F1Weekly Podcast # 1108
Play Podcast: 08-18-25f1weekly1108.mp3
While Zak Brown sells futures of McLaren F1 cars in Monterey! F1Weekly continues to bring you more Nasir Hameed wisdom with thoughts on what really happened between Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel. Interview with Tom Dillman, Derek Daily and Conor Daily.
Derek started with go-karting, moving on to a dirt oval track where they raced demolition derby-jalopy racing. When he turned 16, he built his own car and his Dad would tow him on a rope across town.
But to move up to Formula Ford level, the objective was to raise money or make money. He chose to put his own fate in his own hands and worked for six months in the Australian Iron-Ore Mines and made enough money to buy the car. He returned home racing in Ireland and won the Irish Championship.
But with each level of success, there was the next level of financial commitment. He knew that if he wanted to be a professional that he had to move to England. But again, resources were tight, and he says, “I had enough money to race or to live, but not both.” But when you want something badly enough, you don’t make excuses you make plans.
Plan B was to buy an old school bus. His mother made curtains and his father made a mattress for him to sleep on. “So, I moved to England with a toolbox, a race car and a school bus. My goal was to make enough money to drive to the next race.” And all he did was win, win, win.
He won 23 races in England and with the recognition of hard work and grit, he was approached by his first Irish sponsor. Having a sponsor would then allow him to move up to the next level. The money would allow him to move up to Formula 3 and race across Europe, Italy, France, Germany, Austria as well as the British Formula 3 Championship. The odds of him winning the Championship were statistically very low, but if he did, it would allow him to open the door to Formula One.
Derek not only won the British Formula 3 Championship, but he beat Emerson Fitipaldi’s record for moving from Formula Ford to Formula One in 18 months to just 13 months for him. In a bit of irony, the man that offered to put him in a Formula One car was Sidney Taylor.
After racing Formula One for a while, he received an invitation to drive in his first Indy Car Race in Phoenix, Arizona. “A year later, I decided to come try out for the Indianapolis 500 and I never left. I loved it. I loved the country and started a new lifestyle and a new life.
Torpedo-bodied Hispano-Suiza Named Best of Show at the 74th Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
1924 Hispano-Suiza H6C Nieuport-Astra Torped.
Shown by Penny & Lee Anderson Sr., Naples, Florida
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (August 17, 2025) — A unique aero-inspired Hispano-Suiza was awarded the top prize at the 2025 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
This year, 229 cars—including 55 international entries from 22 countries and 174 US entries from 31 states—pulled onto the competition field, and the car named Best of Show was a 1924 Hispano-Suiza H6C Nieuport-Astra Torpedo shown by Penny and Lee Anderson Sr. of Naples, Florida.
“This Hispano-Suiza ticks every possible box,” said Concours Chairman Sandra Button. “The underpinnings are technically advanced. The body is meticulously hand-crafted, light, and lovely. It was, notably, commissioned by aperitif scion André Dubonnet, and he raced it in both the Targa Florio and the Coppa Florio.
“A later owner added pontoon fenders to the car, but the Andersons sought to return the car to its original form so you can see and truly appreciate its torpedo shape.”
Known as the “Tulipwood” Torpedo, the car is in fact constructed of strips of mahogany, each individually carved to shape and joined to the inner ribs by 8,500 rivets. It reportedly weighed just 160 pounds when first built.
Lee Anderson said it was all the wood that first attracted him to the car. “I like wood! I’m a wood boat antique collector. I started collecting them 40 years ago, before it became vogue-ish to do that. So I’ve always loved varnished wood, and when I saw this I said, my gosh! This is right in my wheelhouse. This is what I really like.”
Asked whether the win was expected, Penny exclaimed, “We had no idea, but we were dreaming about it!”
“Winning Pebble Beach is probably the highest award you can get in automobile collecting,” Lee added. “We are very fortunate to have done it twice.” The Andersons previously took the top award at the 2022 Pebble Beach Concours with a Figoni-bodied 1932 Duesenberg J.
Hispano-Suiza has captured the top prize at Pebble Beach twice before, most recently in 1989.
This year’s race for Best of Show featured several strong contenders, including the 1939 Maybach SW38 Spohn Sport Zweisitzer presented by Dana and Patti Mecum of Geneva Lake, Wisconsin; the 1933 Invicta 4½ Litre S Type Corsica Drophead Coupé shown by SBH of Riffa, Bahrain; and the 1956 Maserati 200SI Fantuzzi Open Sports Racer presented by Phillip Sarofim of Beverly Hills, California.
The competition got underway on Thursday when the majority of Concours entries participated in the 27th Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance, which traces about 70 miles of scenic coastal roads. Entries that complete the Tour have the advantage if they tie in the Concours class competition.
The Pebble Beach Concours has already raised more than $4 million for charity this year, bringing the event’s total charitable donations to over $45 million to date. Through the Pebble Beach Company Foundation, the primary charitable partner of the Concours, these funds will benefit nearly 100 local nonprofits focused on youth education, impacting the lives of more than 10,000 children annually in Monterey County.
Gooding Christie’s, the official auction house of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance for the 21st year, concluded one of its highest grossing sales to date this past weekend, realizing over $127 million. Several major world records were set throughout the two-day Pebble Beach Auctions, including the most valuable car ever auctioned by Gooding Christie’s, the 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider Competizione, which sold for over $25 million.
The 75th Celebration of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance will be held at The Lodge at Pebble Beach on August 16, 2026, and will feature the marque of Ferrari and the coachbuilder Vignale. The event will also be celebrating the automotive history that has been made at Pebble Beach, with curated classes for Pebble Beach Road Racing greats and a very special gathering that pays tribute to iconic groups of cars that were first brought together at the Pebble Beach Concours. More details and features will be announced this fall.