PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: automobile racing
American race-car driver
Jimmie Johnson is an American race-car driver who won seven National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) championships and was the first driver to win the title in five consecutive years (2006–10)....
German race-car driver
Sebastian Vettel is a German race-car driver who in 2010, at age 23, became the youngest person to win the Formula One (F1) world drivers’ championship. He also captured the title in 2011, 2012, and 2013....
French race-car driver
Sébastien Loeb is a French race-car driver who was widely considered to be the greatest rally racer of all time, having won a record nine World Rally Championship (WRC) titles (2004–12). After winning...
American race-car driver
Jeff Gordon is an American race-car driver who dominated the sport in the 1990s and early 2000s. His aggressive driving style and knack for publicity helped popularize stock-car racing in the United States....
British race-car driver
Lewis Hamilton is one of the most successful Formula One (F1) Grand Prix racing drivers of all time. He owns the F1 record for career race victories and is tied with Michael Schumacher for the most drivers’...
German race–car driver
Michael Schumacher is a German race-car driver who set records for the most Formula One (F1) Grand Prix race victories (91, later broken by Lewis Hamilton) and F1 series championships (seven, later tied...
American race car driver
Danica Patrick is an American race car driver and the first woman to win an IndyCar championship event. Patrick’s racing career began with go-karts in her hometown of Beloit, Wisconsin, at age 10. At age...
American stock-car driver
Lee Petty was an American stock-car driver who won three National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) championships (1954, 1958, and 1959). One of the most famous names in NASCAR is Petty, and,...
Canadian race-car driver
Jacques Villeneuve is a Canadian race-car driver who in 1995 became the first Canadian to win the Indianapolis 500 and the youngest winner of the IndyCar championship. Villeneuve was the son of Gilles...
American race–car driver
Dale Earnhardt was an American stock-car racer who was the dominant driver in the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) during the 1980s and ’90s. Ralph Earnhardt, Dale’s father, raced...
American stock-car racer
Richard Petty is an American stock-car racer who is the most successful driver in the history of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). Petty won 200 NASCAR Cup Series races in his...
Brazilian race-car driver
Hélio Castroneves is a Brazilian race-car driver who won the Indianapolis 500 a record-tying four times (2001, 2002, 2009, and 2021). Castroneves was involved in motor sports from a young age with the...
American race–car driver
Janet Guthrie is an American race-car driver who in 1977 became the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500. Guthrie earned a pilot’s license at the age of 17. After graduating from the University...
Italian industrialist [1921-2003]
Giovanni Agnelli was the chairman of the automobile manufacturing company Fiat SpA, Italy’s largest private business enterprise, from 1966 to 2003. Grandson of Fiat’s founder (also named Giovanni Agnelli),...
Australian race-car driver, engineer, and team owner
Jack Brabham was an Australian race-car driver, engineer, and team owner who won the Formula One (F1) Grand Prix world drivers’ championship three times (1959, 1960, and 1966) and the automobile constructors’...
Brazilian race–car driver
Ayrton Senna was a Brazilian race-car driver who gained fame for being a fierce competitor renowned for his ruthless and risky maneuvers on the Grand Prix circuit. He rose quickly through the ranks of...
British race–car driver
Sir Henry Segrave was an American-born English automobile and motorboat racer who set three world land speed records. Educated at Eton and Sandhurst, Segrave served with the Royal Air Force in World War...
American race–car driver
Barney Oldfield was an American automobile-racing driver whose name was synonymous with speed in the first two decades of the 20th century. A bicycle racer from 1894, Oldfield in 1902 became the driver...
American race–car driver
Mario Andretti is an Italian-born American automobile-racing driver who drove stock cars, U.S. championship cars, and Formula One cars. Mario and his twin brother, Aldo, studied automobile mechanics, frequented...
French skier and race-car driver
Henri Oreiller was a French skier and auto racer who won a double championship in the downhill and combined events of Alpine skiing during the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland. His downhill...
American race–car driver
A.J. Foyt is a versatile and successful American automobile racing driver who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, 1964, 1967, and 1977, the first four-time winner. A racer from the age of 17 and—unlike many...
