Discover the most momentous motorsports events that took place this weekend in history …..

~18 December~

1898: The first sprint meeting in the world, sponsored by La France Automobile, was held in Arches Park, near Paris. The course `was flat but very wet, and competitors were timed over 2 km from a standing start, thus providing two sets of figures, for the standing one-kilometre and the flying kilometre. The Comte de Chasseloup-Laubat, in the 1½ ton Jeantaud electric car, powered by an electric motor and alkaline batteries, covered the first in 72.6 seconds and the second in 52 seconds. His average speed over the flying kilometre, 39.3 mph, automatically became the first official World Land Speed Record. Jeantaud is widely believed to be the first automobile steered by a modern steering wheel rather than a tiller. The tiller was quickly replaced by the steering wheel in the early 1900s.

1907: Bill Holland, an American race-car driver who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1949, was born. He won the Indianapolis 500 in 1949 and finished second in 1947, 1948 and 1950. He also was runner up in the 1947 AAA National Championship.

1909: The first races were held on the newly repaved (with 3,200,000 bricks replacing crushed stone and tar) Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

1929: Hellé Nice, driving a Bugatti T35C, set a Montlhery track record by averaging 123.057 mph over 10 kilometres.

1949: Alberto Ascari in a Ferrari 166 won the Juan Perón & Buenos Aires Grand Prix held at Palermo Park.

1950: NASCAR announced that $23,024 in points fund money would be distributed to drivers in all stock car divisions based on final points standings. NASCAR Grand National champion Bill Rexford received $1375.

1950: The Rafaela 500 miles at Rafaela was won by Juan Manuel Fangio in a Talbot-Lago T26C.

1994: Henry Banks died in Indianapolis, Indiana (US) aged 81. The popular American midget and ‘big car’ became the first driver to pass the qualifying “Rookie Test” for the 1936 Indy 500 – he also raced in three Indianapolis Grand Prix between 1950 and 1952. Alongside motorsport he also appeared in two films, To Please a Lady with Clarke Gable and Roar of the Crowd, a movie set around the Indy 500.

2005: David Keith Duckworth (72) – cover iimage, the English engineer best known for designing the Cosworth DFV (Double Four Valve) engine, an engine that revolutionised Formula One, died. In 1958 he founded Cosworth with fellow Lotus employee Mike Costin. Costin was obliged to remain with Lotus, having recently signed a restrictive contract; for the first few years Duckworth worked essentially alone at Cosworth until Mike could join him

2007: Lewis Hamilton was suspended from driving in France for a month after being caught speeding at 196 km/h (122 mph) on a French motorway. His Mercedes-Benz CLK was also impounded.

~19 December~

1967: The first Matra 3-litre V12 engine came to life on a test-bench.

1996: Minardi signed Japan’s Ukyo Katayama for the 1997 season. Katayama, 33, had been with Tyrrell, the British team, for three years. “I think that Minardi will be a big surprise for many in the course of the season,” he said.

1996: Formula One team owner Frank Williams was charged with manslaughter over the death of Ayrton Senna at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

2002: Will Hoy (50) a British racing driver and the 1991 British Touring Car Champion, died after a short illness – an inoperable brain tumour. Hoy’s motorsport career began in karting in the late sixties and he first came to prominence in Clubmans sportscars, in which he won a hat-trick of titles between 1982-1984. Hoy then graduated to international sportscars achieving some notable successes both in Europe and Japan.