Greatest race performances

[Ferrari Tifosi]

This is similar to the "Greatest F1 performances" thread, however this thread applys to all forms of racing. So what is it, what is the great performance you've either seen, heard, or read about.

I have two that come off the top of my head.

1. 1949 24 Hours of LeMans when Luigi Chinetti/Peter Selsdon brought Ferrari its first significant race victory in a 166 MM. The amazing thing about the win was that Chinetti drove 23 of the 24 hours! He gained the nickname "Iron Man Chinetti" from this race.

2. Has to be Senna's performance at the European GP in 1993 at Donnington Park. Started the race on slicks in the rain, and he started 4th. Lost a position to Schumacher on the way to the 1st turn, but got it back at the turn. By the end of that first lap, he was in 1st, as he easily passed Wendlinger (who was shortly after hit by Andretti), Hill, and then finally Prost. Amazing drive that was, and is argued to be the single greatest lap ever driven in F1 history. Senna ended up winning that race as well, lapping everyone up to P2, which happened to be Damon Hill (and he was still about a minute and half behind).

[fpv_gtho]

I havent seen any "classic" races of the sort, but 2 races in the past 2 years from the V8 Supercars spring to mind.

Rnd 7 2003 - Queensland raceway, Marcos Ambrose is chasing his 5th consecutive round win, something only ever achieved by Jim Richards, Dick Johnson and Mark Skaife. Ambrose manages to start from Pole position and leads a perfect race, right until his final pitstop, where the pressur finally breaks and he hits another car trying to get out of his pit boom. This subsequently leads to a drive through penalty, which knocks him down to 3rd position and almost a minute down on his team mate, Russel Ingall and Mark Skaife. With about 20-30 laps to go, Ambrose pushes right to the end to miraculously close the gap right until the last 5-10 laps, where Skaife retires after suffering from an engine problem, leaving both SBR Falcons in a 1-2. SBR refuse to have drivers switch positions and give Ambrose his 5th straight victory, and settle with giving Ingall his first round win in a Ford, since switching manufacturers for the 2003 season. Ambrose went on to win the following round at Oran Park, only Jim Richards had gone on to win 6 straight rounds.

Last round at Sandown for the Betta Electrical 500 endurance event, SBR made a major gamble by choosing not to pair their 2 championship drivers together in the lead car, and rather recruited 2 codrivers and split them up. All the other championship contention teams had teamed both their regular drivers together, as the close competitioin and points system gave no other choice really. Ambrose was teamed with experienced endurance driver Greg Ritter, who had previously gotten regular top 10 finishes at Bathurst, and Russel Ingall had teamed with Cameron Mclean. Over the course of the weekend, the Victorian circuit had experienced the extremes of weather, from the friday Practise sessions done in sunny heat, and Saturday practise, qualifying and the top 10 shootout done in wet conditions. Forecasts for the Sunday race had rain predicted with grey clouds looming. Ambrose gambled on an extremely biased dry setup (he claimed before the race it was about 3/4 dry setup, but later went back and said it was closer to full dry) and managed to grab 1st place by the 1st corner from startin 2nd, as pole sitter Rick Kelly had bogged down on the start, as well as many others struggling with the middle of the range 3.5 diff and full 120L tank of fuel. Within the first 20 laps, there was about 5 safety car periods, putting Ambrose square in the firing line for Rick Kelly in 2nd, but every restart, Ambrose built up a 2 second lead, just for a matter of laps later for it to be robbed from him. On one of the restarts, he missed a gear coming onto the pit straight, allowing Rick Kelly and Craig Lowndes to slip past him, but along the back straight that lap, he passed Lowndes, and next lap in the same place, passed Kelly and was back in the lead, handing over the car to Greg Ritter around lap 55. Laps later, Rick Kelly swapped over to the more experienced Greg Murphy with the intention to get 1st place from the inexperienced Greg Ritter. Ambrose luckily had built up almost a 20 second lead before switching to Ritter, but a matter of a couple of safety cars had put Ritter and Murphy bumper to bumper. Each restart though, Murphy couldnt keep up with with the speed in Ambrose's car, and even with Ritter behind the wheel, a gap kept being made. The pressure finally got to Ritter though, and leading into the first corner, Ritter briefly locked his brakes, but it wa enough to bring him off line. With all the mud and dirt brought onto the track just off the racing line from the WPS Falcons, Ritter went straight off into the grass and inevitably spun, but was able to keep the car moving and on the lead lap. A safey car came out next lap, and Ritter was able to reduce his 50 second gap and rejoin the back of the grid, before handing back over to Ambrose for his final stint in his car. Ambrose fought back hard and avoided an accident full final 1/3 of the race, where Jason Bright spun out at high speed after a Team Dynamik car made contact with him, almost sending him spinning into the side of Ambrose, but Bright was able to collect him self and Ambrose just missed him, going around the outside. Laps later, another Team Dynamik car had pushed Jim Richards off track, and Russel Ingal had to hit the brakes hard to avoid impact, which gave Ambrose the gap to regain the lead. From there on to the end, Both SBR cars lead 1-2, for in the final laps, Warren Luff in the Shell Helix DJR Falcon to claim 3rd off Murphy and Cameron McConville in the GRM Commodore which sparked some controversy as there was some yellow flags looming on the track. Ford ended with a 1-2-3 finish, and SBR had silenced the cynics with their decision on driver pairings with both lead drivers taking 1st with 192 points and 2nd with 188 points.



