Jacky Ickx was born on 1 January 1945 in Brussels. The Belgian Formula 1 racing driver won many races, but will probably be best remembered for his hat-trick win in the yearly 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race.
He won the race in 1969 (Ford), 1975 (Ford), 1976 (Porsche) and 1977 (Porsche). He won this race a record six times with four different co-drivers. He won the first two races with Ford and the other four with Porsche. He was world sports car champion in 1982 and 1983 and he won the Paris-Dakar race in 1983.
Ickx was three times Belgian motorcycling trials champion and European F2 champion in 1967. In his Formula 1 world championship career from 1966 to 1979, he had eight wins and 181 points from 116 races.
In his first full season, for Ferrari in 1968, he won the French Grand Prix, the second youngest ever GP winner at age 23, and was fourth in the championship. He was runner-up for the world title for Brabham in 1969.