F1-Blog

FIRST MOTOR SPORT HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES REVEALED

London, 11th February 2010, Mario Andretti, Tony Brooks, Ron Dennis and Jacky Ickx were last night inducted into the very first Motor Sport Hall of Fame.
Drivers past and present – Sir Stirling Moss and Sir Jackie Stewart among them – plus celebrity guests including James Martin, Jodie Kidd, Britt Ekland, commentators and opinion formers all gathered at Camden’s iconic Roundhouse to witness the induction of four of the greatest names in the sport.

Hosted by Formula 1 presenter Jake Humphrey, the evening marked the opening of this ‘virtual’ Hall of Fame, beginning with the naming of eight ‘founding members’ – the biggest names in the history of the sport. Among them were Moss and Stewart, who were on hand to help induct Andretti, Brooks, Dennis and Ickx into this exclusive club of motor racing greats.

Mario Andretti’s life story personifies the great American dream. Born near Trieste during World War Two, his family spent the first seven years of Andretti’s life in a displaced person’s camp before moving to America in 1955. During his remarkable career, Andretti won four Indycar titles, the 1978 F1 World Championship and countless races in single-seaters and sports cars. To date, he remains the only driver ever to win the Indianapolis 500 (1969), Daytona 500 (1967) and the F1 World Championship. No American has won an F1 race since Andretti’s victory at the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix.

Known as the ‘racing dentist’, Tony Brooks took part in 39 F1 World Championship Grand Prix. In 1955, despite being in the midst of his final exams, he scored the first win by a British driver in a British car in a Grand Prix since 1924, driving a Connaught at Syracuse in a non-World Championship race. Brooks claimed the first victory for a British-constructed car in a World Championship race in the 1957 British Grand Prix at Aintree, which he shared with Sir Stirling Moss. Like Moss, he is considered one of the best drivers never to have been World Champion.

Belgian Jacky Ickx started his career in car racing in 1964. By 1967, he was European Formula 2 Champion. He then went on to win eight F1 Grand Prix. His victories in endurance racing are even more impressive: two World Championship titles (1982 and 1983) and six victories at Le Mans (1969, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1981 and 1982) to name but a few. In the 1980s, Ickx participated in the African safari rallies, scoring a victory in the 1983 Paris-Dakar rally.

Ron Dennis CBE has been an integral part of the motor sport industry since he was a teenager, firstly with The Cooper Racing Car Company; then, aged 21, as chief mechanic to Sir Jack Brabham. During the 1970s, he ran a succession of successful teams, before merging his own company with McLaren in 1980. Over the past three decades he has made champions of Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen, Niki Lauda and Lewis Hamilton, and built a company that stands as an example of all that is best in British industry. On 15th January 2009 he stepped down as team principal of McLaren, signaling the end of a sporting era.
The Motor Sport Hall of Fame is set to become a major international event in the motoring calendar, with four more individuals inaugurated each year.