Mario Andretti
If it had a motor and a wheel, Mario Andretti could win a race in it. Uploaded by motorpix.com.
He go fast. He go real fast. If it has a motor and a wheel, Mario Andretti make it go fast.
When you look at his racing record, you see the words “only” and “first” an awful lot. Like this, for example: Andretti is the only person to win the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500, and a Formula One world championship. He’s also won races in midget cars and sprint cars. Shoot, I bet he’s a terror in bumper cars at the fair.
Uploaded by f1puntomerto.blogspot.com.
Andretti is the type of American I enjoy featuring, because he wasn’t born in this country. He’s from a town that at the time was part of Italy, then became part of Yugoslavia, and is now a part of Croatia. His family fled to the U.S. after World War II, and settled in Pennsylvania – near a dirt racing track. Well, they didn’t race dirt, the track itself was dirt. You know what I mean. He describes the experience of driving this way: “The first time I fired up a car, felt the engine shudder and the wheel come to life in my hands, I was hooked.”
So, just how good was he? In 2000, the Associated Press named him Driver of the Century. Yeah, that good.