October trivia:
Hungarian motor racing can be traced back to the 1930s, when races were staged in a park in the middle of Budapest. The only pre-war Hungarian Grand Prix was held in 1936 and won by Tazio Nuvolari in an Alfa Romeo.
Richard Petty never raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, retiring two years before the inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994. But The King was allowed to take the first official NASCAR laps around the legendary 2 1/2-mile track in 1993. During its first couple of decades in business, Indy's Hall of Fame and Museum included only one stock car in its legendary collection of racing machines — the red, white, and blue No. 43 STP machine.
In 1783 twenty seven year old John Loudon McAdam revolutionized road building in Britain. Using his personal fortune, earned while living with a merchant uncle in New York he set out to improve the condition of Scottish roads. His trials resulted in raising the roadbed to improve drainage, and building roads using layers of crushed and compacted rock. His methods were sanctioned by the government and in 1815 he “macadamized” roads in Bristol, England. In 1827 he was Surveyor General of metropolitan roads Great Britain. The word “tarmac” comes from the application of tar to a “macadamized” road.
