Formula Two may have had its most watched race in the United States, as Logan Sargeant did enough to finish fourth in the championship and earn the Super License points necessary to get him a license and assure himself a spot on the 2023 Formula One grid with Williams. Not bad for a driver who nearly was set to drive for A.J. Foyt Racing in IndyCar this season. Meanwhile, Red Bull may have won but look like losers in the end. Sebastian Vettel scored a point on his debut and he scored a point on his farewell. Fernando Alonso leaves one burning ship for another. A few other drivers are in limbo. Elsewhere, World Superbike ended its season at a spectacular place with spectacular conditions. Thanksgiving is approaching and the World Cup is here. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
Shooting Your Age
A few years ago, it somehow came up in passing drivers who have as many victories as their age, a motorsports equivalent of someone “shooting their age.” In golf terms, it is when someone can shoot an 18-hole round that matches or is lower than their age. Imagine a 65-year-old shooting a 65 on a golf course.
Both are quite hard to do. Think that the average race car driver starts at a professional level at the age of 22. That means that driver is 22 victories away from reaching this achievement on day one. If the driver does not win in that first year, then he or she needs to win an additional race. If the driver only has five victories when he or she reaches the age of 30, then that means 25 victories are necessary to achieve this milestone.
Plenty of drivers have reached this status, but there are some basic characteristics all these drivers share, especially for those in the top professional series.
For starters, they need at least 18 victories. There aren't any 12-year-olds competing in a top series with a dozen victories to his or her name. The age of 18 is generally the minimum age to compete in these top series, and it is unlikely an 18-year-old will have 18 victories in that first season.
Any driver who reaches this distinction likely either has one or two significant victory totals in a season or consistently won a handful of races each year for a good portion of a career. When you are starting two decades in the hole you will need to win quickly to catch up.
This is a holiday week and I wanted to do something fun, so tackling this curiosity to see who has shot their age in motorsports is what we are going to do. We aren’t going to do every series but we will do three notable ones.
Let's start with IndyCar.
A.J. Foyt reached 30 victories in the 1965 season when he was 30 years old. Foyt ended that season with 32 victories. From that point forward, Foyt had more victories than his age for the rest of his IndyCar career.
Mario Andretti is an interesting case. At the end of the 1969 season, Andretti had 30 victories at 29 years of age. However, as he turned his focus to Formula One at the start of the 1970s, Andretti no longer shot his age after the 1971 season. It wasn't until 1985 when Andretti was back to shooting his age when he reached 45 victories at 45 years old. He would hold on shooting his age until 1991 when his age surpassed his 51 career victories. His 52nd and final victory came when he was 53 years old.
Scott Dixon is shooting his age and has been since 2013. Dixon ended that season with 33 victories, matching his age. He won two races the following year, three races the year after that and two more in 2016, meaning at 36 years old his 40 victories had him covered until 2020. Of course, Dixon kept on winning and now has 53 victories at 42 years old. He is set until 2033.
In 1996, Michael Andretti reached 33 victories at 33 years old and ended that season on 35 victories. Andretti remained ahead of his age through him stepping away from competition in 2003. But, when he returned in 2006, he was 44 years old and returning with 42 career victories.
Will Power ended the 2022 season shooting his age and Power has been shooting it since the end of the 2020 season when he reached 39 career victories at 39 years old. He has only won one race in each of that last two seasons, but that has kept him on pace.
Sébastien Bourdais left Champ Car at the end of the 2007 season shooting his age. Bourdais was 28 years old and had 31 career victories. But when he returned in 2011, he was now 32 years and had 31 career victories. His 32nd career victory would not come until he was 35 years old and he never shot his age again.
In IndyCar, those are all the examples of a driver shooting his age. Six drivers did it, three of which ended their careers or are currently shooting their ages.
None of the Unser's achieved it. Neither did Paul Tracy nor Dario Franchitti. Hélio Castroneves never reached it, nor did Rick Mears.
One driver is close. Josef Newgarden will turn 32 years old next month and Newgarden has 25 career victories. Since joining Team Penske, he has averaged 3.6667 victories per season. At that rate, he will have 36 victories by the time he is 35 years old. Let's keep an eye on that around 2025.
Moving onto Formula One...
Lewis Hamilton reached his age in victories at the 2014 Singapore Grand Prix, his 29th career victory. He ended that season with 33 career victories. SEVENTY VICTORIES LATER... Hamilton is set until 2088. He is set to shoot his age for the next 66 years and it only took him seven more seasons to build up such a buffer.
Before Hamilton, it was Michael Schumacher, who also reached his age in victories at 29 years old. For Schumacher, it was the 1998 Canadian Grand Prix and he ended that season on 33 career victories. My goodness the parallels are hair-raising. When Schumacher ended his career with Ferrari at the end of the 2006 season, he had 91 victories and was set for the next 54 years.
Sebastian Vettel was a few years younger than Hamilton and Schumacher when he began shooting his age. Vettel was 25 years old when he won for the 25th time in his grand prix career at the 2012 Korean Grand Prix. Though he hasn't won for the last three seasons, Vettel leaves Formula One shooting his age and set until 2040.
Alain Prost was the first driver to shoot his age in Formula One history. At 33 years old, he won his 33rd grand prix at Estoril in 1988, and Prost ended that season with 35 victories. When his 51st victory occurred in the 1993 German Grand Prix, he was set through 2006.
