Another very busy day in motorsport history bang in the middle of the northern summer, 29 June once again has a bit of a Formula 1 family feel about it.
Not so much for Alan Jones, whose Williams FW07 Cosworth beat off a mighty local contingent to win the 1980 French Grand Prix. F1 had resumed a modicum of sense – Ferrari, Renault and Alfa Romeo returned after boycotting the Spanish race as the FISA and FOCA camps came to agreement in time for the on-form Aussie to beat Ligier JS11/15 Cosworth duo Didier Pironi and long-time race leader Jacques Laffite in what proved to be the Shadow team’s final outing.
Seventeen years later, Michael Schumacher won the 1997 French Grand Prix – he started from pole as he beat Heinz-Harald Frentzen’s Williams Renault to second with Ferrari F310B teammate Eddie Irvine third. The family bit comes in when brother Ralf Schumacher won the 2003 European Grand Prix ahead of Williams FW25 BMW teammate Juan Pablo Montoya and Rubens Barrichello’s Ferrari.
Elsewhere in racing on this day, Henri Fournier won the 1901 Paris-Berlin Trial driving a Mors, a year before Marcel Renault won four-day the 1902 Paris-to-Vienna race driving a car bearing his name, while Barney Oldfield’s Peerless green Dragon took the 1905 AAA Champ Car Brunots Island race. René Dreyfus won the 1930 GP de la Marne at Reims driving a Bugatti 35B and Jean-Pierre Wimille’s Alfa Romeo 158 took the 1947 Grand Prix d’Europe et Belgique at Spa-Francorchamps.
In 1958, Indy racer Jim Rathmann’s Watson Offenhauser won the Monza Due Mondi 500 ‘race of two worlds’ and Ian Fraser-Jones’ Porsche the Salisbury GP in Rhodesia. Still in Southern Africa, Brausch Niemann’s Lotus Ford won the Killarney SA F1 race in Cape Town in 1963, while John McNicol’s F5000 Lola T142 Ford put one over the F1 cars in the ‘69 Natal Winter Trophy at Roy Hesketh.
Over in the US of A meanwhile, Bobby Unser and Mario Andretti respectively won the 1968 and ’69 Pikes Peak Hill Climb when it counted towards the USAC Champ Car Series, while AJ Foyt took the 1975 Schaefer 500, Danny Sullivan won in ’86, Tony Stewart in ‘97, Sam Hornish, Jr. in 2002 and Simon Pagenaud in ’14.
Sportscar winners on 29 June include Derek Bell and Henri Pescarolo’s Alfa Romeo T33TT in the 1975 WSC Osterreichring 1000, while Klaus Ludwig’s Porsche 956B won at the Norisring in ’86 and Andy Wallace and James Weaver’s Riley & Scot Judd was victorious at Daytona in a 2000 race that counted towards both the WEC and IMSA.
John Bosch and Jan Lammers’ Dome S101-Judd won at Monza in 2003, while back across the pond, Johnny Herbert and JJ Lehto’s Audi R8 won the ALMS 2003 Grand Prix of Atlanta, Colin Braun and Jorg Bergmeister’s Riley-Ford took the 2006 Daytona Grand Am Richard Westbrook and Michael Valiante’s Corvette the 2014 Six Hours of the Glen.
Off the beaten track, Bjorn Waldegard’s Toyota Celica won the 1982 New Zealand, Juha Kankkunen’s Lancia Delta HF the ‘87 USA and Sebastien Ogier’s Volkswagen Polo R the 2014 Polish World Rally Championship rounds, while Tanner Foust’s Volkswagen Polo took the 2014 Finnish World Rallycross win at Kouvola.
