Heikki Kovalainen's victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix marks a milestone in Formula 1 racing. One hundred drivers have now won World Championship races since is formation in 1950. When such a list reaches a nice, round number such as 100, the natural thing to do is make an attempt to rank them according to their perceived worth. With three weeks between now and the European Grand Prix at Valencia, it seems like the perfect time to determine the rankings of the winners in the World Championship era, if only to give the members of this forum something to talk about in the time being.
Today, I shall begin with the drivers ranked #100-91. For the first eleven years of the World Championship, the Indianapolis 500 held full points-paying status on the calendar, despite the fact that few drivers or teams crossed over between Indy-style and Grand Prix racing during that period. As a result, the bottom of the list is dominated by Indy 500 winners.
100: Pat Flaherty, United States (1926-2002)
Active: 1950-1959
Career Races: 6 (started 5)
Wins: 1
First Win: 1956 Indianapolis 500
Pat Flaherty's best season in racing came in 1956, when he won the Indianapolis 500 as well as the Rex Mays Classic in Milwaukee a week later, propelling him to a runner-up finish in the USAC Championship despite only competing in six of the twelve events on the Championship Trail. Interestingly enough, Flaherty did not have a ride for Indy in 1956, and secured his entry only after hearing from a patron at his Chicago bar that car owner John Zink was looking for a driver. Flaherty raced only sparingly after 1956, and ended his career with three Champ Car wins and two tenth-place finishes at the Brickyard to go with his 500 triumph.
99: Lee Wallard, United States (1910-1963)
Active: 1950-1951
Career Races: 2
Wins: 1
First Win: 1951 Indianapolis 500
Lee Wallard won three AAA Championship races during his career, the last and greatest of those being the 1951 Indianapolis 500. He suffered serous burns in a sprint car accident shortly after his Indy victory, effectively ending his career.
98: Bob Sweikert, United States (1926-1956)
Active: 1952-1956
Career Races: 5
Wins: 1
First Win: 1955 Indianapolis 500
Bob Sweikert's won the Indianapolis 500 in 1955, but his victory was marred by the death of two-time defending champion Bill Vukovich. He added another victory that year en route to the last AAA Championship. Winner of four AAA Championship races during his career, Sweikert was killed in a sprint car accident less than a month after finishing sixth in the 1956 Indy 500.
97: Sam Hanks, United States (1914-1994)
Active: 1950-1957
Career Races: 8
Wins: 1
First Win: 1957 Indianapolis 500
Before there was Dale Earnhardt, there was Sam Hanks. Winner of four Champ Car races and the 1953 AAA Championship, Hanks had raced at Indianapolis twelve times, and finished on the podium in three of the five races between 1952 and 1956, before winning on his 13th attempt. He retired from racing after the race to become the official pace car driver at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
96: Johnnie Parsons, United States (1918-1984)
Active: 1950-1958
Career Races: 9
Wins: 1
First Win: 1950 Indianapolis 500
After finishing second on his first trip to Indy, Johnnie Parsons won the 1950 race on his second attempt. Parsons won 11 AAA/USAC Championship races, took the 1949 AAA season title, and collected two additional top-ten finishes at Indy to go with his first and second. A legend in the world of midget car racing, Parsons was inducted posthumously into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2004.
95: Jim Rathmann, United States
Active: 1950-1960
Career Races: 10
Wins: 1
First Win: 1960 Indianapolis 500
Jim Rathmann only won three races on the Championship Trail during his career, but he knew how to drive at Indy. During the eleven years the Indianapolis 500 counted in the World Championship standings, Rathmann placed in the top ten on six occasions, including three runner-up finishes and culminating in winning the last 500 included in the World Championship in 1960. Rathmann scored more World Championship points than any other Indy 500 participant during the era.
94: Jimmy Bryan, United States
Active: 1952-1960
Career Races: 9
Wins: 1
First Win: 1958 Indianapolis 500
While he only won a single Indianapolis 500, Jimmy Bryan was the dominant driver on the Championship Trail during the years the 500 counted towards the World Championship. Bryan won 23 Champ Car races during his career, and finished in the top ten in 54 of his 72 starts. In addition to his 1958 win, he had three top-ten finishes during his Indy career. Bryan was killed in a Champ Car race at Langhorne Speedway near Philadelphia on June 19, 1960 -- the same day Chris Bristow and Alan Stacey were killed during the Belgian Grand Prix.
93: Troy Ruttman, United States (1930-1997)
Active: 1950-1960
Career Races: 9 (started 8)
Wins: 1
First Win: 1952 Indianapolis 500
One of racing's first phenoms, Troy Ruttman won the Indianapolis 500 at the age of 22; he is still the youngest winner of the 500, and was the youngest driver to win a World Championship race until Fernando Alonso surpassed him in 2003. Unfortunately, Ruttman was injured in a sprint car crash later in 1952, and while he would recover to race again, he could not recapture the success of his early years. However, Ruttman was the first Indy winner to have a try at Formula 1. After the "Race of Two Worlds" at Monza in 1958, he stayed in Europe to compete in the French Grand Prix at Reims in a Maserati, where he finished a respectable tenth. He qualified for the German Grand Prix a few weeks later in the same car, but mechanical problems prevented him from taking the start.
92: Giancarlo Baghetti, Italy
Active: 1961-1967
Career Races: 21
Wins: 1
First Win: 1961 French Grand Prix
Giancarlo Baghetti is best known for being the only driver to win a World Championship event in his debut (besides the obvious winners of the inaugural race in 1950 and the 1950 Indianapolis 500), and it is most likely the only thing he's known for. After taking advantage of the dominant Ferrari 156 to nip Dan Gurney at the finish of a slipstreaming epic at Reims in 1961, Baghetti would not finish on the podium in Formula 1 again.
91: Bill Vukovich, United States
Active: 1951-1955
Career Races: 5
Wins: 2
First Win: 1953 Indianapolis 500
Last Win: 1954 Indianapolis 500
Bill Vukovich may have been the most dominant driver to ever set foot upon the Brickyard. After an inauspicious debut finish of 29th in 1951, Vuky led 150 laps of the 1952 event before suffering a steering failure with nine laps to go. He then led all but five laps during his first 500 win in 1953, and led 90 of the 200 laps en route to his second victory a year later. Vukovich was well on his way to three in a row at the 1955 race when, while trying to maneuver through lapped traffic, he became caught in the middle of an accident between three other cars, flipping his car over the backstretch retaining wall and killing him. He led 71.7% of the laps he completed at Indianapolis, is still the only driver to lead the most laps in the race on three consecutive occasions.
So, there is the bottom ten. Like what you see so far? Don't? Then tell me about it. I'll post #90-81 sometime between now and Tuesday.