There can be no mistake that within the world of sport, there are some great eccentrics and spectacular characters. From Football to Snooker, every sport contains one unique person who is able to define or defy their field.
Racing however, tends have more than just a few in all its brilliant forms, so by gathering them all together, managed to pick out the top three most interesting personalities in the world of motor racing as chosen by mobile tyre fitters Tyres on the Drive.
Kurt Busch – NASCAR
Younger brother of fellow driver Kyle Busch, Kurt has under his belt 24 cup races and the 2004 Championship in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Coupled with his wins he has also been awarded with the Rookie of the Year award in 1998 and again in 2000 for the Camping World Truck Series.
Despite his highly successful racing career, Busch is more known for his controversy, short temper and racetrack exploits; though perhaps the most well-known is his rivalry with driver, Jimmy Spencer.
Started by a controversial victory for Busch at Spencer’s expense in 2002, coupled by the fact that Spencer took his revenge by deliberately making Busch crash not long after, the two soon came to blows – leaving Busch with a broken nose.
Though Busch’s fight with Spencer was soon resolved, in 2005 he was arrested, jailed and later sentenced for drunken and reckless driving; costing him 50 hours of community service.
Before long however, Busch was found in the centre of another foray with his own brother as they both attempted to win the 2007 All-Star Race; each one causing the other to crash as a consequence.
Kurt refused to talk to his younger brother for six months.
All in all Busch has fallen out and had run ins with Jimmy Spencer, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick, Robby Gordan, Jimmie Johnson and more recently, Tony Stewart.
Despite his exploits, Busch has total career winnings of $71,019,005.
Sir Stirling Moss – Formula 1
Sir Stirling Moss, OBE and a fellow at the Institute of Engineers is one of the most widely acclaimed drivers to put on a helmet, despite being called “the greatest driver never to win the World Championship”.
With a total of 16 separate wins, 24 podium finishes and 16 pole position starts, it is something of a mystery to anyone as to why Sir Stirling wasn’t quite able to bag himself a World Championship victory.
Despite never achieving his dream, Moss did live on in popular culture as many policemen would ask the question, ‘who do you think you are, Stirling Moss?’ for year’s later to speeding drivers.
According to an interview in The Daily Telegraph, Moss did admit to the question once being asked to himself after having been caught speeding, though Moss couldn’t be quite sure as to whether the police officer was being serious or not.
More recently however, Moss has come again under the media spotlight after indicating to the press that he would not like a homosexual to play him in any autobiographical film.
Preferring someone masculine he said that he didn’t want (apologies) “a poofter or anything like that” to play him. In an attempt to back his statement up, he said that he had spent many years chasing girls and driving cars; things that he didn’t consider a gay man to be able to adequately portray.
If that wasn’t enough, Stirling also caused upset after he claimed that women “lacked the mental aptitude” to compete in Formula 1.
Ayrton Senna
One of the most well-regarded names of Formula 1 is, of course, Ayrton Senna.
Heralded as one of the nicest guys ever to sit within the cockpit, Ayrton’s legacy has survived nearly twenty years without blemish since his tragic death at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
Making his Formula 1 debut in 1984, Senna managed to win in ten short years 3 World Championships, 41 races as well as 80 podium finishes.
Though racing can, as we have already seen, produce some pretty controversial figures, it is important to realise that there are people, much like Senna, who are champions of the sport, both on and off the track.
Often concerned about the poverty that he witnessed in Brazil, it was discovered after his death that had anonymously donated over $400 million to help poor children in his country.
In regards to his sport, Aryton was quoted as saying:
“The harder I push, the more I find within myself. I am always looking for the next step, a different world to go into, areas where I have not been before.
It’s lonely driving a Grand Prix car, but very absorbing. I have experienced new sensations, and I want more. That is my excitement, my motivation.”
Senna also worked very hard at trying to improve safety throughout his sport and on the day of his death he restarted the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association. Its first meeting was held two weeks later.
He remains the last driver to die during a Formula 1 race, though in reaction to his death the sport has dramatically improved safety procedures, even down to its tyres.
Only last week Felipe Massa spoke of how a new range of Pirelli Tyres are safer than any other before.
