Mario Andretti: The Complete Record |  |
Mario Andretti is one of the most legendary of all American motorsports heroes. Born in Italy in 1940, his family emigrated to Nazareth, Pennsylvania in 1955. Already racing enthusiasts after having seen races in Italy at places like Monza and the Mille Miglia, Mario and his twin brother Aldo began their racing careers on East Coast dirt tracks. While Aldo's career ended due to injury, Mario went on to great success, winning in all types of cars. He won the Indy 500 in 1969 and was the most recent American Formula One Grand Prix champion, (one of only two) in 1978. In 1967 he won the Daytona 500 NASCAR event, and has also won the Sebring 12 Hour sports car endurance classic. Since retiring from full time competition in 1994, he remains involved in the sport as father to Michael Andretti and uncle to John Andretti, doing promotional work and as a popular spokesman for his sport. There have been numerous books detailing his story in biographical and pictorial formats. Now this new book provides his complete career statistical record.
This book is 156 pages, featuring 105 color and 45 black and white photographs of many of Andretti's cars. It covers the years 1963 to 2000, and provides the date, location, start and finish position, the type of race, the race winner and comments for every major race Mario competed in. Each decade is covered in a separate chapter, with a brief narrative followed by a chart of the race results for each year. There are also chapters devoted to further details on his achievements at Indy, in Formula One and in Champ Car racing. And there are additional charts of other significant records, such as USAC/CART career victories (Mario's 52 is second only to A.J. Foyt's 67) and career laps led (Mario is first with 7,587).
Other amazing totals are Mario's career Champ Car earnings ($11,552,154) and his leading total of career pole positions (67). His 12 Grand Prix victories are the most of any American driver, and he is one of only two U.S. World Champions (the other was Phil Hill in 1961).
As a reference work for modelers building a replica of one of Andretti's cars, this can serve as a starting point for research. I am working on modifying the Monogram Ferrari 275 into the version raced by Mario. I knew it was his first attempt at sports car racing, in a USRRC race at Bridgehampton, NY. This book (page 21) tells me it was September 19, 1965. He started 6th but did not finish, retiring from the race with clutch problems. Another project is the Porsche 962 in Shell markings that Mario drove at LeMans in 1988 with his son Michael and nephew John. However a photo on page 71 shows that the kit body from Tamiya's recent reissue is not correct. The kit is of the short tail version, but at LeMans the car used a longer tail on the faster circuit. So if I go ahead with the conversion this reference will help me to accurately modify the kit body. Also, on page 116 we see the actual markings on Mario's 1988 Indy 500 Lola so corrections can be made to the inaccurate decal sheet for the AMT kit of this car.
Since Andretti raced for over thirty years, this book cannot be an exhaustive history. But it can provide factual detail, and it has some useful photos if your subject is included. And it reminds us how good Mario Andretti was, in a great variety of equipment and on all types of tracks for so long.
