Swiss driver Joseph Siffert originally made a name for himself at a national level racing motorcycles winning the Swiss national championship for the 350cc class in 1959. Shortly afterwards he made the jump to four wheels in Formula Junior. By 1962 he had made his way up to Formula One as a privateer, making his debut at the 1962 Monaco GP with a customer Lotus chassis. He scored victories in a few non-championship F1 races and in 1964 he joined Rob Walker’s successful private Lotus team where four years later he would score his maiden Grand Prix win at the British GP held at Brands Hatch. His win is considered by many to be the last GP win by a true privateer team.

While his F1 career was one of steady growth and consistent, if not spectacular, results he was an undisputed ace in the world of Sports Car racing winning the 24 Hrs of Daytona, the Sebring 12 Hour race and in 1970 the fabled Targa Florio (below) all for Porsche. Siffert was also instrumental in the development for Porsche’s CanAm racing program.

By 1970 Siffert was being courted by Ferrari for both its Sports Car and F1 programs, rather than lose its driver to a rival Porsche bank rolled a seat in the March F1 team for Siffert but the relationship didn’t work out. In 1971 he switched to the BRM team for F1 and scored he second Grand Prix victory in Austria (below)

Siffert was killed on October 24th, 1971 competing in an end of season non-championship F1 race at Brands Hatch, the site of his first GP victory. His suspension had been damaged in a first lap incident and later in the race it collapsed sending Siffert’s BRM into the barriers. Siffert was trapped in the burning car and couldn’t escape the flames.

Subsequent investigations found that although his injuries were non-fatal (having suffered only a broken leg from the crash impact) Siffert had died from oxygen starvation and smoke inhalation. His death lead to immediate changes in the sport including more fire retardant overalls,  the introduction of on-board fire extinguishers and piped air into the drivers helmets.

Jo Siffert’s life was the subject of an excellent documentary, “Jo Siffert – Live Fast, Die Young” released in 2005.

Happy Birthday to NASCAR Nextel Cup regular Dave Blaney (born 10/24/62)

The drift of open wheel racers makingt the switch to NASCAR continues unabated as both Autosport and SpeedTV report that  Champ Car star A.J. Allmendinger is set to confirm later today a switch to NASCAR with the new Red Bull team.

This will be a real blow for Champ Car as it loses its only American born star and perhaps the only potential long term threat to Sebastian Burdais dominance.

It’s believed that Almendinger will run a full Craftsman Truck schedule in 2007 before turning to Nextel Cup in 2008 with the Red Bull Toyota team. As prepareation for the switch he will be making his Nextel Cup debut this upcoming weekend in Atlanta as well as running in the supporting truck race.

There’s a lot of images from yesterday’s Brazilian Grand Prix that will stay with me, from Nico Rosberg’s spectacular exit to Felipe Massa’s sheer joy on the top step of the podium. From Fernado Alonso’s hand clasp to his visor on the slowdown lap as the realization of his back to back World Championships hit home, to Michael Schumacher’s ripped left year tire.

And it is perhaps that shredded tire that best summarized both the race and the career of the retiring seven times world champion. I’ve never been a Schumacher fan, and will admit to cries of happiness on the rare occasions misfortune has struck him, yet I no-one can deny that he was clearly one of the best there has ever been behind the wheel of a modern Grand Prix car.  He treated every lap as if it was a qualifying lap, he worked himself, the car and the team with just one goal in mind – to win championships. He said he had little interest in records or the history of the sport, yet he was clearly aware of them, but above all he was simply, supremely quick.

I will always recall the first USGP at Indianapolis as I watched Schumacher enter the first turn carrying at an unbelievable velocity that I was sure would put him off track. He not only carried that speed around the corner, he made it look easy and was visibly quicker than anyone else.

For his swansong yesterday he drove a Champion’s race. Qualifying tenth then getting up to sixth as quickly as he did was impressive enough, but that shredded tire put him at the back of the field in 20th place, all hopes of his eight championship gone. Instead of settling down for what could have been a succession of parade laps he went for it with a magnificent drive that saw set the fastest lap of the race on his way back up to fourth place.

It was a fitting end to a stellar career. I may not have cheered for him, but I will always appreciate the fact that I witnessed his achievements.

 Congratulations to Sebastian Bourdais on winning his third Champ Car World Series title in a row. However it was hardly a champions drive as he cautiously circulated the Surfers Paradise course in what was, to be frank, a boring race. Hopefully with the championship now settled we will see some real racing action at the closing round in Mexico.

Roll on 2007 when everyone in Champ Car will be staring from scratch with the new Panoz chassis and it looks like the series will be attracting more teams and opening up seats for more talented drivers.