Sunday,

29th of March – After nearly 55 years, BrawnGP enters the record books as only the 2nd team in Formula 1 history to place two cars on the front row of the grid and score a 1-2 in its debut race with Jenson Button taking a start-finish win ahead of Rubens Barrichello in the 2009 Australian Grand Prix with their Mercedes-powered Brawn BGP 001. Last time a team managed a similar feat, the driver pairing was no other than Juan Manuel Fangio and Karl Kling… driving Mercedes cars.

4/3/1974, Bill Aston dies

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William Aston was a motorcycle racer turned racing driver, who’s most remarkable achievement was setting a world speed record in a streamlined 500cc Cooper. Quite a competent driver in Formula 2, Bill joined forces with engine builder Archie Butterworth in 1952 and the two of them built the Aston Butterworth F2 car. Robin Montgomerie-Charrington qualified the first car they built, a self-built, Cooper-inspired chassis featuring Archie’s flat 4 air-cooled engine for the Belgian GP but had to retire due to engine problems. Bill got the second car – model NB42 – ready for the 1952 British Grand Prix and was looking forward to his debut as a driver in the World Championship. But the car presented all sorts of troubles and was withdrawn after qualifying. The following round, German GP at the Nürburgring, didn’t fare much better, dropping oil pressure forced Bill to retire on the second lap. Skipping the Dutch GP to work on the, the Ashton Butterworth team showed up in Monza for the Italian GP, sadly the car failed to make it even through qualifying. It was the end of all aspirations, Bill Aston raced on in touring cars and well into his 60s before retiring.

Born: 29th of March 1900 in Hopton, UK;
Died: 4th of March 1974 in Lingfield, UK, aged 73.

29/3/1961, Gary Brabham is born in London, UK

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Gary Brabham began his racing career in Australia and headed for the UK after winning the national Formula Ford series in 1982. After several seasons in junior formulae, Jack Brabham’s youngest son won the inaugural season of the British Formula 3000 series in 1989. He was entered by the troubled Life team in 2 Grands Prix nut failed to qualify the cumbersome machine on both occasions. His attempts in sports cars and the CART series weren’t a success and so Gary retired from racing in 1995 to run his own driving school in the Brisbane area, teaching both racing drivers and holding courses for road safety.

29/3/1974, Marc Gené is born in Sabadell, Spain

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Marc Gené was initially torn between his success on the race track, for example winning the Italian Superformula championship in 1994, and his studies. A hefty accident in Formla 3000 left him with a fractured vertebra at the beginning of 1997. So Marc had to settle in an accountancy job, while competing in Spain’s Open Fortuna formula for Nissan-engined single-seaters in 1998. Winning the championship put him in line for his Formula 1 debut with Minardi the following year and in an uncompetitive car scored his first World Championship point in the European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. He then opted for a test driver job with the BMW Williams team and stayed in the role for the next four years, standing in for Ralf Schumacher in races in 2003 and 2004. For 2005 he switched to become a Ferrari test driver instead, a job he’s doing ever since. From 2007 onwards, he has been more involved with racing in endurance events and does the odd commentary in TV.

29/3/1937, David Prophet is born in Hong Kong, UK

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David Prophet was born in Hong Kong but grew up in the Midlands. In 1963 he took his Brabham BT6 Formula Junior car out to South Africa to race in the local championship and finally entered the South African Grand Prix with it. He also took part in the next 2 editions of the South African GP, now with a Formula 2 Brabham. His main playing field were sports cars though and after a meeting at Silverstone in March 1981 he was killed when he crashed his personal Bell Ranger helicopter while taking off at Silverstone after watching the International Trophy Formula 2 race.

Born: 9th of October 1937 in Hong Kong, UK;
Died: 29th of March 1981 Silverstone, UK, aged 43.

29/3/1971, Prince Hermann of Leiningen dies

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Prince Hermann of Leiningen was the son of Emich Eduard Karl V Fürst of LLeiningen and Feodore Viktoria Alberta Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Prince Hermann Viktor Maximilian of Leiningen was from Amorbach in Germany. Germany. He started racing in 1927, mainly competing in hill climbsss and racing Bugattis, Amilcars and Mercedes SSKs. He effectively had retired at the end of 1931 but was called up by Auto Union in 1934 to be part of the works team for two seasons. A 2nd place at the 1934 Italian Grand Prix would remain his best result. Finishing in 9th place at the Eifel GP, replacing the ill-feeling Achille Varzi, would remain his last showing in a major international race. The prince withdrew from racing in 1935 except for a start with the ERA works team, in the advent of being replaced for 1936 at Auto Union anyway with the promising Bernd Rosemeyer. He marriedrina Countess von Schonborn-Wiesentheid on the 21st of December 1938 and his only other try behind the wheel would happen in a couple of rallies in the early 1950s.

Born: 4th of January 1901 in Amorbach, Germany;
Died: 29th of March 1971 in Würzburg, Germany , aged 70.