#F1Birthdays: Fred Wacker - 1918 Born in Chicago on this day, Wacker was an engineer and former president of two large Chicago-based companies. He participated in five Formula One World Championship races, debuting on June 21, 1953. He scored no championship points. He also participated in several non-Championship Formula One races. Wacker was involved in a fatal accident during the second lap of the 1952 Watkins Glen Grand Prix, which at the time was a street course. While preparing for a right hand turn, his Allard J2 came dangerously close to a Cunningham driven by John Fitch, and both drivers swerved to avoid a collision. The back end of the Allard came out slightly to the left and closer to a throng of spectators sitting on the curb along the side of the course. Ten people were injured and a 7 year old boy was killed. The tragedy caused the end of street racing at the Glen and elsewhere in the United States for 13 years, until racing returned to the streets of Long Beach. --------------------------------------- Alessandro de Tomaso - 1928 Born in Buenos Aires, Tomaso only participated in two Formula One Grand Prix events, debuting in 1957. Despite his Formula One career, de Tomaso was much more significant in the motoring world as a maker of cars. In 1959 he founded the De Tomaso car company in Modena, originally to build prototypes and racing cars, which included a Formula One car for Frank Williams team in 1970. De Tomaso then turned to high-performance sports cars, most of which used aluminium backbone chassis, which were to become the companys technical trademark. During the 1960s and 1970s, de Tomaso acquired a number of Italian industrial holdings. As well as the Ghia and Vignale coachbuilding studios, he gained control of the Benelli and Moto Guzzi motorcycle firms, the Innocenti car company (founded as an offshoot of the British Motor Corporation to build Minis in Italy), and, in 1975, the celebrated sports car maker Maserati, which he rescued from bankruptcy with the assistance of the Italian government. Over time, however, he sold many of his holdings; Ghia was sold to Ford (who would make much use of the name) in 1973; Innocenti and Maserati were sold to Fiat (which promptly closed the former) in 1993. De Tomaso suffered a stroke in 1993, and the day-to-day running of the De Tomaso company passed to his son Santiago. He helped in the engineering of the sports version of the fourth generation Daihatsu Charade, introduced in 1994, which was known as the Daihatsu Charade De Tomaso. Alejandro de Tomaso died in Italy in 2003. --------------------------------------- Jean-Pierre Jarier - 1946 A well-known Grand Prix racing driver, now retired, he was born at Charenton-le-Pont, near Paris, and is regarded as one of the finest drivers never to win a Grand Prix. In 1974 Jarier signed with the Shadow Racing Cars team. He became team leader following the death of Peter Revson, finishing 3rd at the Monaco Grand Prix on his way to 14th overall. 1975 began with a bang, as he put his Shadow DN5 on pole position for the Argentine Grand Prix, only for a component to break in the warm-up, preventing Jarier from taking the start. He repeated the feat at the Brazilian Grand Prix, and then dominated the race until a fuel metering unit failed, ending his race. Jarier spent 1976 with Shadow Racing Cars, qualifying 3rd in an updated version of the previous years car, the DN5B and setting fastest lap at the opening Brazilian Grand Prix, before spinning off on James Hunts oil. Following this impressive start, his career slowed. He switched to the ATS team in 1977, driving a Penske. He scored a point in his first race for the team, and then had one-off drives for Shadow and Equipe Ligier when the German team elected to miss the final races of the year. He also dabbled in sports cars, winning two races in an Alfa Romeo T33 with Arturo Merzario, and coming second at the Le Mans 24 Hours with Vern Schuppan in a Mirage. His second year at ATS in the in-house HS1, was less successful, and he was fired after an argument with team principal Hans Gunther Schmidt after failing to qualify the car for the Monaco Grand Prix. He was briefly rehired for the German Grand Prix, only to miss the grid again, and again argue with Schmidt, leaving once more. However, at the end of the year he was signed by Team Lotus to take the seat left by Ronnie Petersons death. He set fastest lap at the United States East Grand Prix, running 3rd before he ran out of fuel, and then took pole and dominated at the Canadian Grand Prix before an oil leak ended his race. These showings saw him signed by Tyrrell Racing. He was a regular points-scorer over two seasons with the team, with his best results being two 3rd places, achieved at the 1979 South African Grand Prix and the 1979 British Grand Prix. 1982 saw a full season with Osella, with Jarier securing the teams best-ever finish with 4th at the San Marino Grand Prix (which was boycotted by the majority of British teams). While the rest of the year would be difficult, Jarier was instrumental in keeping the teams morale up following the death of Riccardo Paletti at the Canadian Grand Prix. The following year saw a full season with Equipe Ligier, but after a good run at Long Beach ended with a collision with Keke Rosberg, he seemed to lose hope, and finished the season without points. During the 1983 season, he became grossly unpopular with the other drivers due to his bad behavior as a back marker on the track during races. At the 1983 Austrian Grand Prix he made many drivers angry because of his blocking tactics as a back marker. On lap 22, Ferrari driver Patrick Tambay, who had led the race from the start, was held up by Jarier for 2 corners (the Glatsch-kurve and the Bosch-kurve). As he was being held up, Tambays team-mate Rene Arnoux was able to pass Tambay on the approach to the Texaco-Schikane by boxing Tambay in behind Jarier. This also allowed Brabham driver Nelson Piquet to come from 3rd to 2nd by nipping past Tambay into the second of the two left-handers, which dropped Tambay to 3rd and denied him the lead he had been preparing to re-take from Arnoux. A furious Tambay waved his fist at Jarier when he finally did pass him. BBC commentators Murray Walker and James Hunt were appalled at Jariers driving, with Hunt saying: Jarier really is completely out of order, he really shouldnt be allowed to drive in Grand Prix racing. Hes got a mental age of 10 in the first place, and that was an absolutely disgraceful bit of driving for a driver of his experience...the authorities have to crack down on driving like that...he should certainly receive a short suspension, and for being himself, he should receive a permanent suspension. Even the gentlemanly Walker also made rare scathing comments on Jariers driving, he said In all my years as a commentator, but certainly no driver, I have to admit, that was an awful and crass piece of driving by Jarier. At this point in the season, in terms of his Formula One status, Jarier was at the point of no return. Following this, Jarier retired from motorsport, but was tempted back to drive in the Porsche Supercup in 1994. This led to several sports car drives, winning the 1998 and 1999 French GT Championships. Jarier introduced himself to a new generation by contributing major stunt work to the film Ronin, directed by John Frankenheimer who also directed the 1966 classic Grand Prix. Today he turns 68.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 22:14:19 +0000
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