This Week in Racing History (October 27

This Week in Racing History

October 27 - Art Arfons tops Craig Breedlove's twelve day old LSR by running 536.71 MPH/858.73 KMH in the Green Monster at Bonneville. Record would stand just over one year. (1964)

October 28 - First permanent racetrack built in Spain, Sitges, opens. Similar in configuration to Brooklands, it was abandoned after a few races because of poorly designed banking (1923).

October 29 - Team McLaren participates in their last Can-Am race. Peter Revson finishes second and Denny Hulme DNFs at Riverside, California (1972).

October 31 - Wilbur Shaw is born (1902).

November 1 - Final Can-Am race for Chaparral. Vic Elford starts on pole but his race ends after 5 laps, with engine failure (1970).

November 2 - First "organized" automobile race in the US is scheduled for this date. Event postponed until Thanksgiving Day, but a two car exhibition is held on the 2nd. In the exhibition, Charles Mueller driving a Mueller-Benz defeats J. Frank Duryea in a Duryea (1895).

- Craig Breedlove sets a new LSR in the Spirit of America Sonic 1 at Bonneville by running 555.48 MPH/888.76 KMH (1965).

The 1965 Mexican GP has reared its ugly head again. The date as stated last week was correct but I over simplified one statement about the race. It was not the last race for Coventry-Climax engines. More correctly, Coventry-Climax withdrew from actively participating in GP racing after this race. However, in 1966, Lotus bored out their 1.5-liter C-C engines to 2.0-liters. Eagle also used an old 2.7-liter C-C in 1966.

Michael Stucker | Anadrill Schlumberger, Sugar Land, Texas stucker@sugar-land.anadrill.slb.com | Definately not Anadrill's opinion. Copyright Michael J. Stucker 1996 "You play with the squirrels and you're gonna get your nuts cracked." -- Todd Parrott