Motorsport People Profiles
The World's Greatest Drivers, Owners, Engineers & Personalities
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.
Pantheon of Speed: Legends of Motorsports
Dive into a captivating collection of profiles and exclusive interviews with the greatest names in motorsports history – the drivers who defied limits, the engineers who pushed boundaries, the designers who shaped iconic machines, and the visionaries who built racing empires. From the daredevils of early Grand Prix racing to the modern masters of Formula 1, we celebrate the men and women who have etched their names into the annals of motorsport legend.
Fluent in six languages, tall, with regular features set off by an immaculately clipped goatee beard and moustache, Jo Bonnier crammed a lot into his 42 years. He was an accomplished Formula One and sports car racer, president of the Grand Prix Drivers Association and proprietor of his own art...
John Bishop, the man most responsible for the establishment of professional sports car racing in America, has died at the age of 87. As executive director of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), Bishop’s vision took the club down the path to professionalism in the 1960s, forming first the...
Tazio Nuvolari Biography Tazio Nuvolari a legend in his own lifetime, was known as Il Montavano Volante, the Flying Mantuan. He epitomized courage and daring and for 30 years he amazed the racing world with his exploits on both two and four wheels. He was born November 18, 1892, in Casteldrio...
Bandini in the Ferrari T1512/63 during the non-championship International Trophy race at Silverstone in the Spring of 1965, where he finished 7th. Milan was in mourning the first time I visited the cathedral city, in the late spring of 1967. In fact, all of Italy hung its collective head in...
In a letter dated March 1970, Ferry Porsche congratulated Steve McQueen and his co-driver Peter Revson on their impressive performance at the 12 Hours of Sebring. In the letter, Porsche wrote: “Dear Mr. McQueen, It is a great pleasure to extend my warm congratulations to you on your outstanding performance at the 12 Hours of Sebring....
We are saddened to report the death of Ian Walker, rally and racecar driver, team owner and Lotus dealer. Those few words of description, however, hide the character of a man who touched many within his era of competition and team ownership. As a rally driver he drove for the...
In a world where the value of words is often diminished by over-use and misapplication, there is absolutely no doubt that the word “icon” applies to Carroll Shelby, who passed away on May 10. The charismatic Texan may be known primarily as the chicken farmer who created the Cobra, but...
Hall of Famer Jim McElreath passed away last Thursday, in his hometown of Arlington, Texas, at the age of 89. Already a wily veteran when he made his first Indianapolis 500 start in 1962, McElreath impressed observers by qualifying 7th and running 2nd in the early going, having passed the...
Richie Ginther Biography Those readers familiar with the Grand Prix History website know that central to this site is the Hall of Fame. Illustrating that section is a famous photograph by Gary Bramstedt entitled Heroes. Amongst such giants of the sport as Clark, Brabham and Hill is a small freckle-faced driver...
It had been a long, hard ride from winning masses of kart races when he was a kid to winning the 2009 Formula One World Championship. But, like so many other kart stars of the last 30 years or so, Jenson Button did it, with a lot of team changes...
The planning for this issue was complete and work well under way, when, on August 28, we received the very sad news that Formula One and Le Mans champion Phil Hill had lost his long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Despite being nearly finished with this issue, it seemed only fitting...
Former SCCA hot shoe Art Huttinger has died from heart failure in a Florida Veteran’s Hospital at the age of 91. Born in 1925, he grew up in Great Falls, Montana, and excelled as a high school athlete in football, basketball, long distance running and speed skating. In 1942, at...
David Uihlein, founder of the Harry A. Miller Club and a dedicated historian of the Miller marque, passed away January 29th of natural causes at his home in the Milwaukee suburb of Mequon. An executive in the brewing industry as well as the owner of Banner Welder Co., Mr. Uihlein...
It wasn’t the fact that Roy Lane won four British Hillclimb Championships, it was the timing of the wins. His first two came in the 1975 and 1976 seasons at the wheel of his McRae GM1-Chevrolet; his third championship was some 16 years later in 1992, and his final title...
Racing great Daniel Sexton Gurney has died at the age of 86. Gurney passed away on Sunday, January 14, 2018 of complications from pneumonia. Born April 13, 1931, in Port Jefferson, Long Island, to John Gurney, a Metropolitan Opera star and his wife Roma Sexton, Gurney was undoubtedly one of...
Vintage Racecar was immensely saddened to hear of the passing of “Gentleman” Jack Sears following a long fight with cancer. Jack was born into a farming family in Northampton. His love of cars came through his father Stanley’s interest and participation in motoring events. Jack first took part in the...
One of the most widely recognized vintage racers in the sport, Peter Giddings, passed away earlier this week at his home in Northern California, at the age of 79. In a vintage racing career that began over four decades ago, Peter owned and/or drove many of the greatest cars ever...
Having been born within earshot of the Le Mans 24-hour race in France, that François Migault took to motor racing was no surprise. He was one of those drivers who showed great early promise, especially in Formula Three where he won the Volant Shell trophy, and in Formula Two where...
St. Chamond in the Loire Valley of France was once known as a production center of ribbon and rayon, as well as its railway works. Now, it is best known as the birthplace of the little man who beat the world four times. For Alain Marie Pascal Prost, who was...
Artists and artisans have called Italy home for millennia, with pursuit of the arts a natural activity for countless Italians inspired by the natural beauty all around them. One with such a destiny arrived on July 26, 1937 in the town of Busto Arsizio, northwest of Milan, a newborn son...
Jim Travers, who first rose to prominence along with his partner Frank Coon as the “Whiz Kids” behind Bill Vukovich’s success at Indianapolis, and later founded famed engine house Traco Engineering, has died at the age of 95. Collaborating with constructor Frank Kurtis, Travers (at right, above) and Coon built...
On New Year’s Day of 1967 the South African Champion, John Love, was pipped at the post in the season opening South African Grand Prix at Kyalami when his Tasman Cooper faltered in the closing stages whilst comfortably in the lead and was forced to stop for fuel because of...
Ted Cutting, the man who designed the Aston Martin DBR1 that took Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori to victory at Le Mans over 50 years ago, has died. It is little known, but due to a fact-finding visit to Maserati, initiated by John Wyer, he didn’t see his cars cross...
Gilles Villeneuve Biography “He’s different from the rest of us, on a separate level …” Jacques Laffite describing Gilles Gilles Villeneuve was born in Quebec on 18 January, 1950. He rose up through snowmobile racing and Formula Atlantic. In fact he credits some of his success to his snowmobiling days:...
The 1950s and ’60s were to many involved in Australian historic motor sport, the halcyon years. It was the time of the Australian Special, the racing of early model Holdens and the Tasman Series. Many names came and went, but quite a few remained and are still well known today...
Chairman, Endurance Rally Association Fred Gallagher grew up in a part of Northern Ireland where those noted for a passion and love of pure motor sport lived. Paddy Hopkirk was a near neighbor, and the likes of John Watson and Eddie Irvine were raised just a handful of miles away....
You know how it is when a friend dies; you wish you had done more, visited him more, telephoned him more, at least thought of him more? That is how it was with me when Luigi Villoresi, distinguished gentleman and heroic racing driver, died eight years ago. I had known...
Alessandro Zanardi is an inspiration to us all. Here is a double CART champion who lost both his legs in a devastating motor racing accident in 2001, nearly bled to death, underwent more surgery in which his legs were further shortened to allow them to heal, fought back through a...
Adrian Newey Biography Newey was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom on December 26th, 1958. His father was a veterinary surgeon and his mother a former ambulance driver. His older brother left home while Adrian was young and hew grew up more or less and only child. His father was a...
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