September 5th:
1939 - Clay Regazzoni was born. Between 1970 and 1980 he made 132 starts, scoring 5 wins, 28 podiums, 5 pole positions, 15 fastest laps. He was second in the 1974 drivers championship. His career was cut short after a crash at Long Beach when his brake pedal broke in his Ensign and he hit a stationary car of Ricardo Zunino's retired Brabham sending Clay into the barriers and leaving him paralysed from the waist down. Later he was killed in a road accident in 2006 when he hit a lorry
.
1954 - Juan Manuel Fangio, already with the title in the bag, won Italian Grand Prix for Mercedes in the penultimate race of the season. Ferrari was left with the other two steps of a podium with Mike Hawthorn a lap down in second, and a shared third between Umberto Magioli (his first podium) and Jose Froilan Gonzalez. Also a future GP winner Luigi Musso made his debut in a Maserati.
1965 - Youngest son of Jack Brabham - David Brabham was born. in 1990 and 1994 he made 30 starts achieving nothing, reason being he that he drove for a below par teams - Simtek and Brabham. He is famous for being one of only four Australians to win Le Mans, doing so in 2009.
1970 - Jochen Rindt was killed in practise for the Italian Grand Prix
after a failure of the car's right front brakeshaft sent him into a poorly installed crash barrier just before Parabolica. He went on to become the only posthumous world champion.
1971 - Peter Gethin got his first and only win in the last ever chicane-less Italian Grand Prix driving for B.R.M.. And what a win it was. He came from fourth in the last lap to win in a closest ever finish in Formula One history - one hundreth of a second ahead of Ronnie Peterson in a March while the top five was separated by 0.61 of a second. Another interesting fact is that none of top 6 finishers had ever won a Grand Prix before. Race results meant that Tyrrell won their first Constructors Championship.
September 6th:
1953 - Edgar Barth, driving for EMW-BMW
, won a non-championship Formula One race - 5th Sachsenringrennen held at Sachsenring (obviously
).
1964 - John Surtees, driving for Ferrari, won Italian Grand Prix and with two championship leaders Graham Hill in a B.R.M. retiring with clutch problem before the start and Jim Clark in a Lotus retiring with engine failure, championship got very tight with Hill, Clark and Surtees separated by 4 points.
1970 - Clay Regazzoni won Italian Grand Prix driving for Ferrari, scoring his first career win. Sadly, this occasion was marred by the death of then championship leader Jochen Rindt who went on to become the only posthumous world champion.
1987 - Nelson Piquet won, yes you got it right, Italian Grand Prix driving for Williams. This was sixth consecutive win for Williams and Piquet's 3rd and last win that year. This win strengthened his situation over Ayrton Senna (who finished 2nd by the way) now leading Senna by 14 points. Meanwhile Nigel Mansell finished 3rd to help Williams increase their lead in the Constructors Championship to 51 points. Also Michele Alboreto had his 100th Grand Prix start.
September 7th:
1952 - Alberto Ascari, who had already secured his 1st world championship, won Italian Grand Prix driving for Ferrari. He was one minute ahead of Jose Froilan Gonzalez of Maserati who lost the race because of a slow pit stop. Ascari's team-mate Luigi Villoresi was 3rd. This was also Ferrari's 10th Grand Prix win in the world championship.
1958 - Tony Brooks won Italian GP driving for Vanwall. This result meant that Vanwall won the first ever Constructors Championship. Mike Hawthorn finished second almost securing his world championship, while his main rival Stirling Moss retired with gearbox failure. Roy Salvadori got two points for Cooper although he was a massive 8 laps down. Masten Gregory and Carroll Shelby finished in points but got none of them because of a shared drive.
1969 - Jackie Stewart won Italian Grand Prix for Matra in a closest 1-2-3-4 finish in Formula One history. 0.19 separating the top four, Jochen Rindt (2nd for Lotus +0.08); Jean-Pierre Beltoise (3rd for Matra +0.17); and Bruce McLaren (4th for McLaren +0.19). This result meant that Jackie Stewart and Matra clinched driver and constructors championship respectively with 3 races to go.
1975 - Clay Regazzoni won Italian Grand Prix for Ferrari scoring his 3rd win, while Niki Lauda got his Ferrari up to third. This was a glorious result for Ferrari because it meant that both championships are now secure with Emerson Fittipaldi now being too far behind from Lauda who won his 1st world title and Ferrari scoring their first constructors championship since 1964.
