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How did a Former Formula 1 Driver Secure Both 1st and 2nd Place in an Endurance Race?

Published 04/11/2020, 10:17 AM EDT

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Derek Daly, a former Formula 1 driver holds one of the most unusual records of motorsport history. He got both first place and a second-place finish at the 1990 ‘12 Hours of Sebring‘. Daly was driving for the Nissan Performance Tech team and was part of two driver groups driving two different cars. And he drove both the number 83 and number 84 car at some point in the race.

It is not very uncommon in endurance races for a driver to be driving two separate cars. However, the switch wasn’t intentional as one of the drivers in one car wasn’t available due to health reasons. And Nissan decided to put Dally in the second car to fill the spot. Luckily both the cars managed to finish P1 and P2 giving Daly this unusual record.

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The 12 Hours of Sebring is a yearly endurance racing event for sports vehicles held at Sebring International Raceway. It is held in the site of Hendricks Army Airfield, an old World War II airbase in Sebring, Florida, US.

The race is the second round of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Earlier it has been a part of the now-defunct World Sportscar Championship and the American Le Mans Series. Additionally, In 2012, the race was the first round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Derek Daly in Formula 1

Daly won the British Formula 3 championship in 1977 and got a promotion to the European Formula 2 the same year. He had his Formula 1 debut in 1978 with the Hesketh Racing team while still racing in Formula 2. Hesketh is famously known for giving James Hunt his F1 debut. Daly will go on to have 64 race starts in Formula 1 with a career-best result of P4. He moved from many small teams to end his career with Williams F1. His last appearance in F1 was in the 1982 Caesars Palace GP in Las Vegas, USA.

Daly will later move on to Indycar racing in the CART series. He raced in the series from 1982 to 1989 and was involved in a near-death accident at the 1984 CART Detroit GP. After 1989 he primarily raced in multiple endurance races.

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Written by:

Mrinal Kuniyal

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Mrinal Kuniyal has been a contributor to EssentiallSports since early 2020 and has focused on Formula 1, NASCAR, and IndyCar. He's a management graduate and his areas of interest include motorsports, marketing, and music.
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