Chequered Past

Martin Elliot
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Sports

Chequered Past is a Formula 1 history podcast that dives deep into iconic races, legendary drivers, and forgotten moments from motorsport’s rich and dramatic past. Each episode revisits Grand Prix events that took place on the same date in history, uncovering fascinating stories, on-track controversies, and the evolution of F1 through the decades. Whether you're a lifelong fan or new to the sport, Chequered Past offers compelling insights and nostalgia-fuelled storytelling from the world’s fastest sport. 

  1. 16th June 2007: The Race That Rewrote The Rules Part 6

    2d ago

    16th June 2007: The Race That Rewrote The Rules Part 6

    16th June is a date that has delivered some of motorsport's most extraordinary stories.  In 1984, Porsche made the remarkable decision to boycott their own sport's most prestigious race — and the privateers they left behind produced one of the great Le Mans comebacks.  In 2007, a technological watershed: the first time two diesel prototypes went head to head at La Sarthe, in a battle between Audi and Peugeot that would define a decade of endurance racing.  And in 2018, a Japanese manufacturer entered Le Mans for the twentieth time — carrying the weight of two consecutive heartbreaks — and faced the race that had always found a way to deny them. Cover Image: By Fabrice Pluchet, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link Send us Fan Mail Music by #Mubert Music Rendering

    18 min
  2. 15th June 1935: The Race That Rewrote The Rules Part 5

    4d ago

    15th June 1935: The Race That Rewrote The Rules Part 5

    Five races. Ninety years. One date. The fifteenth of June has a habit of producing the unexpected at Le Mans. In 1929, Bentley arrived to collect what they’d already won twice before — and they did, but not without being made to work for it. In 1935, Alfa Romeo’s pursuit of a fifth consecutive win ended when their lead driver was given the wrong information by his own pit crew, and a Lagonda running on its last drops of oil took the prize. In 1985, a customer car humiliated the factory, driven in part by a man racing under a false name. In 1996, a car built from a mothballed Jaguar chassis beat the full Porsche works effort, and handed the win to the youngest driver ever to win Le Mans. And in 2019, a wiring error made before the race started determined who finished first. Chequered Past is a podcast about motorsport history. Find us at linktr.ee/chequeredpastpod. Send us Fan Mail Music by #Mubert Music Rendering

    29 min
  3. 14th June 1952: The Race That Rewrote The Rules Part 4

    6d ago

    14th June 1952: The Race That Rewrote The Rules Part 4

    Four races. Four dates. All June the fourteenth. In 1924, a privately entered Bentley fought three works Lorraine-Dietrichs through brutal heat to give the British marque its first Le Mans victory. In 1952, a Frenchman named Pierre Levegh drove alone for nearly twenty-three hours — and came within one hour of winning the race by himself. In 1969, Jacky Ickx walked to his car in protest, started last, and won the closest finish in the race's history. And in 1980, Jean Rondeau won Le Mans in a car bearing his own name Cover image: By ZANTAFIO56 - 24 heures du MANS 1969, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link Send us Fan Mail Music by #Mubert Music Rendering

    23 min
  4. 13th June 1953: The Race That Rewrote The Rules Part 3

    Jun 13

    13th June 1953: The Race That Rewrote The Rules Part 3

    Three races share the 13th of June. Three times, the result confounded expectations. In 1953, Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton spent the night in a French bar after being disqualified before the race had started. By Sunday afternoon they had won — at the first average speed of over 100 miles per hour in Le Mans history — in a Jaguar C-Type running disc brakes for the first time in competition. In 1970, the dominant JW Automotive Gulf Porsches of Jo Siffert and Pedro Rodriguez were eliminated by driver error and mechanical failure through a rain-soaked night. What was left was a race of survival. Of 51 starters, only seven cars were classified. The winner was a car that had qualified fifteenth, driven by a man who had promised his wife he would retire the moment he won Le Mans. In 1987, a change in fuel specification destroyed most of Porsche's own fleet within the first hour. Jaguar, who had won the four preceding championship rounds, appeared set to end Porsche's six-year winning streak — until a tyre failure at 230 miles per hour changed the course of the race. One Porsche survived. It was enough. Send us Fan Mail Music by #Mubert Music Rendering

