This Week in Racing History (April 27 - May 3)

This Week in Racing History

April 27 - Christian Werner wins the Targa Florio. First win for a supercharged Mercedes (1924).

- Rally driver Ari Vatanen born (1952).

April 28 - Exotic car mavin Ferruccio Lamborghini born (1916).

- Bobby Albert wins the midget feature race at Freeport, N.Y., in an Offenhauser powered Bulldog Kurtis (1968).

April 29 - Pre-war American driving ace Eddie Rickenbacher scores his first "kill" as a fighter pilot in WWI (1918).

- NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt born (1952).

April 30 - Wolfgang von Trips and Olivier Gendebien drive a Ferrari 246SP to victory in the Targa Florio (1961).

- Roland Ratzenberger dies in a crash during practice for the San Marino Grand Prix, at Imola, Italy (1994).

May 1 - Stirling Moss wins the Mille Miglia in just over 10 hours (1955).

- Ayrton Senna dies in crash during San Marino Grand Prix (1994).

May 2 - The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving moves to its own purpose built facility in Phoenix, Arizona (1990).

May 3 - F1 team owner Ken Tyrrell born (1924).

- Harry Miller, who's engines defined American racing in the 1920s, dies, alone and in poverty, in Detroit, Michigan (1943).

Last week, I of course meant that Phil Hill's F1 driving title came in 1961, not 1960. Also, I apologize for leaving a letter out of Reinhold Joest's name.

Previous issues of This Week in Racing History can be found at the Motorsport News International website (http://www.motorsport.com/).

Michael Stucker | Anadrill Schlumberger, Sugar Land, Texas stucker@sugar-land.anadrill.slb.com | Definately not Anadrill's opinion. Copyright Michael J. Stucker 1997 "It's great to do business in a Bernie-free country." -- BPR founder Stephane Ratel commenting on the United States