Mexico City road course honors racing brothers

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico City's track is named Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, but who were the Rodriguez brothers and how does their connection to NASCAR go back more than four decades?

The Rodriguez family -- comprised of brothers Pedro and Ricardo -- remains Mexico's most famous racing family, star-crossed by triumph and tragedy.

The right-hand hairpin at Daytona International Speedway's road course is named after Pedro, who won there in 1963 and drove in six NASCAR races between 1959 and 1971, ironically all on ovals. He was fifth in his debut at Trenton in 1959 and sixth in the 1965 World 600 at Charlotte.

Pedro and younger brother Ricardo raced bicycles and motorcycles while growing up in Mexico City. As a teenager, Pedro twice was a national motorcycle champion. Ricardo followed with national titles of his own.

At 17, Pedro drove a Porsche with Ricardo -- all of 15 at the time -- to win their class in the Nassau road race in 1957, earning Pedro a ride in a Ferrari for the 1958 24 Hours of LeMans. He would return to LeMans 14 times, winning in 1968.

Ricardo's career path was even more spectacular, as he finished second overall at LeMans in 1960. Ferrari took notice and put the 19-year-old in a car for the 1961 Italian Grand Prix, where he qualified second and swapped the lead with Phil Hill and Richie Ginther several times before retiring with a fuel-pump failure.

Considered a potential future world champion, Ricardo scored three points finishes in 1962 despite running a partial schedule for Ferrari. When the circuit came to Mexico's new Magdalena Mixhuca Circuit for a non-points race, Ferrari opted not to attend, so Rodriguez signed to drive a Lotus for Rob Walker.

However, during practice, Ricardo was killed when his car entered the dangerous peralta corner and crashed into the barrier. The track was named in his honor shortly thereafter.

Pedro considered retiring at that point, but went on to win a sports-car race at Daytona International Speedway in 1963 and compete in Formula One sporadically for the next four years. In 1967, he won the South Africa Grand Prix and posted his second Grand Prix win at Spa in 1970.

Switching to sports cars, Rodriguez won a pair of world championships for Porsche before he was killed at Nuremberg, Germany in 1971.