Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna was born March 21, 1960 and died May 1, 1994 in Imola, Italy. Ayrton Senna da Silva was Brazilian and he claimed fame by winning three Formula One world racing championships. He died in a racing accident in 1994 while driving the lead car in the San Marino Grand Prix (Italy, 1994). No other driver has died in a Formula One race since Senna.
At the age of four, Senna's father bought him a go-kart and at the age of eight Senna was competing in karting events. He moved to England in 1982 to pursue his love of racing. In 1984 Senna raced in his first Formula One race in Portugal in 1985 and over the next ten years he won the World Championship three times. He was involved in controversial racing with Alain Prost of France and Nigel Mansell of England.
On May 1, 1994 while racing at the San Marino Grand Prix, Senna's car left the track and crashed into the concrete barrier. His car had been diagnosed with problems the entire season but Senna still insisted in racing. His death instigated major safety reforms in Formula One racings. Senna always carried a Brazilian flag in his car in case he won the race. At the time of his death he was also carrying an Austrian flag to commemorate race car driver Roland Ratzenberger, who crashed died on the same track the day before.
Over two hundred of his Formula One compatriots voted Senna as the best driver of all time in a 2010 poll. They still miss his bright yellow and green crash helmet whose colors represent the Brazilian flag.
Senna held the record of the most pole positions (front of the grid in in Formula One racing). From his first pole position in June of 1985 until he died he held 65 pole positions. His record for pole positions is one of the hardest awards to overtake.
Senna always said, "Racing and competing is in my blood. It's a part of me. It's part of my life."