racing Driver Profiles
The World's Greatest Racecar Drivers
Profiles of past and present automotive personalities. The drivers who risked their lives in the early days to the engineers who creatively changed the world of automobiles, this is a celebration of the people who played a major role in the world we love.
The Drivers
Step into the grandstands and witness the spectacle of speed! This is your all-access pass to the thrilling world of automotive racing, a comprehensive journey through the history of motorsports across the globe. From the legendary circuits of Formula 1 and the high-octane battles of NASCAR to the endurance challenges of Le Mans and the rally stages that conquer diverse terrains, we'll explore the iconic races, legendary drivers, and unforgettable moments that have defined this exhilarating sport. Get ready to relive the triumphs and tragedies, the technological innovations and record-breaking feats that have fueled the passion for motorsports throughout the decades. This is the ultimate celebration of speed, skill, and the unwavering pursuit of victory on the track.
On May 9th, 1992, Roberto Guerrero earned the pole position for the 76th running of the Indianapolis 500-mile race. Piloting a Buick-powered Lola T92/00 for King Motorsports, the 33-year-old Colombian became the first man in Speedway history to officially break the 230-mph barrier as he set new track records for...
Feature Image via Ignite Media For our latest episode of automotive personality interviews, we caught up with Parker Thompson, who is just fresh off winning the 2022 Porsche Carrera Cup North America. No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here Get Started Already a Member? Sign in to your account...
I recently had the pleasure of chatting with professional race car driver, Max Hanratty. As part of the Fast MD Racing team, Max currently competes in the IMSA LMP3 class where he pilots a Nissan-powered Duqueine M30-D08. No Subscription? You’re missing out Any Text Here Get Started Already a Member?...
Bob Bondurant (1933–2021) I met Mr. Bondurant in the autograph line at Carroll Shelby’s Roast in Palm Springs, 1990. I remember him as an affable man who treated everyone with respect. You could have no idea of the exciting life he had lived or his accomplishments from a casual conversation...
Rene Dreyfus, great Pre WWII Grand Prix champion and world-class restaurateur, famously entitled his autobiography My Two Lives. The late Don Ricardo could have just as appropriately employed this same title for his most interesting life story. Although his background includes activities from semipro basketball to tool and die making,...
The passing of Sabine Schmitz has brought with it overpowering grief and dismay around the globe. Motorsport has lost a Nordschleife icon: her lively and quick-witted style inspired so many of us, both on and off the racetrack. Following a long battle with cancer, Sabine Schmitz was taken from us...
Mario Andretti Biography Mario Andretti was born in Montona, Italy, on February 28, 1940, just three months before Mussolini worked up the courage to throw in his lot with Hitler, and thrust Italy into World War II. At the cessation of hostilities the Andrettis found that their homeland was destined...
Paddy Hopkirk’s strength and wit at the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964 launched the Northern Ireland racing driver into the United Kingdom’s most celebrated rally driver and propelled the Mini into racing stardom. Now 87, Paddy still enjoys his enthusiasm for the Mini and savors the trials of winding country...
The legendary Porsche engineer Hans Mezger passed away June 10, 2020 at the age of 90. Porsche owes him not only the Porsche 911’s air-cooled, six-cylinder boxer engine but also the overall construction of the 917 and its twelve-cylinder engine as well as his creation of the TAG Turbo Formula...
Not long before his untimely death a few years ago, our Robert Newman wrote this tribute to his friend and hero Stirling Moss. As the director of Public Relations for Pirelli for many years, Robert worked with Moss on a variety of projects and came to know both Moss and...
British motor racing legend Sir Stirling Moss passed away following a long illness on Easter Sunday at his Mayfair, London home at the age of 90, with his wife Susie, the Lady Moss, by his side. Stirling Craufurd Moss was born into a motorsport family. His father Alfred, a wealthy...
Rudolf Caracciola [dropcap]A[/dropcap]t Monaco, the first significant race of the 1933 season, a new Grand Prix team made its debut: Scuderia CC, with Rudi Caracciola and Louis Chiron as its principals. Two of the finest, most successful drivers in the world, they each had broken away from their established works...
Lloyd Ruby hailed from Wichita Falls, Texas, up in the north central part of the state, not far from the Oklahoma line. Born a year before the Depression, he was soft-spoken by nature — a wicked sense of humor notwithstanding — but not someone to be taken lightly. He began...
