Birthday profile

Bill Pitt (racing driver)

Bill Pitt, Australian race car driver (died 2017)

Born
December 15, 1926
Died
February 23, 2017
Zodiac sign
Sagittarius
Birth year
1926

About Bill Pitt (racing driver)

William Pitt (15 December 1926 – 23 February 2017) was an Australian former racing driver and motor racing official. For most of his racing career, Pitt was associated with Jaguars, competing with XK120 and D-Type sports cars, a Mark VIII rally car and a Mark 1 touring car with the assistance of Queensland's Jaguar agents Cyril and Geordie Anderson of Westco Motors. Pitt first became involved in racing as an official at the 1948 Australian Grand Prix, but gradually moved into competing himself. By the mid-1950s, he was a front running sports car driver. Pitt co-drove a Jaguar XK120 to a four lap victory in what for 48 years was Australia's only 24-hour motor race, the 1954 Mount Druitt 24 Hours Road Race, driving with Geordie Anderson and Charles Swinburne. In 1956, Anderson purchased a Jaguar D-Type in which Pitt placed fourth behind two factory-entered Maseratis and a Ferrari in the Australian Tourist Trophy at Albert Park in November of that year. The car was badly damaged the following weekend, but was rebuilt and, with Pitt driving, became the dominant feature of Australian sports car racing. Frequently, because of his domination of sports car racing, Pitt raced the D-Type against Grand Prix type machinery in search of competition, finishing third in the 1957 Queensland Road Racing Championship, a race which counted towards the 1957 Australian Drivers' Championship. The D-Type was sold in 1959 and Pitt and Anderson next invested in a Jaguar Mark 1 Saloon to race in the growing touring car category. After finishing second behind David McKay in the 1960 Australian Touring Car Championship, Pitt became the first Queenslander to win the title, achieving the victory at his home circuit, Lowood, in 1961. Pitt retired from racing in 1963 but continued in his role as a Queensland representative of the National Control Council of the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport until 1964.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

Bill Pitt (racing driver) timeline

  1. Pitt first became involved in racing as an official at the 1948 Australian Grand Prix, but gradually moved into competing himself.
  2. After finishing second behind David McKay in the 1960 Australian Touring Car Championship, Pitt became the first Queenslander to win the title, achieving the victory at his home circuit, Lowood, in 1961.

The world when Bill Pitt (racing driver) was born

Bill Pitt (racing driver) was born in 1926. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1926

  • #1 song"Bye Bye Blackbird"
  • Top movieThe General (Buster Keaton)
  • Best-selling bookThe Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentGertrude Ederle swims the English Channel
  • Top headlineA.A. Milne publishes Winnie-the-Pooh
  • Technology milestoneFirst demonstration of television
  • Defining fadFlagpole sitting
  • Notable inventionPop-up toaster
  • World population2.01 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderCalvin Coolidge
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population117.4M

1926 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Bill Pitt (racing driver)'s birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19262026
Gas$0.23$3.45/gal
Average home$6,000$435,000
Average income$3,620$67,500
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population117.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Driver Database, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.