Saturday 16th February 1918

Born on this day, Walt Faulkner, a US racer. Mainly competing in midget dirt track racing and then NASCAR races, in 1950 Faulkner became the first ever rookie to earn pole position at the Indy 500. It was also the year of inauguration of the Formula 1 World Championship which included the 500 for a decade. Besides being listed as a pole-setter in F1 stats, Faulkner also appears as scoring one point as the result of finishing 5th in the 1955 edition, but only being eligible of half the points as he had shared the car with Bill Homeier. He died aged just 36 in 1956 during practice for a USAC Stock Car event in California.