Well, that was embarrassing. I put a note here with the word zero at the start because I wanted to comment about all the 0s you may have been seeing in my recent posts. Ever since Mom came home, I’ve been typing on my laptop in the front room and plugging a mouse into it instead of using my traditional desktop computer. I didn’t have a mousepad, so I kept rolling my mouse over the laptop and inadvertently pressing the 0 button on the numeric keypad without noticing, and I didn’t catch them all, although I think I edited all of them out. And now this time, I embarrassed myself by posting that as a filler before I actually wrote this paragraph. Oh well.
Soheil Ayari (19)
Summary: A onetime hot F1 prospect, Ayari had a dominant championship in French Formula 3 and won the Macau Grand Prix, but a middling Formula 3000 career in the Tom Kristensen/Juan Pablo Montoya/Nick Heidfeld era prevented him from ever landing an F1 ride. Because of that and a crash at Le Mans that took his co-driver Sébastien Loeb out at the peak of his powers, people thought Ayari was worse than he was, but he nonetheless won eight titles (three in the French Supertouring Championship, three in French GT, one in the European Le Mans Series, and one in the International GT Open), so I suspect I’m underrating him here.
Case for: That’s a lotta titles in a relatively short timeframe as his three FSTC titles (2002, 2004, 2005), his first two French GT titles (2006, 2007), and his ELMS title (2007) made it six titles in six years.
Case against: It’s mainly that I’m questioning the competition he faced in those series. He won three of the last four FSTC titles before the series folded, and the competition was nowhere near as strong as it had been in its ‘90s heyday. He did need to beat Le Mans winner Éric Helary, but I don’t have him on the list yet (maybe I should evaluate him), and he lost the title to the much superior Christophe Bouchut, who competed only once in the 2003 season. French GT is one of the most prominent series I haven’t entered yet on my master driver list, so I haven’t done enough research on that to properly evaluate it. His Le Mans record isn’t amazing since he had some potentially winning cars. Another three-time FSTC champion from the same era, Éric Cayrolle, is completely obscure (however, Ayari’s international results are much more impressive than Cayrolle’s).
Verdict: Keep. Ultimately, I think it’s just too many titles, and once I’ve fully considered his French GT seasons, my opinion of him should rise.
Julian Bailey (15)
Summary: Although he briefly raced in F1, his main relevance is in sports cars, where he led the 1990 24 Hours of Le Mans early and won the British GT and FIA GT titles back-to-back in 1999 and 2000 with Jamie Campbell-Walter in a Lister Storm Jaguar. As a touring car driver, he earned one BTCC win, two South African Touring Car Championship wins, and one win in New Zealand’s Nissan Mobil 500 championship, but is better known for flipping his teammate Will Hoy in a BTCC race.
Case for: He was a relevant sports car racer on and off for a good decade, and his 21-12 BTCC record against Hoy is impressive since Hoy was a series champion.
Case against: It seems to me that Mark Blundell was the leader of his Nissan sports car teams (as evidenced by him winning the pole by six seconds once and also his superior open wheel career), and it would feel weird listing Bailey over Blundell, who I currently have off. Bailey’s touring car rating is .106, but that’s not necessarily too good to ignore. It’s going to all come down to how much I feel he and Campbell-Walter contributed to their back-to-back title years. From what I have read based on accounts at the time, they were equal in speed. But Campbell-Walter had 27 wins in total at the major league level, and Bailey only had 20.
Verdict: Drop. Both Campbell-Walter and Bailey were relevant for a while but not in my opinion at an extremely high level, except for their title years. Since Campbell-Walter won more than Bailey (and also went on to win another title later), I think he’s the better choice (although he’s still in this Bubble- tier too), while I’d honestly rather list the more eclectic Blundell than Bailey, and I have Blundell currently off. And if I even have Ayari on the bubble, who was vastly more successful in touring cars and arguably more successful in sports cars, yeah.
Andreas Bakkerud (14)
Summary: Bakkerud won four major rallycross titles, the European Rallycross title three times (2011, 2012, and 2021) and the Nitro Rallycross title once (2023). While he never won the World Rallycross title, the European Rallycross title was probably the most prestigious rallycross title before WRX was introduced in 2014. Bakkerud has 14 European Rallycross wins (10 before WRX became the top series), 7 WRX wins, and 2 Nitro Rallycross wins.