Now that was a mouthful

[blackcat77]

From what I've read, the best has been Stewart at Nurburgring that year in the early 70s. Pouring down rain and he just DOMINATED the race -- horrible conditions, toughest track, greatest win. The other would also be at the 'Ring, when Fangio set all those lap records to come back from way behind and win.

Recently, the best was Schumi at Spain back in the mid-90s. It was raining and he pulled away from everybody else by between 5 and 8 seconds every lap.

Finally, the greatest single moment for me was when Damon Hill moved from Williams to Arrows, penthouse to outhouse, and still qualified on the front row at Hungaroring. Then he actually dove under Schumi in the first turn and took the lead. I leapt right out of my chair watching that. Unfortunately, he couldn't keep up that pace for the whole race, but it was a great David-thumps-Goliath moment...

[henk4]

From what I've read, the best has been Stewart at Nurburgring that year in the early 70s. Pouring down rain and he just DOMINATED the race -- horrible conditions, toughest track, greatest win. The other would also be at the 'Ring, when Fangio set all those lap records to come back from way behind and win.

Recently, the best was Schumi at Spain back in the mid-90s. It was raining and he pulled away from everybody else by between 5 and 8 seconds every lap.

Really good picks, Stewart's triumph was in 1968, and he finished more than 4 minutes ahead of everybody else.
Fangio achieved his greatest moment in 1957.
Barrichello's first ever win at Hockenheim was also a real cracker, at some time during the race being 18th or so.

[Wouter Melissen]

Obviously Tazio Nuvolari in the 1935 Nurburgring Grand Prix, humiliating the Nazi party people present and the government backed Mercedes Benzes and Auto Unions in his aging Alfa Romeo P3. Fangio is a close second, with his majestic catch the Ferrari drivers effort over 20 years later. Two great efforts in the finest single seaters ever produced.

[henk4]

Obviously Tazio Nuvolari in the 1935 Nurburgring Grand Prix, humiliating the Nazi party people present and the government backed Mercedes Benzes and Auto Unions in his aging Alfa Romeo P3.

Although helped by Von Brauchitsch's puncture in the final lap when he was still ahead of Nuvolari.

[Matra et Alpine]

From what I've read, the best has been Stewart at Nurburgring that year in the early 70s. Pouring down rain and he just DOMINATED the race -- horrible conditions, toughest track, greatest win.

For sure...
It was Tyrrels first year in F1 with the Matra-Ford V8s. They sepdn 20 minutes during practice trying to set the car up. 20 minutes of DRY weather. JYS started low down and within half a lap in the torrential rain was ahead. At oen tpoint he came across an ambulance ON THE TRACK appearing through the murk and an approach speed of 100mph !! He finished 4m 3.2s ahead of Hill - the widest margin seen in a modern F1 event.. Ken Tyrrel said "most commanding victory ever returned in GP racing since the early 60s and the departure of front-engined cars"

GO JYS

[my porsche]

the ford 1-2-3 finish with its gt-40's in 1966 at le mans(probably wrong on the year) and then the porsche 911 gt1 finishes in 1998 (year?) im not good with exact years in case you cant figure it out

[85RX7]

787b le mans victory, did you know that raced on 87 octane fuel?

[NAZCA C2]

Colin Edwards WSB championship performance a couple years ago. It looked like Bayliss was easily going to win the championship that year but everything changed after the Laguna Seca race. Edwards dominated the second half of the season and ended up winning the superbike championship on the Honda VTR1000.