50 Fun Facts About Racing

The Indianapolis 500 winner traditionally drinks what in victory lane?

Louis Meyer asked for buttermilk after his 1933 win; a dairy executive saw the photo and the tradition was born.

Why is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway nicknamed the Brickyard?

A yard of the original bricks still forms the start-finish line, and winners kneel to kiss it.

Which three races make up the unofficial Triple Crown of Motorsport?

Only Graham Hill has won all three; Fernando Alonso and Juan Pablo Montoya each got two.

Unlike most races, the winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is the car that does what?

The race dates from 1923 and is the oldest active endurance event in the world.

The old 'Le Mans start', with drivers sprinting to their cars, inspired Porsche to do what?

Jacky Ickx protested the danger in 1969 by walking to his car while everyone else ran; the start was changed for 1970.

Roughly how many spectators died in the 1955 Le Mans disaster, when Levegh's car flew into the crowd?

It remains the deadliest accident in motorsport history and led several countries to ban racing temporarily.

Who won the Monaco Grand Prix a record six times?

Five of them came consecutively from 1989 to 1993; Graham Hill's five wins in the 1960s earned him the nickname 'Mr Monaco'.

The Monaco Grand Prix is unique in Formula One for what?

The streets are so slow and tight that the race would take too long at the mandated 305 km.

Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton share the record for how many Formula One drivers' titles?

Hamilton passed Schumacher's records for wins and poles; Schumacher still holds the mark for fastest laps.

Michael Schumacher's 2000 title was Ferrari's first drivers' championship in how many years?

He joined the struggling team in 1996 and defended the crown in 2001.

Lewis Hamilton became the first Black driver in Formula One when he debuted for McLaren in which year?

Ron Dennis had signed him to the McLaren-Mercedes young driver programme in 1998, aged 13.

NASCAR traces its roots to which Prohibition-era occupation?

Bill France Sr. started organising races on Daytona Beach in 1935 and founded the sanctioning body in 1948.

The Daytona 500 is unusual among major sporting events because it is what?

It has opened the Cup Series since 1982; the 1959 inaugural was won by Lee Petty in a photo finish that took three days to decide.

Richard Petty holds NASCAR's record for career wins with how many?

'The King' also won a record number of Daytona 500s and 27 races in a single season.

Which driver was known as 'the Intimidator' and died on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500?

He had finally won the race in 1998 after 20 tries; his 76 Cup wins included a record-tying number of championships.

Mario Andretti won the Formula One title in 1978 driving for which team?

He is the only driver to win the F1 title, the Indy 500 and the Daytona 500.

The Isle of Man TT is run on a public-road course of how many miles?

The Snaefell Mountain Course has 219 turns; the first fatality was recorded in 1911.

Since 2020 the Dakar Rally has been held in which country?

It ran from Paris to Dakar from 1978, moved to South America in 2009 after security threats in Mauritania, and its founder Thierry Sabine died in a helicopter crash during the 1986 event.

What shorter-than-quarter-mile distance became standard for Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars in 2008?

The change was made for safety after speeds outgrew the tracks.

ThrustSSC set the absolute record for speed on the ground in 1997 at about 763 mph. What made it unique?

RAF pilot Andy Green drove it on Nevada's Black Rock Desert; the car was built in Coventry.

A land speed record must be averaged over two opposite passes within how long?

The new mark must also beat the old one by at least one percent to count.

The Pikes Peak hill climb, 'the Race to the Clouds', finishes at what altitude?

The 12.42-mile road with 156 turns has been fully paved since 2011; the race dates from 1916.

The Bathurst 1000 winners receive a trophy named after which nine-time winner, 'King of the Mountain'?

The trophy was introduced in 2006 after his death in a rally accident.

The Kentucky Derby is nicknamed the 'Run for the Roses' because of what?

The race is run over a mile and a quarter by three-year-olds and lasts about two minutes.

The Kentucky Derby's founder was the grandson of which famous explorer?

Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. visited Epsom in England and came home to found the race, first run in 1875.

Secretariat won the 1973 Belmont Stakes by how many lengths?

