Senna da Silva

The fascinating life and death of racing champion Ayrton Senna da Silva.

1.

On March 21st of 1960, a baby boy was born in the Santana bairro of São Paulo. Within the first five years of his life, young Ayrton discovered his calling when his father gave him a go-kart (well…it was a gift for Viviane, his older sister, but she didn’t want it. Who knows what might have happened if only…).

While many still regard ‘karts’ as childish toys, those who are familiar with racing may understand that the miniature racers are frequently an excellent first step in the training and discipline required to become a top driver. Serious karts (especially now) are state-of-the-art expensive machines, even to the point of being suitable for refinance car loan. Senna shared this stage of his career with such names as Formula One’s Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button, as well as NASCAR’s Darrell Waltrip, Ricky Rudd, and Jeff Gordon.

Senna began racing at 13 and was a winner from the start. Within four years, he’d risen to the top of the heap and took home the title from the 1977 South American Kart Championship. Over the next four years, he would be a major contender at each of the Karting World Championships (runner-up twice, got a couple of gift baskets but alas no wins).

2.

However, karting was always a stepping-stone for our hero. In 1981, he relocated to England to try his hand at single-seater racing in a Formula Ford on the Van Diemen team.

His record was stellar, with championship after championship slipping under his belt, but amazingly enough one of history’s greatest racers actually planned on giving up the sport, and returning home to help manage his father’s business in Brazil. After all, he had a new wife named Lilian de Vasconcelos to return to…

Josh White contributed to this and to How to apply for Social Security Disability benefits while following the karts and the kart mavens for us here at sennadasilva.com.