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  1. #1
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    Late starting rookies who became successful

    A thought occured to me earlier while watching the BTCC race from Snetterton this year. How often has it happened that relatively old rookies have went on to have some form of success in motorsport? Here's a few I can think of but would be great to hear everybody else's suggestions. "Successful" is a word you can interpret your own way - it is not necessarily relating to statistics because they only tell so much.

    Dave Newsham: Of course, the main inspiration for this thread. He became a race winner in the BTCC from that Snetterton round but, according to his wikipedia article, he only started racing in 2007. Having been born in 1967, Newsham was 39 or 40 years of age by that point.

    Graham Hill: Having not passed his driving test till he was 24, Hill didn't get behind the wheel until his debut in 1954. Although this was not madly out of kilter for that time, being a double world championship over 10 years later is.

    Damon Hill: Like father, like son. Damon started at 21 in motorbikes and was 32 when he got his first F1 drive. He quickly proved a real threat to a much, much younger Michael Schumacher.

    Tommi Makinen: Admittedly a different route than F1, Makinen was still not behind the wheel until he was 23 upon entering the 1987 1000 Lakes Rally. A full factory drive didn't come until Mitsubishi, 1995 (aged 31). Then he took four titles on the trot.

    I will research further but I'll let yous come up with your findings!
    Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam

  2. #2
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    Fangio was 25 when he drove in his first race in Argentina, 37 when he first raced in Europe in a Simca-Gordini and 38 when he won the 1949 San Remo GP in a Maserati 4CLT/48 - this was his first Formula 1 race although he had driven the Maserati in Formule Libre races in Argentina .
    Duncan Rollo

    The more you learn, the more you realise how little you know.

  3. #3
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    Greg Ray in the IZOD IndyCar Series. He made his debut when he was already 31 and managed to qualify three times on the front row at the Indianapolis 500, to win the championship in 1999 and to score a total of 14 pole positions and 5 wins. He also was the pole sitter of the 2000 Indianapolis 500 and scored a highest Indianapolis 500 result of 8th in 2003, at the age of 37.

    Arie Luyendyk was 30 when he made his debut in the CART World Series in 1984. He made his IZOD IndyCar Series debut in 1996 at the age of 42. He scored a lot of top 10 results and podium finishes and won a total of 7 races (3 in CART and 4 in the IZOD IndyCar Series) in his career. Of course that's only a little bit of his career highlights because he's of course a two time Indy 500 winner, winning this race in 1990 and in 1997. He could have won it in 1999 as well but he got screwed by a back marker while he was leading the race quite dominantly...
    October 16th, 2011 - One of the blackest days in the history of motorsports.

  4. #4
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    Jimmy McRae was into his 30's before he took up rallying and turned out to be rather good at it.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Boyd
    Jimmy McRae was into his 30's before he took up rallying and turned out to be rather good at it.
    Exactly the example I was going to give. Careers such as his are rare nowadays.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Boyd
    Jimmy McRae was into his 30's before he took up rallying and turned out to be rather good at it.
    That's a surprise! I never figured.
    Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam

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