Case for: In addition to his many wins and titles, he posted a winning record against his teammates in WRX every year except for 2018 when he was teammates with his car owner Mattias Ekström and tied him 6-6 and narrowly lost to him in the championship. Since Ekström is a lock himself, Bakkerud probably should be closer to one.
Case against: The main issue is that he never won a WRX title, but considering the rest of his record, I think I’m undervaluing him as I write this. The competition in rallycross is rarely amazing although it was at its best when Bakkerud was peaking.
Verdict: Keep. I know rallycross racing isn’t as prestigious as rally racing, but Bakkerud’s legacy is nonetheless stronger than where I had him, especially since I gave perpetual WRX champion Johan Kristoffersson a #1 season in 2018 and I have other drivers from this world like Kenneth Hansen and Martin Schanche as locks.
Jack Baldwin (17)
Summary: Baldwin won back-to-back IMSA GTU titles in 1984 and 1985 and the Trans-Am title in 1992 at that series’s late-period height. He has 11 overall IMSA wins and 13 class wins (including the 1984 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring in both 1984 and 1997). He also has 5 Trans-Am wins, 8 SCCA World Challenge wins, and a top five in IROC points.
Case for: In addition to his multiple championships, he had great longevity. Despite not winning his first major race until 1983 when he was 35, he continued to win in World Challenge as late as 2015. 10 of his IMSA wins came in solo drives. This is a career that feels like it should be awarded.
Case against: While I originally had Baldwin on my lock list, I’ve increasingly had second thoughts. There only appeared to be about four or five full-timers in his IMSA title seasons, although admittedly, he did outrun Scott Pruett and Tommy Kendall in 1985 (albeit before those guys really took off). In his three years as Scott Sharp’s teammate in Trans-Am from 1991-1993, they won all three titles, but Sharp drastically outperformed him with 2 titles to Baldwin’s 1, 14 wins to Baldwin’s 5, and 795 laps led to Baldwin’s 219. In his 1992 title season, he only led one lap in both of his wins; I think that statistic is what caused me to drop him to the bubble.
Verdict: Keep. I still think on reputation alone he should be on the list and that’s a lot of IMSA wins by himself, but the fact that Sharp outperformed him so badly in his early twenties before his IRL career even started gives me pause.
Lorenzo Bandini (16)
Summary: Bandini spent most of his career driving for Ferrari in both F1 and sports car races before dying in a crash at the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix. As an F1 driver, he won once in 1964 at Zeltweg as well as a non-points race in 1962. As a sports car driver, he was more successful, winning 6 overall races including the 1963 24 Hours of Le Mans with Ludovico Scarfiotti, the 1967 24 Hours of Daytona with Chris Amon, the Coppa Acerbo and the Targa Florio in addition to four class wins.
Case for: He won a lot of major sports car races in a short period of time, usually with different teammates. The combination of open wheel and sports car wins showed versatility. On reputation, I think Bandini is a driver most people would expect me to list. There is of course the “what could have been” argument since he was still very relevant when he died.
Case against: Ferrari entered all its F1 drivers simultaneously in sports car races in the ‘60s (while the other F1 teams generally didn’t do that for the most part), so he was by no means alone in this respect and honestly, I think this inflated all of their reputations. I think the proper way to distinguish all these dual-use Ferrari drivers is based on their open wheel careers, and I don’t think Bandini’s is great. He is at -.075 in my model and F1metrics also had him only 167th as of 2019. His only win came when he inherited the lead after Dan Gurney had a suspension failure (in a year when his teammate John Surtees won the championship), and the only other driver on the lead lap was Richie Ginther, another driver who has a better reputation than he deserves. I think Scarfiotti and Amon were both better drivers.
Verdict: Drop. I know he had enough major sports car wins to make most people’s lists. I don’t think he should make mine because Ferrari was dominating with all its drivers in both F1 and sports cars throughout the entire ‘60s and their dominance seemed down more to their cars than their drivers, as evidenced by the fact that Phil Hill is probably the driver most frequently cited as the worst F1 champion in history, but Bandini was nowhere near as good a sports car driver as Hill or Olivier Gendebien were in my opinion. He was a successful component of Ferrari’s system, but I think he was ultimately replaceable.
