Meeting Mario Andretti

[MiniprotesterTodd]

4. Over 50 years as an Andretti fan

I’ve been an Andretti fan since I was nine years old. I followed his exploits in my weekly Autoweek starting in ‘69. He won as a guest driver for Ferrari and then starting winning for Lotus. I was hanging off the underside of a grandstand when he passed for the lead at the ‘78 Long Beach Grand Prix. I threw my hat in the air while hanging on with the other hand.

A decade later I was a racing journalist in the press room when he was winning at Laguna Seca in CART. Later still, I interviewed him after his career ended. His knowledge and focus on the competitive side of the sport blew me away. Not only did he share great stories, he told me WHY cars were good or bad.

It’s a tremendous measure of the man that after the media’s obsession with NASCAR over the last couple of decades, Andretti is still one of the most celebrated of American racing heroes.