It happened today – 14 February

[Rob]

On 14th February 1942, Ricardo Valentin Rodriguez de la Vega was born in Mexico City. He was two years younger than his brother Pedro and made his Formula 1 debut before him, actually at the wheel of a Ferrari in the 1961 Italian Grand Prix. At the time he was the youngest ever Formula 1 driver. He qualified second and was in the hunt for the win right up until he retired with a reliability problem. Ricardo had got himself noticed plying his trade with NART, the American team which ran the Ferraris in races in the United States, where his elder brother was racing. At the wheel of a 250 TR-59, he came second in the 1960 Le Mans 24 Hours, paired with Andre Pilette, while the following year, he came third in the Sebring 12 Hours and second in the Daytona 3 Hours.

In 1962, he became a works driver, but in Formula 1 he was hampered by a less than competitive car, while he had some great results in endurance racing, winning the Targa Florio and the Paris 1000 Kilometres. Towards the end of the season, he wanted to take part in the first Mexican Grand Prix, although it didn’t count for the World Championship: Ferrari didn’t take part, so Rodriguez raced a Lotus. On 1st November, in practice, the will to do be the best in front of his home crowd got the better of him: he went off the track at the banked Peraltada corner and suffered injuries which would prove fatal.

“He’s a wild guy who races with a frightening lack of restraint and an excess of physical energy without compare. I think that if this youngster learns to contain his impetuosity and refines his driving style, he can be very successful,” had said Enzo Ferrari when talking to a journalist about him, as he recorded in the book “Piloti, che gente…” “I understood that his desire to win devoured him. It was a noble ambition but it laid dangerously in wait for him. And I knew that, in his family he would not find water to put out his fire, but petrol. I had to read in the papers that, because of excess speed, in an attempt to beat a record taken from him moments earlier by another competitor, during practice for the Mexican Grand Pris, he went off the road in a Lotus. This time, fate was not kind to him. He was twenty and was such a good kid, always cheerful, with that innocent face of a naughty child.”

- See more at: http://formula1.ferrari.com/it-happe....EhJ2aIHt.dpuf

[Kiwi Nick]

Los hermanos Rodriguez, raced with a style and flair that was only matched by Sir Stirling Moss. Both of the brothers put in many drives in various Ferraris. They were very good and both passed far too soon.

[wisepie]

Seems he shared the spirit of Gilles Villeneuve. What a loss at such a young age, followed by Pedro's demise some years later.

[AvantiFern]

What an intriguing and interesting person who died much too young. I grew up in a small town (Alton, Illinois) which was the home of the now closed Western Military Academy, a one time well attended school for young military members, where they received an education and basic training. I was surprised to see on their roster of former students, the name Pedro Rodriguez. Apparently Pedro was sent to a military school in America to receive discipline and to learn English. I thought that was too interesting that he ended up in small town Southern Illinois. What an interesting life. If I could choose my fate I might very well choose to go out behind the wheel of a Ferrari 512. Sleep Well Rodriguez Brothers.

Futhurmore... Alton, Illinois Is considered one of the most "haunted" places in the world. It contained an American Union Civil War prison (housed confederate prisoners) where most of the POW's died off smallpox. After the war the prison was demolished and the limestone blocks of the prison were used in the foundations of many of the buildings in Alton's older areas.

A pre-Civil War note... Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held a public debate while the two were campaigning for a United States Senate seat in Alton, Illinois in October of 1858. The public square is still there. This resulted in the first successful campaign of Abraham Lincoln and laid the foundation for his Presidential campaign.

Also, the roster of the Western Military included more noteworthy people including Air Force Pilot Paul Tibbets. Tibbets was the pilot of the Enola Gay, a plane he named for his mother, which was the first plane to drop an atomic bomb on Japan during WW2. Tibbets was born in the nearby town of Quincy, Illinois.

I apologize if this post was of no interest to anyone but myself but I always found the history of the small town to be extremely interesting.

Enjoy It...
Drizzzle.