GARY BETTENHAUSEN…………….USA
Born: November 18, 1941
Died: March 16, 2014
Best year: 1972
Best drive: 1975 USAC Midget Race #1 at Memorial Coliseum
The eldest son of ‘50s IndyCar legend Tony Bettenhausen, Gary was a merely good IndyCar driver, but he arguably surpassed Tony on dirt. While not one of his era’s most naturally talented drivers, he compensated through grit and determination. Tony’s fatal crash in 1961 didn’t deter Gary from racing. He first attracted notice by finishing second to A.J. Foyt in a 1963 USAC Stock Car race, but he wouldn’t break out until 1967, when he won his first five USAC Midget races, including the Turkey Night Grand Prix.
In 1968, Bettenhausen won his first IndyCar race for Don Gerhardt at Phoenix, but he became better known for his furious battles with Larry Dickson in USAC Sprints. The “Larry and Gary Show” finished first and second in points four straight years from 1968-1971, with Bettenhausen winning the 1969 and 1971 titles. After another IndyCar win at Michigan in 1970, he signed with Roger Penske for 1972, winning at Trenton in his second start and nearly giving Penske his first Indy 500 win when he led 138 laps until an ignition failure; Mark Donohue won for Penske instead. After Bettenhausen broke his arm in a sprint car race at Toledo in 1972, Penske pressured him to quit dirt racing, and Bettenhausen consistently refused. After an even worse Silver Crown crash at Syracuse in 1974, where his car landed on an empty concession stand, leaving Bettenhausen mostly paralyzed in his left arm, Penske fired him in his hospital bed. His IndyCar career never really recovered, although he drove from 32nd to third in a four-year-old car in the 1980 Indy 500.
He continued to thrive in dirt racing, winning his first midget race after the injury at Ft. Wayne’s indoor Memorial Coliseum with his left arm velcroed to the steering wheel. He won multiple Sprint, Midget, and/or Silver Crown races every year from 1967-1980, won his first Silver Crown title in 1980, and became the first two-time Silver Crown champion in 1983. Two of his Silver Crown wins at DuQuoin also counted as IndyCar wins, giving him 6 IndyCar, 27 Midget, 40 Sprint, and 10 Silver Crown wins. For such a USAC stalwart, he oddly made his final start in the 1996 U.S. 500.
Although Bettenhausen certainly would’ve won more without the arm injury, I don’t think he ranks highly amongst Penske IndyCar drivers, and I remain unconvinced he would’ve won a title or an Indy 500. In his four regular IndyCar wins, he only made a pass for the win once, and he typically benefited from others’ misfortune. Dirt racing and IndyCar racing were starting to diverge after formula-style rear-engined cars took over IndyCar racing, and he was never quite as strong on pavement. However, the injury did little to slow him down on dirt, and it also changed him personally. Once brash and cocky, he mellowed in later years as he no longer took his life for granted. While never as great as Tony, he contributed significantly to the family legacy.
Open wheel model: #511 of 934 (-.085)
Teammate head-to-heads: 13-11 (1-0 vs. Mario Andretti, 0-1 vs. Tony Bettenhausen, Jr., 1-2 vs. Tom Bigelow, 1-0 vs. Steve Chassey, 0-1 vs. Eddie Cheever, 0-1 vs. Mark Donohue, 0-1 vs. Janet Guthrie, 2-0 vs. Howdy Holmes, 1-0 vs. Greg Leffler, 0-2 vs. Roger McCluskey, 1-0 vs. Rick Muther, 3-1 vs. Ken Nichols, 1-0 vs. Ken Schrader, 0-1 vs. Jerry Sneva, 2-0 vs. George Snider, 0-1 vs. Bobby Unser)
Year-by-year: 1967: C, 1968: E-, 1969: E-, 1970: E-, 1971: C+, 1972: E-, 1973: C, 1974: C-, 1975: C, 1976: C+, 1978: C-, 1979: C-, 1980: C+, 1983: C+