    23 min
  5. 12th June 1999: The Race That Rewrote The Rules Part 2

    Jun 12

    12th June 1999: The Race That Rewrote The Rules Part 2

    On the twelfth of June, across seventy-three years of motorsport history, Le Mans produced four races that refused to deliver the winner anyone expected.  In 1926, Bentley ended up in a sandbank in the final half-hour while their competitor locked out the podium.  In 1954, Ferrari held on by less than five kilometres after an engine that wouldn't fire at a pit stop nearly handed the race to Jaguar.  In 1971, a car nobody expected to win set a distance record that stood for thirty-nine years — then its driver lost his career to a stone the following season.  And in 1999, the most competitive grid Le Mans had ever seen produced one of its most dramatic finishes.  Cover image: By Martin Lee - BMW V12 LMR - Pierluigi Martini, Yannick Dalmas & Joachim Winkelhock head towards Dunlop Bridge at the 1999 Le Mans, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link Send us Fan Mail Music by #Mubert Music Rendering

    27 min
  6. 11th June 1955: The Race That Rewrote The Rules Part 1

    Jun 11

    11th June 1955: The Race That Rewrote The Rules Part 1

    The eleventh of June appears more than once in the history of the twenty-four hours of Le Mans — and the first of those appearances casts a shadow over everything that follows. In 1955, a crash in the third hour of the race killed more than eighty people and changed motorsport forever. This episode examines what happened, why the race continued, and what the disaster set in motion — in the regulations, in the circuit design, and in the sport’s long, slow reckoning with the question of safety. The three races that follow show how Le Mans evolved in the decades after. In 1977, a Porsche that should have been out of contention — damaged, running deep in the field — became the first car shared by three drivers to win Le Mans outright. In 1988, Jaguar ended seven consecutive Porsche victories on a gearbox held together by the torque of its engine and the nerve of its driver — while elsewhere on the same circuit, a Frenchman quietly broke the four hundred kilometre an hour barrier on the Mulsanne Straight, setting a record that can never be beaten. And in 2011, two of the most violent accidents in the modern race’s history produced something the crowd in 1955 could not have imagined: both drivers walked away. Four races. One date. And a thread running through all of them that begins in the worst moment in the sport’s history and ends, fifty-six years later, with two drivers climbing out of cars that had been destroyed at three hundred kilometres an hour. Send us Fan Mail Music by #Mubert Music Rendering

    29 min
  7. Le Mans: The Race That Rewrote The Rules

    Jun 10

    Le Mans: The Race That Rewrote The Rules

    Before the races, the circuit. Before the results, the race itself. This opening episode of Chequered Past’s Le Mans series sets the scene for everything that follows — examining what the twenty-four hours of Le Mans actually is, what it has always been, and why it continues to matter in a way that no other race quite does. From its founding in 1923 as a test of reliability rather than outright speed, through the manufacturer battles that brought Ford, Ferrari, Jaguar and Porsche to the Circuit de la Sarthe with reputations and fortunes at stake, to the privateer teams who arrived with neither and occasionally beat everyone anyway — Le Mans has always asked a different question to the rest of motorsport. Not which car is fastest, but which car keeps going. This episode also considers what the race has meant to the drivers who defined it — among them Jacky Ickx, Tom Kristensen and Graham Hill, the only man in history to have won what is informally known as motorsport’s Triple Crown — and what it withheld from those it never quite rewarded, however much their speed deserved it. And it acknowledges, plainly, that this series will not look away from the darker chapters of Le Mans history. That history is part of what the race is. The episodes that follow will show why. Send us Fan Mail Music by #Mubert Music Rendering

    17 min
  8. 31st May 1959: The Date That Proved Everyone Wrong

    May 31

    31st May 1959: The Date That Proved Everyone Wrong

    On 31st May 1959, Jo Bonnier won BRM's first Grand Prix at Zandvoort in a car the team had already started replacing. In 1981, Gilles Villeneuve won at Monaco in a turbo that everyone agreed couldn't win there. In 1987, Ayrton Senna won Monaco's first active-suspension Grand Prix in a Lotus that was supposed to be outgunned. And in 1992, Nigel Mansell lost the race he had controlled for seventy laps to a loose wheel nut that Williams had spent five years ensuring could never happen again. Four races. Four dates. Four times the sport was certain — and four times it was wrong. This is also episode 365 of Chequered Past — the last date, and the end of Series 1.  Send us Fan Mail Music by #Mubert Music Rendering

    30 min
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About

Chequered Past is a Formula 1 history podcast that dives deep into iconic races, legendary drivers, and forgotten moments from motorsport’s rich and dramatic past. Each episode revisits Grand Prix events that took place on the same date in history, uncovering fascinating stories, on-track controversies, and the evolution of F1 through the decades. Whether you're a lifelong fan or new to the sport, Chequered Past offers compelling insights and nostalgia-fuelled storytelling from the world’s fastest sport. 

Information

  • Creator
    Martin Elliot
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    374
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Chequered Past
  • Show Website
    Chequered Past

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