Argentinian racer Jorge Daponte was born on this day in 1923. - TopicsExpress

Argentinian racer Jorge Daponte was born on this day in 1923. His first attempt to enter the history books took place in 1953, when the 30 year old followed in the footsteps of Alberto Ascari by entering the Inianapolis 500. He failed to qualify for the race, but a fortuitous change in Formula 1s regulations prevented his dreams from ending there. The new legislation increased the racers engine capacity from 2- to 2.5-litres, resulting in a large number of still-eligible but now underpowered cars coming up for sale. Daponte seized the opportunity and bought Maserati 250F A6GCM 2048 – a six-cylinder, 2-litre car that was driven by none other than Juan Manuel Fangio in the previous season. His first race was the Argentinian Grand Prix, where he started from the back row. Despite his consistent pace, a lubrication problem forced his retirement after just 19 laps, with Fangio going on to take the spoils. Just a few races later and he was at Rouen, but again he started from the last row and found himself some 15 seconds per lap adrift of the leaders. Incredibly, his slow and steady approach combined with his competitors reliability troubles would see the Argentinian finish a scarcely believable fifth. His only other World Championship race would be at the 1954 Italian Grand Prix, where he again failed to score any points.