Jim Clark won the French Grand Prix driving a 1.5-litre V8-powered Lotus 25-Climax
Reims on this day in 1963 withTony Maggs was second in a Cooper-Climax, while Graham Hill recovered from starting from the back and incurring a minute penalty for a push start, after his BRM stalled on the grid.
Thirty-three years later, Damon Hill fully made up for his dad’s issues when he won the 1996 French Grand Prix of from Williams-Renault teammate and another second-generation grand prix world champion, Jacques Villeneuve and Jean Alesi’s Benetton after pole man Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari engine failed on the formation lap.
Yet another lad who’d go on to become a second-generation world champion, Nico Rosberg won a 2013 British Grand Prix perhaps better remembered as a tyre failure catastrophe that affected home hero and pole man Lewis Hamilton, among others. Mark Webber was second in a Red Bull ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.
And another son of a grand prix racer, Max Verstappen’s Red Bull RB15 controversially barged past Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari to win the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix to take Honda’s first F1 win of the turbo 1600 era. It was the first race of that season not to be won by a Mercedes, but Valtteri Bottas still put his Merc onto a podium third.
Elsewhere, significant 30 June race history stretches back to the 1901 Coppa Italia won by Guido Adami’s Panhard Levassor, while Leon Elskamp took the 1913 Ostend Week race in a Mercedes. William Grover-Williams drove his Bugatti T35B to 1929 French Grand Prix victory, Trevor Mc Calla’s Sunbeam took the 1934 Bangor 100 Trophy down under and Louis Chiron’s Alfa Romeo Tipo-B P3 Took the 1935 GP de Lorraine on the same afternoon that Luigi Fagioli’s Mercedes-Benz W25B won the Gran Premio de Penya Rhin in Barcelona.
Rex Mays won the 1946 US Champ Car Langhorne 100 and in South Africa, Ernie Pieterse won the ‘62 Kyalami Republic Festival in his Lotus Climax and Dave Charlton the ‘74 Bulawayo 100 in his McLaren M23 Cosworth. Back in the US that’ same day, Johnny Rutherford won the Indy Schaefer 500, Al Unser the ’85 Meadowlands CART Grand Prix, while Gil de Ferran took Cleveland ’96, Cristiano da Matta Chicago ’02 and Dario Franchitti ’07.
Moving over to sportscars, Gerard Larrousse and Henri Pescarolo’s Matra-Simca MS670C won the 1974 WSC Osterreichring 1000, and Val Hillebrand and Jan Lammers’ Dome S101-Judd was first home at Magny-Cours in 2002.
In US sportscars Peter Gregg and Al Holbert’s Porsche 911 won in IMSA at Mid-Ohio in 1974, Juan Manuel Fangio II’s Eagle HF90-Toyota took Watkins Glen 91 and Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro’s Audi R8 ALMS Mid-Ohio ’02. Elliott Forbes-Robinson and Butch Leitzinger Crawford DP03-Pontiac 2005 and Joao Barbosa Christian Fittipaldi’s Dallara Corvette DP took the 2013 Six Hours of the Glen, which race Jonathan Bomarito, Olivier Pla and Harry Tincknell ‘s Mazda DP won in 2019.
Carlos Sainz’ Toyota Celica GT-4 won the only World Rally Championship round to finish on this day in New Zealand 1991, while 30 June is former F1 star Ralf Schumacher’s birthday.
30 June is a sad day in racing, although none of the heroes that died on this day were victims of racing accidents. Alfredo ‘Dino’ Ferrari succumbed to Duchenne muscular dystrophy aged 2 on 1956. His father Enzo named the cars powered by the engine the young engineer was working on at the time of his death ‘Dino’ in his honour.
Formula 1’s first world champion in 1950, Giuseppe ‘Nino’ Farina died aged 59 in a road accident in 1966 and 1935 Indianapolis 500 winner Kelly Petillo passed away aged 68 in 1970.