The ninth of February is another relatively quiet but quaint day on racing history.
Perhaps the biggest on track action was Aussie home hero and two-time World Champion Jack Brabham driving his Brabham BT7A Climax to his third Australian Grand Prix victory on the Sandown Park circuit in the inaugural ’64 Tasman series. Jochen Rindt took a wet second win of the ’69 Tasman Series at Warwick Farm in his sleeved down Lotus 49C Cosworth (above).
Before that, Reg Parnell led only three ERAs home in the 1947 Swedish Winter Grand Prix at Rommehed. The ship carrying the rest of the grid failed to dock in time. Elsewhere, SG Allen took his Fiat Special to win the 1958 Baskerville race in England, while Peter de Klerk steered his Alfa Special to win the 1963 Dickie Dale South African F1 Trophy in Pietermaritzburg.
Heading down under, Mika Salo, Craig Lowndes, Peter Edwards and John Bowe won the 2015 Bathurst 12 Hour in a Ferrari 458 and off the racetrack, Marcus Gronholm won the 2003 WRC Rally Sweden in a Peugeot 206 WRC (above).
Rudolf Caracciola established two new D class standing start speed records – the Kilometre mark at 175 km/h and the Mile at 204.578 km/h in a Grand Prix-based Mercedes-Benz streamliner on the Autobahn at Dessau, today in 1939 (below).
In other news on regular F1 podium finisher Tony Maggs’ birthday, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was incorporated in 1909, 96 years before ex-Formula 1 driver Gerhard Berger bought a 50% stake in Toro Rosso in a that deal saw Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz purchase 50% of Berger’s shipping company in return in 2006.
1934 Indianapolis 500 winner and diesel land speed record holder Bill Cummins died in a road accident aged 34 in 1939 and former Auto Union racer Hans Stuck and later F1 driver Hans-Joachim’s father Hans passed away today in 1978.