I’ve been sitting on this bit that I finished on Saturday, but I was waiting to send it off until I did a 1,000 greatest drivers entry, but I’m behind on my paid work and I need to accompany Mom to an eye appointment tomorrow to see what can be done about her cataracts, so I’ll send this off right now rather than attaching a driver post to it. This is pretty lengthy anyway.
Lucien Bianchi (15)
Summary: Very similar to his similarly-initialed contemporary Lorenzo Bandini, another eclectic driver who won in a bunch of different series before being killed in a late ‘60s crash. Both of them were Le Mans winners, and Bianchi was, in fact, the defending Le Mans winner when he was killed in testing for the next 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1969.
Case for: Both Bianchi and Bandini were primarily sports car racers, but I like Bianchi’s career better even though Bandini won in F1 and Bianchi didn’t because Bianchi was a three-time Belgian Rally Champion, he won six World Sportscar Championship races overall and eight more in class, including two more Le Mans class wins, slightly better than Bandini’s six overall wins and four class wins, although Bianchi also lived four years longer. Although he didn’t win the 24 Hours of Daytona like Bandini did, he did win the 12 Hours of Sebring and two class wins at the 24 Hours of Spa, which Bandini didn’t. I like his eclecticism more because he won in rallying, sports cars, and touring cars, but admittedly, the differences between those disciplines were much less clear in the ‘60s. And he was less reliant on a single manufacturer for his success than Bandini was with Ferrari.
Case against: My main hesitation has been that I think Lucien’s grandnephew, Jules, the last F1 driver to die in a crash, was better. While Lucien’s open wheel rating of -.036 is better than Bandini’s -.076, Jules showed potentially generational potential with a rating of .240 and had World Champion hype early in his career. It would feel weird for me to list Lucien over Jules when Jules is universally rated higher.
Verdict: Keep. Ultimately, I think he did enough things in enough different disciplines that he has a stronger case than Jules. Even though Jules was obviously more talented, I think his career simply wasn’t long enough to merit a place on the list solely based on potential, and Lucien, while also dying young, had a more complete set of accomplishments. This is just keeping him on the bubble, mind you, so I might still drop him later.
Henry Birkin (16)
Summary: One of the then-vaunted Bentley boys who dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the late ‘20s and early ‘30s, Birkin was not as significant as his co-driver Woolf Barnato, who won three straight years in a row in his only three Le Mans starts from 1928-1930 with three different teammates, including Birkin in 1929. Birkin won the race again without Barnato in 1931.
Case for: Even though Barnato won at Le Mans three years in a row, it sure seems like Birkin was faster since he set the fastest lap all three years. Unlike Barnato, whose success was entirely tied to Bentley, Birkin remained relevant even after Bentley withdrew after their 1930 win, as he won again in 1931 in a privateer entry with the English lord Earl Howe. He also held a record at Brooklands at the time of his death, and he had occasionally strong Grand Prix results, including a second place at the 1930 French Grand Prix, where he used a Bentley road car rather than a traditional road car.
Case against: Birkin was one of the drivers in my Near Miss category due to his short career who I really thought belonged on the bubble, and he was one of the big reasons why I decided to award drivers from the ‘20s and ‘30s more points. But he was below the cut line when I started this project, and I’m not sure how strong the competition was in the pioneering years of sports car racing. He never actually won a Grand Prix event as far as I can tell, while his teammate Earl Howe actually did, although Howe’s was admittedly a 43-minute Formula Libre race.
Verdict: Keep. The fact that Birkin was the fastest driver at Le Mans three years running in the era when Bentley was dominating suggests he really should be on the list, and the fact that his successes extended beyond the Bentley era makes a strong case for him too. I’m not going to list all the Le Mans overall winners obviously, and I don’t think Barnato’s other two co-drivers Bernard Rubin or Glen Kidston have much of a case, but Birkin definitely does.
Dale Blaney/Dave Blaney (15)
Summary: I’m going to handle these guys together because their cases are very similar. While Ryan Blaney is obviously a lock for his highly successful NASCAR career, I have always been far less certain about what to do with his father, Dave, and his uncle, Dale. Dave certainly has the stronger reputation, since he was the only driver ever to win both the most prestigious titles for winged and non-winged sprints, the World of Outlaws and USAC Silver Crown, respectively. Dave was more ambitious and more eclectic as he was one of only two World of Outlaws champions to also win the Chili Bowl, along with Sammy Swindell, and he spent much of his career primarily racing in NASCAR. Dale, however, has the most wins (137) and championships (6) in the All-Star Circuit of Champions, which is not as prestigious as WoO and did not have as good fields, but was pretty prestigious in its own right. According to the Third Turn, Dave has 179 career wins to Dale’s 170.
Case for: Dave being the only driver to win both the most important winged and non-winged sprint car championships is an important distinction, as is Dale being the most dominant driver in the ASCoC, which also has a rich history, and both of their raw win volumes are difficult to dismiss. I didn’t think any of Dave’s NASCAR seasons were worth rating, but he was a lot better in NASCAR than I thought he was at the time, and he didn’t embarrass himself as much as many other crossover drivers despite starting at a relatively late age. Dave’s ranks ninth on the all-time WoO win list with 95; he even has more than five-time champion Brad Sweet. Dave did win all three of the big national sprint car events (the Knoxville Nationals, the Chili Bowl, and the Kings Royal). Dave won 10+ races in the World of Outlaws in five consecutive years (1993-1997). Dale won 10+ ASCoC races in back-to-back years in 1995-1996 and 2014-2015; he also won the Kings Royal but did not win the other two races.