1986 - Nelson Piquet won Italian Grand Prix for Williams after he overtook his team-mate Nigel Mansell in Curva Grande. This result reduced Mansell's lead over Piquet to 5 points while Williams pulled further away in a constructors now leading by 42 points. This race marked last ever points finishes for Keke Rosberg and Alan Jones - former world champions.
1997 - David Coulthard scored his 3rd career win at the Italian Grand Prix. He dedicated this race to Princess Diana
, while Mika Hakkinen recorded his first ever fastest lap.
2008 - Felipe Massa won contraversial Belgian (yes Belgian, not Italian) Grand Prix after the initial winner Lewis Hamilton was penalised for cutting a chicane while battling(?) with Kimi Raikkonen who later crash out. Penalty demoted Hamilton to third and elevated Massa to first and Heidfeld to second. This meant that Hamilton now led the championship by a mere 2 points instead of 8 that he would have had if he was not penalised.
September 8th:
1956 - Roy Salvadori, driving for Cooper, won a non-championship race: 2nd Sussex Trophy held at famous Goodwood, a track that holds annual Festival of Speed.
1956 - Stefan Johansson was born. Between 1980 and 1991 he made 79 starts scoring 12 podiums and 88 points. He is also a Le Mans winner. He won Le Mans in 1992 in a C2 class, then in 1997 he won Le Mans overall driving for Porsche, his last Le Mans win came in 2003 when he won in LMP900 class driving an Audi R8, he finished 3rd overall that year.
1957 - Stirling Moss, driving for Vanwall won the last race of the season - Italian Grand Prix. This made no difference in the championship as Juan Manuel Fangio had already wrapped it up earlier. Fangio finished 2nd which turned out to be his last podium before retiring. Wolfgang von Trips recorded his 1st ever podium finish.
1960 - Aguri Suzuki was born. Between 1988 and 1995 he made 64 starts achieving 1 podium (in his home GP in 1990 driving for Larrouse). Most notably however, he was the owner of the Super Aguri F1 team
, which participated in Formula One from 2006 to 2008.
1963 - Jim Clark won Italian Grand Prix driving for Lotus. By doing that he secured his 1st world championship with 3 races to spare - a first driver to do so.
1968 - Denny Hulme won Italian Grand Prix driving for McLaren to close in to the championship leader to 6 points yet only be 4th in the standings behind Graham Hill (1st, 30 points, Lotus); Jacky Ickx (2nd, 27 points, Ferrari); and Jackie Stewart (3rd, 26 points, Matra). Also Johnny Servoz-Gavin scored his only podium by finishing 2nd for Matra. This also 100th race for Graham Hill.
1974 - Ronnie Peterson won Italian Grand Prix driving for Lotus, scoring his 7th win. Championship got very tight after this one with Clay Regazzoni leading (46 points, Ferrari); Jody Scheckter 2nd (45 points Ferrari); Emerson Fittipaldi 3rd (43 points, McLaren).
1985 - Alain Prost won Italian Grand Prix driving fo McLaren. It was Prost 5th and last win that season as he powered towards 1st of his 4 titles. It was the last Formula One Grand Prix where the winning driver received a laurel wreath. Also Marc Surer scored his last points finishing in 4th and Elio de Angelis had his 100th Grand Prix start.
1991 - Nigel Mansell won Italian Grand Prix for Williams while Senna took 2nd with an inspired drive through the field from 5th to 2nd after an unscheduled tyre change. After this result Senna led Mansell in the championship by 18 points. Meanwhile Michael Schumacher in his second start (after having changed teams from Jordan to Benetton in between races) scored his first ever points. This was also 200th Grand Prix start for Nelson Piquet, he finished 6th.
1996 - Michael Schumacher won Italian Grand Prix driving for Ferrari. This was his first Italian Grand Prix victory he also recorded his 25th fastest lap in the process. This race, however, is famous for having tyre barriers erected at each chicane to stop people jumping the curbs. This caught out 8 drivers (5 of whom retired). Meanwhile Pedro Diniz finished in 6th, scoring last points for Ligier.
As always, thanks for reading (if you do that is
). Although it seems that even original poster has left the building