Mario Andretti

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Mario Andretti
Mario Andretti at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2009.
Nationality American (naturalized 1964)
Formula One World Championship career
Active years 1968 - 1972, 1974 - 1982
Teams Lotus, March, Ferrari, Parnelli, Alfa Romeo, Williams
Races 131 (128 starts)
Championships 1 (1978)
Wins 12
Podiums 19
Career points 180
Pole positions 18
Fastest laps 10
First race 1968 United States Grand Prix
First win 1971 South African Grand Prix
Last win 1978 Dutch Grand Prix
Last race 1982 Caesars Palace Grand Prix
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Participating years 1966-1967, 1982-1983, 1988, 1995-1997, 2000
Teams Holman Moody
Grand Touring Cars Inc.
Porsche Kremer Racing
Porsche AG
Courage Compétition
Panoz Motorsports
Best finish 2nd (1995)
Class wins 1 (1995)

Mario Gabriele Andretti (born February 28, 1940) is a retired Italian-American automobile racing driver, one of the most successful Americans in the history of the sport. He is one of only two drivers to win races in Formula One, IndyCar, World Sportscar Championship and NASCAR (the other being Dan Gurney). He also won races in midget cars, sprint cars, and drag racing.

During his career, Andretti won four IndyCar titles (three under USAC-sanctioning, one under CART), the 1978 Formula One World Championship, and IROC VI. To date, he remains the only driver ever to win the Indianapolis 500 (1969), Daytona 500 (1967) and the Formula One World Championship, and, along with Juan Pablo Montoya, the only driver to have won a race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Formula One, and an Indianapolis 500. No American has won a Formula One race since Andretti's victory at the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix.[1] Andretti had 109 career wins on major circuits.[2]

Andretti had a long career in racing. He was the only person to be named United States Driver of the Year in three decades (1967, 1978, and 1984).[3] He was also one of only three drivers to win races on road courses, paved ovals, and dirt tracks in one season, a feat that he accomplished four times.[3] With his final IndyCar win in April 1993, Andretti became the first driver to win IndyCar races in four different decades[4] and the first to win automobile races of any kind in five.[3]

In American popular culture, his name has become synonymous with speed, similar to Barney Oldfield in the early twentieth century and Stirling Moss in the United Kingdom.[5]

Early life

Mario Andretti and his twin brother Aldo were born into an Italian family in Motovun (then Montona), Istria, on February 28, 1940 to a farm administrator named Luigi and his wife Rina.[6] Istria was then a region of Italy but became a part of Yugoslavia with the conclusion of World War II in 1945 and the Treaty of Paris finalizing Istria from Italy. Three years later in 1948 Mario, Aldo, their sister Anna Maria, and their parents left Istria during the period of the Istrian exodus for a camp in Lucca, Italy.[7] The family emigrated to the United States of America in 1955 and settled in Nazareth in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley in June of that year with just $125.[3] Andretti became a naturalized United States citizen in 1964.

Racing career

Childhood involvement in motorsports

The twins' mother Rina said that when they were two years old, they would take pot lids out of the cupboards and run around the kitchen, going "Vroom, vroom," like they were driving cars - this before they had seen a car.[3] In 1945, at the age of five, he and Aldo were racing their hand-crafted wooden cars through the steep streets of their hometown.[8] Later, the brothers were hired by a garage to park cars, Andretti described the experience in his book What's It Like Out There: "The first time I fired up a car, felt the engine shudder and the wheel come to life in my hands, I was hooked. It was a feeling I can't describe. I still get it every time I get into a race car."[9] Andretti's first racing experience was in a new youth racing league called Formula Junior in Ancona, Italy when he was thirteen years old.[6][10] He had a fond childhood memory of watching a stretch of the Mille Miglia race in 1954 causing him to become captivated by Italian two-time Formula One world champion Alberto Ascari.[10][11]

Stock car racing

Start in racing

Mario and Aldo were surprised to find a half mile dirt racing track when they moved to Nazareth.[3] The twins worked on a 1948 Hudson Hornet Sportsman stock car funded by money that they earned in their uncle's garage in 1959.[3] They took turns racing the car on oval dirt tracks near Nazareth in 1959 in the old Hudson. They did not tell their parents that they were racing.[6] The twins each had two wins after their first four races.[12] Aldo was seriously hurt near the end of the season, and their parents were unhappy to find out that the twins were racing.[6] Mario had 21 modified stockcar wins in 46 races in 1960 and 1961.[3]

USAC stock car

Andretti occasionally competed in United States Automobile Club (USAC) stock car events. He competed in USAC stock cars in 1965, and finished twelfth in the season points.[6] He won a USAC Stock Car race in 1967, and finished seventh in the season points.[6] He won three 1974 USAC stock car races on road courses, and won four road course races in 1975.[6]

NASCAR

Mario Andretti Born February 28, 1940 (1940-02-28) (age 70)
Hometown Motovun (then Montona d'Istria), Istria, Italy
naturalized American
Awards named the "Driver of the Century" by the Associated Press and RACER magazine

2000 International Motorsports Hall of Fame Inductee

1996 National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Inductee (U.S.)

named Driver of the Quarter Century in 1992

1990 Motorsports Hall of Fame of America inductee

1978-1979 (IROC VI) International Race of Champions series champion

1978 Formula One World Championship

1974 USAC national dirt track champion (U.S.)

1972 24 Hours of Daytona

1969 Indianapolis 500 winner

1967 Daytona 500 winner

Three time 12 Hours of Sebring winner (1967, 1970, 1972)

Four time IndyCar champion (1965, 1966, 1969, 1984)

1969 ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series statistics
14 races run over 4 years
Best cup position unranked
First race 1967 Motor Trend 500 (Riverside)
Last race 1969 Motor Trend 500 (Riverside)
First win 1967 Daytona 500 (Daytona)
Last win 1967 Daytona 500 (Daytona)
Wins Top tens Poles
1 3 0

Andretti competed in fourteen NASCAR Grand National/Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup) events in his career. He competed in Holman Moody cars for his final ten events. Holman Moody was one of NASCAR's most successful teams at that time, as the team won NASCAR championships in 1968 and 1969 with driver David Pearson.[13] Andretti won the 1967 Daytona 500 for Holman Moody.[14]

International Race of Champions

Andretti was invited to race in six International Race of Champions (IROC) series in his career. His best years were his first three years. He finished second in the final points standings in IROC III (1975–1976) and IROC V (1977–1978). He won the IROC VI (1978–1979) points championship with finishes of third, first, and second. He won three races in twenty events.[14]