General

This Week in Racing History (August 3-9)

This Week in Racing History August 3 - Peter Collins dies during German GP at Nurburgring (1958). - Lee Petty and his sons, Richard and Maurice, race against each other for the first and only time at Birmingham, ...

Edited: May 8, 2001, 12:19 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

This Week in Racing History

August 3 - Peter Collins dies during German GP at Nurburgring (1958).

- Lee Petty and his sons, Richard and Maurice, race against each other for the first and only time at Birmingham, Alabama's, Dixie Speedway. Richard finished second, Lee third, and Maurice eighth (1960).

August 4 - Indycar racer Joe Leonard born (1934).

- J.M. Fangio, driving a Maserati 250F, overcomes a 30 second deficite to go from third to first and win the German GP at the Nurburgring (1957).

August 5 - Indy 500 winner Gordon Johncock born (1936).

- Craig Breedlove drives the Spirit of America to a World Land Speed Record of 407.45 mph (1963).

August 6 - Jeff Gordon wins the first Brickyard 400 NASCAR Winston Cup race (1994).

August 7 - Roger McCluskey drives his Eagle-Ford to victory in the USAC Champ Car race at Langhorne, Pennsylvania (1966).

August 8 - Nigel Mansell, F1 and Indycar Champion, born (1958).

- First Pikes Peak Hill Climb run (1916).

August 9 - Patrick Depailler dies in testing crash at Hockenheim, Germany (1980).

- Mark Donohue, driving a Porsche 917/30 at Talladega, Alabama, sets a new Closed Course Speed Record of 221.12 mph/353.79 kph (1975).

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 all fun and games. Until you break a hip." -- Craig Kilborn

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Next article Goiania (BR) results

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Why McLaren gave team order to Oscar Piastri in F1 US GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

1 h

Why McLaren gave team order to Oscar Piastri in F1 US GP

Winners and losers from a frantic NASCAR Cup race at Talladega

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Talladega II

2 h

Winners and losers from a frantic NASCAR Cup race at Talladega

Herta endorses IndyCar’s international return with Barcelona while marveling at Palou’s dominance

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 2 h

Herta endorses IndyCar’s international return with Barcelona while marveling at Palou’s dominance

Why Chase Elliott has removed his name from NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Ballot

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Talladega II

3 h

Why Chase Elliott has removed his name from NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Ballot

Feature

Discover prime content

When Can-Am made its controversial comeback

General

By Gary Watkins

When Can-Am made its controversial comeback

How the M8B became the most dominant car in McLaren’s history

General

By Kevin Turner

How the M8B became the most dominant car in McLaren’s history

Stars, cars and highlights from the 2026 Goodwood Revival

General

By Kevin Turner

Stars, cars and highlights from the 2026 Goodwood Revival

Top 10 Can-Am drivers

General

By Kevin Turner

Top 10 Can-Am drivers

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts