Alex Zanardi, who lost both his legs in a crash five years earlier, tested an F1 car for the first time since his accident. Driving a modified BMW Sauber, he turned in good times which underlined his determination it would not purely be a publicity stunt. "I was a bit too big for the cockpit of this car," he joked, "so we cut something off my legs and made me a little bit shorter. I told the guys it was a much faster job than adjusting the pedals. It was just fantastic. A man loses his legs, people expect that he will just go home and change the channels on the TV with the remote control. I have shown that this guy can come back after that accident and have the same life. That is the great thing."
1920
Race driver Gaston Chevrolet died in a crash at the Beverly Hills Speedway when his adapted Monroe hit Eddie O'Donnell's car as he attempted to overtake. O'Donnell's car fell down the ramp, and Chevrolet's went upward, tore out some fence and then fell back on top of the wreckage of O'Donnell's car. Chevrolet, O'Donnell and Lyall Jolls, O'Donnell's riding mechanic died on the spot. At the end of the race it turned out Chevrolet had won the national race-car-driving championship on the basis of points from previous wins that year.
1946
Many drivers have rich sponsors to thanks for helping them follow their dreams, but those financing Slim Borgudd, born on this say in Borgholm, Sweden, were not form the usual background. A rock drummer with a passion for racing, Borgudd was a session musician with ABBA and through that gained backing from the band. His F1 career was short - 15 races with a best of sixth - and once ABBA split in the early 1980s he found things harder but did go on to be European champion in truck racing.
2008
Red Bull chief Dietrich Mateschitz reassumed total ownership of Toro Rosso, after buying back a 50% share from team boss Gerhard Berger. The deal meant Mateschitz wholly owned two teams on the F1 grid, with Red Bull Racing being the other. He established Toro Rosso after buying a controlling interest in the Minardi team from Paul Stoddart in 2005 and subsequently struck a joint-ownership deal with Berger Motorsport in 2006.
1955
Stirling Moss and Peter Collins concluded a week of testing BRMs at Silverstone aimed at helping Moss make a decision as to which team he would drive for in 1956. "After their success in a Mercedes in the Targa Florio, the pair decided they would race in the same team," reported the Times, but it the end Moss accepted an offer from Maserati while Collins joined Ferrari.