Anything Prost could do, Ayrton Senna did as well. At 31 years old, Senna had his 31st victory come at the 1991 Hungarian Grand Prix. He ended that season on 33 victories. When he lost his life at 34 years old, Senna had 41 career victories.
Which brings us to Max Verstappen. Verstappen is 25 years old. He entered the 2022 season with 20 career victories. He started shooting his age with his 24th victory at the Spanish Grand Prix this past May. He is set shooting his age until 2032.
Fernando Alonso shot his age for a brief moment in time. When he won the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix, Alonso was 31 years old and had 31 career victories. A month later, he won for the 32nd time, only two months ahead of his 32nd birthday. However, Alonso hasn't won since and he ended the 2022 season nine victories from reaching his age.
Seven Formula One drivers have reached their age in victories and only Alonso has done it but then gone on to lose pace.
With the NASCAR Cup Series, there are numerous drivers where the question is not if he ever shot his age, but when he started shooting his age.
Richard Petty ended his NASCAR Cup career set on victories to match his age until 2137. When did Petty first start shooting his age? October 5, 1963 when his 26th victory occurred when he was 26 years old at Tar Heel Speedway, fittingly enough in his hometown of Randleman, North Carolina. Petty raced until he was 55 years old. He was set on having victories match his age through his driving career from May 13, 1967 onward and he was only 29 years old when he won that Rebel 400 at Darlington.
With Petty, there is also David Pearson, whose 105 Cup victories would have him covered until 2039. However, Pearson reached his age in victories during the 1965 season, when he ended that year with 30 victories at 30 years old. The next season, Pearson won 16 times and ended with 46 victories. By the end of the 1969, he would be covered on victories through his final start at 51 years old at Michigan on August 17, 1986.
Jeff Gordon was 25 years old when he won his 25th Cup race on June 8, 1997 at Pocono. Gordon's final start came when he was 45 years old in 2016. He reached 45 victories at 28 years old at Fontana in 1999.
We could be here all day going through the NASCAR Cup drivers, but Bobby Allison started shooting his age with his 34th victory at Trenton on July 16, 1972, Darrell Waltrip was 34 when his 34th victory came at Pocono on July 26, 1981, Jimmie Johnson was 32 when his 32nd victory came at Texas on November 4, 2007 and Cale Yarborough was 37 when his 37th victory came at Richmond on September 12, 1976.
All four drivers were set for the rest of their careers.
Dale Earnhardt hit his age when he was 38 years old and his 38th career victory was at Dover on September 17, 1989. Kyle Busch was 30 when he scored his 30th victory at Sonoma on June 28, 2015. Kevin Harvick's 42nd victory came when he was 42 years old on May 12, 2018 at Kansas. Rusty Wallace reached the mark when he was 38 years old at Dover on September 18, 1994.
Lee Petty reached it when he was 45 years old. Petty's 45th victory was at Hickory on September 11, 1959. Ned Jarrett was 31 years old and won for the 31st time in the Cup Series on July 8, 1964 at Old Dominion Speedway. Junior Johnson was 33 years old and his 33rd victory was at Bowman Gray Stadium on August 22, 1964.
Tony Stewart had a fascinating time shooting his age. Stewart was 39 when his 39th victory occurred at Fontana on October 10, 2010. Then he turned 40 before he won again and his 40th victory came when he was 40 years old on September 19, 2011. Denny Hamlin was also 39 years old when he shot his age. Hamlin's 39th victory was on May 20, 2020 in a rain-shortened Darlington race.
Herb Thomas did it at 30 years old, his 30th victory coming in Jacksonville, Florida on March 7, 1954.
Buck Baker is a funny one, because he toed the line with shooting his age. Baker ended the 1958 season at 39 years old with 39 victories. He ended the 1959 season at 40 years old with 40 victories. He won twice in 1960, so ended that season with 42 victories at 41 years old and won once in 1961 to have 43 victories at 42 years old. But then he didn't win in 1962 before winning once in 1963 and twice in 1964 to end that season at 45 years old with 46 victories. He never won again after the 1964 season but continued until his final start was when he was 57 years old on October 10, 1976 at Charlotte.
Bill Elliott shot his age for a brief period. Elliott's 36th victory came when he was 36 years old at Richmond on March 8, 1992. He turned 37 years old later that season and ended it with 39 career victories. His 40th victory came two years later when he was won the Southern 500, but he wouldn't win again until he was 46 years old. Elliott was 48 years old when his 44th and final Cup victory came.
Tim Flock was the first driver to shoot his age in NASCAR history. During the 1955 season, Flock's 31st career victory came in Montgomery, Alabama on September 11. He was 31 years old. Flock's final start came when he was 37 and he had 39 career victories to his name.
All in all, 20 NASCAR Cup drivers have shot their age at some point, 18 of which ended their careers or are still actively shooting their age.
There are probably others around the world of motorsports, especially those on two wheels. Maybe we will investigate those series at a later date.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about... well no one, I haven't told you about any winners yet, but did you know...
Max Verstappen won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, his 15th victory of the season.
Liam Lawson and Ayumu Iwasa split the Formula Two races from Yas Marina.
Jonathan Rea (Race One) and Álvaro Bautista (SuperPole race and Race Two) split the World Superbike races from Phillip Island. Yari Montella and Dominique Aegerter split the World Supersport races.
Wing Chung Chang won the 69th Macau Grand Prix.
Coming Up This Weekend
The final World Touring Car Cup round from the Jeddah circuit in Saudi Arabia.
The World Cup continues.
