|
|---|
|
Mario Andretti Category: Person Wikipedia: Mario Andretti Born: 28 February 1940 Hometown: 
Description: A race car driver, famous for having competed in and won in a wide variety of motorsports in the United States and abroad including winning the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500, a class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, as well as championships in Formula 1, dirt cars, IndyCars, IROC, and was named the “Driver of the Century” by the Associated Press and RACER magazine. Page Sections: Biography · Multimedia · Photographs · Article Index World-class race car driver Mario Andretti was known for being one of the best of his time. Also known for his taste in fast boats, any Sport Cruiser would have sufficed his need for speed. |
The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Mario Andretti page on 1 January 2018, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Mario Gabriele Andretti (born February 28, 1940) is an Italian-born American former racing driver, one of the most successful Americans in the history of the sport. He is one of only two drivers to have won races in Formula One, IndyCar, World Sportscar Championship and NASCAR (the other being Dan Gurney). He also won races in midget cars, and sprint cars. During his career, Andretti won the 1978 Formula One World Championship, four IndyCar titles (three under USAC-sanctioning, one under CART), 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 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. Andretti had 109 career wins on major circuits.
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). He was also one of only three drivers to have won major races on road courses, paved ovals, and dirt tracks in one season, a feat that he accomplished four times. With his final IndyCar win in April 1993, Andretti became the first driver to have won IndyCar races in four different decades and the first to win automobile races of any kind in five.
In American popular culture, his name has become synonymous with speed, as with Barney Oldfield in the early twentieth century and Stirling Moss in the United Kingdom.
| 29 February 2012 The Flying Lap, Episode 59: Mario Andretti It is very difficult to sum-up the man and the racing driver that is Mario Gabriele Andretti. For now, then, let's just adhere to the statistics: he is the only driver ever to have won the F1 World Championship, the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500. (True: he never won Le Mans - but he finished second there in 1995 and he was third at the Circuit of the Sarthe, sharing a Porsche with his son, Michael, in 1983. He also helped Ferrari secure the 1972 World Sports Car Championship; and, in 1970, at the Sebring 12 Hours, drove one of the greatest races in sports car history to win in the closing stages.) He was won four IndyCar Championships from 52 race victories, countless more sprint and midget events, the Pikes Peak hill-climb and even a drag race. He is one of only three drivers ever to have taken the pole for his first F1 race - and his 12 Grand Prix victories and 18 poles came with two of the biggest names in the sport - Scuderia Ferrari and Team Lotus. Mario was as competitive in his 40s as he was in his 20s and raced at Le Mans as recently as 2000, when he was 60. He remains one of only two Americans ever to win the World Championship. And he is today the fully-active, passionate head of a family racing dynasty that has produced Michael, Jeff, John, Marco - and also, in the early years, twin brother Aldo. Mario, who turned 72 yesterday, is also a man of the times: he is on Twitter (@MarioAndretti); his website (http://marioandretti.com) is a feast of Italian operatic scores, images and stats; and he is the new face of Go Daddy.com, the domain name company. Very appropriately, a huge Mario Andretti billboard recently dominated Times Square in New York City. This video is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) License Download The Flying Lap, Episode 59 at The Internet Archive - 1:13:44 |