Case against: My knee-jerk reaction has always been to say that Dave didn’t belong on the list because I think his sprint car record is weaker than it appears. Although he won a Silver Crown title, he actually never won a race in any of the major USAC divisions, including Silver Crown. Although he did win the World of Outlaws title, he only did so in 1995, a year when Steve Kinser and Swindell (who had combined to win 16 of the first 17 titles), both made unsuccessful NASCAR moves, with Kinser driving in the Cup Series and Swindell in the inaugural Craftsman Truck Series season. I feel Blaney really backed into both of his main titles. And honestly, having gone through all that, Dale’s case looks weaker as he was dominating in one series repeatedly, while Dave was more versatile.
Who was better?: I had to go down to the nitty-gritty on this one and compare their WoO and ASCoC records against each other. In the races both of them started, Dave had a 6-1 WoO edge over Dale in wins (they peaked in different eras) and a 12-9 edge in the ASCoC, while Dave beat Dale 62-27 in finishes (including DNFs) in WoO, and Dale beat Dave 39-32 in ASCoC finishes, giving Dave a 94-66 edge in starts and 18-10 in wins across both series. However, there is a major divergence in eras here as before Dave’s NASCAR move, he beat Dale 58-6 in finishes and 6-0 in wins in WoO, while after that, Dale had a 21-4 edge in finishes and 1-0 wins. Before Dave’s NASCAR move, he beat Dale 13-5 finishes and 7-2 in wins; afterward, Dale beat Dave 34-19 in finishes and 7-5 in wins. In the only two years they were both competing regularly at full strength in my opinion, 1995 and 1996, Dave beat Dale 15-2 in WoO and 6-5 in ASCoC in finishes (even as Dale won the ASCoC titles, mind you, and 2-0 in WoO wins and 3-2 in ASCoC wins). Okay, Dave was better, even though I was initially leaning Dale. If I’m going to take either, it should be Dave.
Verdict: Drop both. But I think this is my conclusion. Dave has the stronger career, but not winning a race in any USAC division makes him, by definition, one of the weaker Silver Crown champions, and I’m not listing all of them, while his WoO record is inflated because of Kinser and Swindell’s NASCAR moves. Granted, Dave might’ve done enough to make the list if he hadn’t made his own NASCAR move when he did. Maybe this is still too many wins to dismiss, so don’t be surprised if I end up changing my mind.
Tom Blomqvist (14)
Summary: The son of 1984 World Rally Champion Stig, Tom has a strong sports car record, as he won the overall IMSA title in 2022 with teammate Colin Braun and six IMSA races, including the 24 Hours of Daytona and Petit Le Mans back-to-back in 2022 and 2023. He also won the 2018 24 Hours of Spa, a DTM race, a GT European Endurance race, and a race in the electric touring car series ETCR.
Case for: Blomqvist is truly a Daytona master. Not only has he won the 24 Hours twice, but he was clearly the linchpin of those wins with a 3-0 lead change record in the 2022 race, a 1-0 record in the tainted 2023 win, and a 3-1 record in 2024, even though he only finished second. His .269 open wheel record is unfathomably high (he actually beat Max Verstappen in European Formula 3 in 2014, although both of them lost the title to Esteban Ocon). His .099 touring car rating is pretty solid, too. He’s still active in the IMSA GTP division and very much relevant, finishing the 2026 season with back-to-back poles at Indianapolis and Road Atlanta. And he’s usually faster than his teammates, including his current teammate Colin Braun.
Case against: For all that, I have always found Blomqvist to be one of the more overrated sports car drivers, mainly because his passing record excluding Daytona has been pretty putrid. In his 2021 WEC season, he was 0-2. In 2022, he was 1-4 after Daytona. 0-0 in 2023 and 2024. 0-1 in 2025 and 2026. In all his other major league sports car starts, disregarding Daytona, he’s 1-8, and that is bad. For this reason, I always find that his reputation outstrips his actual record, and I end up rating him lower every year than I expect to. I don’t take his open wheel rating even the least bit seriously, since that stems from dominating drivers in minor league series like Jake Dennis who ended up being better in the long run, and both his Formula E and IndyCar stints were pretty awful. And, of course, the 2023 Rolex win is tainted by the tire pressure data manipulation scandal. Even though Meyer Shank Racing returned to full-time status after briefly dropping back to part-time, I’m not sure the team is as strong as it once was, and Nick Yelloly definitely seems to be the team leader now.
Verdict: Keep. If only because he is still a going concern and he is performing well enough to probably career-compile himself to a safer status by the time I finish the book. And he’s truly a Daytona master, and you could argue that that race is more important than the entire IMSA championship. It’s like listing Takuma Sato for his two Indy 500 wins because he was truly great there, even if the rest of his career was meh-worthy, and I do plan on listing Sato. However, I still think Blomqvist’s overrated.