Colin Chapman Biography Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman was born on 9 May, 1928 in a suburb of London. He grew up living at the Railway Hotel, Hornsey, which his father managed. One of the first significant events of Chapman’s life occurred in March of 1944 when he met his future...
When he competed in his first Formula One race, Eddie Cheever was even more baby-faced than when I got to know him, which is saying something. It was the 1978 South African Grand Prix and Eddie, who looked about 16 at the time, had actually just turned 20. He qualified...
Ferdinand Piëch died on 25 August 2019 at the age of 82. Born in Vienna on April 17, 1937, Piëch was fascinated by technology since childhood, especially by kinetic technology. At the age of nine he was already able to drive a car. After graduating from school, he studied mechanical...
Manfred von Brauchitsch Biography He was called die Pechvogel, the unlucky bird. He was known more for the races that he lost than those that he had won, but to dismiss him as a journeyman driver would do him a great disservice. While not at the level of his teammates Caracciola, Fagioli...
It was a word-of-mouth, invitation-only affair organized by his lovely wife Susie and a friend without Stirling Moss knowing a thing about it. No mean feat, considering about 400 people attended the celebration. How Susie kept the party from her husband I’ll never know, except that all the invitees were...
I have admired Tazio Nuvolari all my life and so has just about every other motor racing enthusiast of my generation. My friend Murray Walker, the British television Formula One commentator, often likes to say he saw the Flying Mantuan race, but I was born too late to enjoy such...
Tucked away in a little potato-farming town, 250 miles south east of Buenos Aires, is one of the most important motor racing museums in the world, a tribute to the little town of Balcarce from the man whose life story it tells. It is the Centro Tecnologico-Cultural y Museo del...
Robert KubicaPhoto: Stefan Brending He was a spectacular Formula 1 driver and the first Polish addition to the F1 circus, who had it all going for him after six years in the top echelon of motor racing. He even won the 2008 Grand Prix of Canada in a BMW Sauber...
Today, Franco Cortese is, perhaps, one of motor sport’s forgotten stars and he shouldn’t be. He was the driver who put Ferrari on the map in a career that spanned 156 races, 20 victories and top placings as long as your arm. During more than four decades, from 1926 to...
He is literally the fastest man on the planet, and has been since October 15, 1997. That was when Andy Green set the current World Land Speed Record of an average 766.035 mph taking him to Mach 1.02, which also made him the world’s first supersonic car driver. And he...
Fathers and their sons who have each won the Formula 1 World Championship are few and far between. There are only two dads and their lads who have pulled it off. The first to climb that particular Everest were the Hills: Graham won the 1962 world title driving a BRM...
Lewis Hamilton Biography Few drivers have entered Formula One racing with as big a bang as Lewis Hamilton and a seemingly charmed racing career nurtured in no small part by Ron Dennis, principle at McLaren at the time. Hamilton’s sensational maiden season in 2007 – in which he lost out...
David Bruce-Brown Biography Born in 1887 to wealthy merchant parents, he attended the Allen-Stephenson School in New York City, and then the Harstrom School in Norwalk, Connecticut, a prep school for Yale. This only served to prove that the young man was not cut out for academic pursuits. He instead...
Bugatti had won the Targa Florio three consecutive years from 1925 – 1927 by the time their new recruit, Albert Divo, was flagged away from the Cerda start of the 1928 Sicilian classic. And he didn’t disappoint: Divo not only won the island epic that year, he made it two...
Mike Hailwood had won no fewer than nine World Motorcycle Championships before he ever competed in his first Formula One motor race. Not to mention 14 victories in the heart-in-your-mouth Isle of Man TT. So he quickly earned himself the nickname of “Mike the Bike.” If the truth were told,...
Giuseppe Campari discovered 17-year-old Giulio Ramponi in 1919, when the youngster was working as a trainee for a Milan fuel pump manufacturer. The great driver was looking for a keen young man who he could mould into an effective riding mechanic. And that was the start of Giulio’s brilliant career...
Louis Chiron Biography Born in August 1899, the son of a French hotelier in Monaco he became that principalities most famous sportsman. Holding dual citizenship Chiron joined the French army prior to his 18th birthday, serving as an artilleryman during World War I. He later became the personal driver to...
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