Reg Parnell is perhaps best rememberd as a Team Manager in various motor sports arenas, but started out as a very sucessful driver. Parnell’s racing career started before World War II with victories driving several marques including Bugattis.  When racing resumed after the war so did Parnell’s career, with the Englishman progressing up to competing in 7 World Championship Grand Prix between 1950 and 1954. He continued competing in non-championship F1 races up to retirment from driving in 1957. (below Parnell in a Ferrari at the 1957 New Zealand GP)

In the early sixties Parnell manged the Yeoman Racing F1 team, with drivers John Surtees and Roy Salvadori, and the Le Mans winning Aston Martin team. In 1962 he set up Reg Parnell Racing but died of peritonitis in 1964 before the team became fully established. The Parnell racing team was taken over by his son Tim and continued until 1970.

Houston, Texas born Billy Wade made an early name for himself around the various tracks of The Lone Star State. In 10 years of competition he won several state championships as well as trying his hand in both open wheel and sports cars.

He made his NASCAR debut in 1962 driving in just three “Grand National” races. In 1963 he landed a full time NASCAR drive as the second driver in the Cotton Owens team. He easily won the “Rookie Of The Year” award with 14, top 10 finishes.

The following year he drove for Bud Moore winning 4 consecutive races in the July of that year. His season ending tally included an additional 25 top 10 finishes and 5 pole awards.

Billy Wade was killed tire testing at Daytona International Speedway on the 5th January, 1965. He was testing the, then new, inner liner race tires, that are still used in NASCAR today.

Although he only competed in three seasons of NASCAR Stock Car Racing, Robert “Red” Byron holds two records that will never be beaten. He was the true first NASCAR winner winning both the first ever sanctioned NASCAR race on February 15th 1948 at Daytona Beach as well as the first stock car “National Championship” title.

Born in Colorado Byron moved to Alabama at an early age and started racing in 1932 in unorganized and unsanctioned races at a little known track called Talladega. With the out break of WW II he joined the service and flew 57 missions as a tail gunner on b-24 bombers, he was shot down on his 58th mission (which he only flew to cover for a friend) and his left leg was shattered. The doctors were doubtful if Red would ever walk again, but he was determined to return to racing and after 27 months in various military hospitals getting he returned to the track in February 1946 with his still badly damaged leg supported in a steel stirrup that was bolted to the clutch pedal. Byron went on to win the race as well as his next event, the Daytona Beach race.

In 1947 he spent half a season in AAA sanctioned events before returning to Stock Cars where he won 9 of the 18 races he entered. The following year he became NASCAR’s first winner and inaugural Champion in it’s “Modified” division.

In 1949 he raced in NASCAR’s new “Strictly Stock” series (the precursor to the modern Nextel Cup series) and became its first champion too.

 Red retired from racing in the early 1950 due to declining health to run his own sports car race team. He passed away on November 11th, 1960 of a heart attack aged just 45 while acting as manager for an SCCA sports car team. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1966. In 1998 during NASCAR’s 50th Anniversary Celebrations he was named one of the Top 50 Stock Car racers.

 Ricardo Rodriguez was a true racing phenomena, bursting onto the international racing scene at a young age and immediately proving himself as both a winner and potential champion. Born in Mexico City, Ricardo started racing bicycles and then graduated to motorbikes winning several national championships before we has even 14. As a teenager he switched to saloon car racing. He made his international racing debut at just 15 and won his class in a race at Riverside and repeated the victory in that year’s Nassau Tourist Trophy race.

He tried to enter for Le Mans in 1958 but was denied due to his age. He did however make his debut at the classic 24 hour race the following year at just 17 years of age, and in 1960 came second in his class making him, at 18, the youngest person ever to be on a Le Mans podium.

In 1961 Ferrari offered him a guest drive in one of it’s Formula One cars for the Italian Grand Prix, where Rodriguez stunned everyone by qualifying second, just 0.1 seconds off the pole time, and dicing for the lead until a fuel pump failure took him out of the race.

He joined the Ferrari team on a full time basis in 1962 and was always impressive even if they didn’t always get the results the team wanted. He also scored a victory in the Targa Florio sports car race that year.

When Ferrari elected not to compete in the season ending non-championship Mexican Grand Prix Rodriguez arranged a one-off drive for Rob Walkers private Lotus team so he could run at his home event. During practice he entered the difficult Peraltada corner at high speed, clipped the edge of the banking and left the road. No-one knows what caused the accident, there are some suggestions that the Lotus’s suspension broke, others cite Ricardo’s unfamiliarity with the oversteering Lotus compared to his regular Ferrari which had a tendency to understeer. Ricardo died from his injuries and perhaps the brightest young star in the history of GP racing had been lost.

The circuit where he lost his life was renamed in his honor.

Canadian Greg Moore, like many other racers, started his career in karts and rapidly progressed up the racing ladder through Formula Ford and F2000 cars. In 1993 Moore graduated to the Indy Lights series where two years later we won the championship with a record breaking 10 wins in 12 events.

In 1996 at just 20 years of age he stepped up to the CART IndyCar (now ChampCar) series with the Forsythe team, where he just missed out on rookie of the year honors behind Alex Zanardi. The following year Moore scored his first IndyCar victory at Milwaukee [video below] (the youngest winner in series history at that time), with a second win the following week in Detroit. He had quickly established himself as a talent to watch with a quick and brave style.

He started the 1998 season as a potential championship winner but despite two more wins he finished a disappointed fifth overall. Despite obvious talent and potential Moore struggled through 1999 with a lack luster Mercedes engine in his Forsythe car and planned to switch to the power-house Penske team for the 2000 season.

During the weekend of the 1999 season-ending Marlboro 500 at Fontana in California Moore was knocked off his motor scooter and injured his right hand. After a medical consultation, and an in-car test, he was allowed to race using a hand brace albeit starting from the back of the grid after missing qualifying. On lap nine of the race Moore apparently lost control of his car in the exit of the second turn and spun into the infield grass at over 200 mph. His car hit an access road and was ‘tripped’ over to strike the infield concrete wall upside-down at unabated speed. He suffered massive head and neck injuries and he was airlifted to and pronounced dead at a local hospital. He was 24 years old.

During his short racing career Greg Moore had been a supporter of various charities and since his death his father Ric Moore has continued his charitable work under the Greg Moore Foundation.