American automobile designer and race–car driver
Louis Chevrolet was an automobile designer and racer whose name is borne by the Chevrolet Division of General Motors, an enterprise from which he derived little profit and of which he was a minor employee...
Italian automobile manufacturer
Enzo Ferrari was an Italian automobile manufacturer, designer, and racing-car driver whose Ferrari cars often dominated world racing competition in the second half of the 20th century. Enzo Ferrari was...
American pilot
Edward Vernon Rickenbacker was a pilot, industrialist, and the most celebrated U.S. air ace of World War I. Rickenbacker developed an early interest in internal-combustion engines and automobiles, and,...
American race–car driver
Bobby Unser was an American automobile-racing driver from a family of drivers, who won the Indianapolis 500 three times (1968, 1975, 1981). Unser first raced in 1949 and first competed in the Indianapolis...
American automobile racer
Phil Hill was the first American-born race-car driver to win (1961) the Formula 1 (F1) Grand Prix world championship of drivers. Hill began in racing as a mechanic for midget-car racing in the Santa Monica,...
American race–car driver
Art Arfons was an American automotive racer, three-time holder of the world’s land-speed record for wheeled vehicles. Arfons worked in his father’s feed-mill business in Akron, Ohio, before and after service...
British race–car driver
Malcolm Campbell was a British automobile-racing driver who set world speed records on land and on water. A pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I, Campbell became interested in automobile...
German race–car driver
Bernd Rosemeyer was a German automobile racing driver who established himself as one of the world’s great drivers in three seasons of racing (1935–37). Rosemeyer began racing as a member of the Auto Union...
American automobile racer
Cale Yarborough was the first stock-car racing driver to win the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) Cup Series championship three consecutive years, in 1976, 1977, and 1978. Yarborough...
British race–car driver
Donald Malcolm Campbell was a British motorboat and automobile driver who emulated his father, Sir Malcolm Campbell, in setting world’s speed records on land and on water. The first to complete an officially...
American race–car driver
Al Unser was an American automobile-racing driver from a prestigious family of drivers, who won the Indianapolis 500 four times (1970–71, 1978, and 1987). In 1964 Unser won the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, an...
British motor race–car driver
John Rhodes Cobb was an automobile and motorboat racer, first to reach a speed of 400 mph on land. On Sept. 16, 1947, at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, U.S., he set world speed records (not broken until...
Italian race–car driver
Tazio Nuvolari was an Italian automobile racing driver. He began racing motorcycles in 1920 and won the Italian championship in 1924 and 1926 before turning to automobile competition. His first major victory...
German race–car driver
Rudolf Caracciola was a German automobile-racing driver who was one of the most successful and versatile of modern times. He participated in hill climbs and speed trials as well as races. Caracciola began...
American athlete and manufacturer
Ralph De Palma was an American automobile-racing driver, one of the most popular and successful competitors in the early days of the sport. A U.S. resident from 1892, De Palma raced bicycles and motorcycles...
British race–car driver
Graham Hill was a British automobile racing driver who won the Grand Prix world championship in 1962 and 1968 and the Indianapolis 500 in 1966. Trained as an engineer, Hill became a racing car mechanic...
American race–car driver
Gary Gabelich was an American automobile-racing driver who set a world one-mile land-speed record of 622.407 miles per hour (1,001.67 km/h) on Oct. 23, 1970. Gabelich began racing hot-rod cars while he...
Argentine automobile racing driver
Juan Manuel Fangio was a driver who dominated automobile-racing competition in the 1950s. Fangio began his Grand Prix career in 1948. He went on to win the world driving championship in 1951, 1954, 1955,...
British race-car driver
Stirling Moss was a British Formula One Grand Prix racing driver who was considered by many to have been the greatest driver who never won a world championship. Moss won his first event in 1950 in England...
American race–car driver
Wilbur Shaw was an American automobile-racing driver who won the Indianapolis 500 three times—1937, 1939, and 1940—and was president of the Indianapolis Speedway (1945–54). He first entered the Memorial...
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