He still holds the record time in all three Triple Crown races, and was the first winner of the series in 25 years.

The Grand National at Aintree involves jumping how many fences over two laps?

Becher's Brook, The Chair and the Canal Turn are famous in their own right; the race is over four and a quarter miles.

Which 100-1 outsider won the 1967 Grand National after a pile-up at the 23rd fence?

His owner had so little faith he went to Worcester races instead; the fence was named after the horse in 1984.

In which three years did Red Rum win the Grand National?

The Irish-bred steeplechaser never fell in 100 races.

The Melbourne Cup, 'the race that stops a nation', is run at 3pm on which day?

It has been a public holiday in much of Victoria since 1876; the first winner in 1861 got a gold watch.

Which mare is the only horse to win the Melbourne Cup three times?

She won in 2003, 2004 and 2005 and earned more than A$14 million.

The Palio di Siena is run bareback for three laps around which square?

The race lasts about 90 seconds and a riderless horse can still win for its contrada.

The Iditarod runs from Anchorage to which Alaskan town?

The race began in 1973 and, despite the legend, was not founded to commemorate the 1925 serum run or the dog Balto.

The Tour de France was created in 1903 to boost sales of what?

L'Auto, ancestor of L'Équipe, was edited by Henri Desgrange; the leader's yellow jersey matched its yellow pages.

Who was the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times?

In 1961 he promised to take the yellow jersey on day one and wear it to Paris, and did.

The Boston Marathon, the world's oldest annual marathon, is run on which holiday?

First held in 1897, it starts in Hopkinton and finishes on Boylston Street; women were officially admitted in 1972.

The America's Cup was held by the New York Yacht Club for 132 years until which yacht took it in 1983?

The trophy, nicknamed the Auld Mug, was first raced for around the Isle of Wight in 1851.

Since the mid-2000s, camel racing in the Gulf states has replaced child jockeys with what?

The UAE and Qatar banned underage jockeys after trafficking allegations; camels can hit 40 mph in a sprint.

Which American invented the mechanical hare that made modern greyhound racing possible in 1912?

He opened the first professional track with stands in Emeryville, California in 1919; the sport reached Britain in 1926.

The Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling in Gloucestershire chases a wheel of which cheese down a 200-yard hill?

The event is first recorded in writing in 1836 and now draws winners from as far away as Australia and the US.

Byzantine Constantinople's rival chariot-racing factions were known by which colours?

The factions fought over politics and religion as much as racing; the last race in the Circus Maximus in Rome was staged in 549.

Modern pigeon racing originated in the mid-19th century in which country?

The Flemish fanciers' birds were called Voyageurs; races run from about 100 to 1,000 kilometres and can be decided by seconds.

Where was the first Formula One world championship race held, on 13 May 1950?

Giuseppe Farina of Alfa Romeo went on to take that first drivers' title, narrowly beating team-mate Juan Manuel Fangio.

Who won the first Formula One Drivers' World Championship in 1950?

He drove for Alfa Romeo; his team-mate Fangio would go on to win five titles of his own.

Who won the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911?

The race paused twice for the world wars, celebrated its centenary in 2011 and held its 100th running in 2016.

Which driver won his fourth Indianapolis 500 in 2021, tying the all-time record?

He shares the all-time record of four wins with A. J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr. and Rick Mears.

In which year was the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the oldest active endurance race, first run?

It is normally held in June, though it moved to September in 1968 amid France's political turmoil and again in 2020 for COVID.

Which horse set the Kentucky Derby record of 1:59.4 in 1973?

Uniquely among Triple Crown runs, each successive quarter-mile of that race was faster than the last.

How many times was the Mille Miglia open-road race held in Italy between 1927 and 1957?

Thirteen editions came before the Second World War and eleven after, and from 1953 it counted towards the World Sports Car Championship.

Who navigated for Stirling Moss in his record 1955 Mille Miglia win, reading pace notes from an 18-foot scroll?

Their Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR, number 722, finished in 10 hours 7 minutes at an average of almost 98 mph.