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Above that of
Jimmy Clark,
Graham Hill, or even
Juan Manuel Fangio, there is another name that has been
adopted by popular culture as the epitome of speed and racing - that of Mario
Andretti. If someone is driving quickly anywhere in North America there is
a good chance the words "Who do you think you are, Mario Andretti?"
will be uttered. And this is for good reason, for his life and career read
as racing's equivalent of the great American Dream.
He was born in a town
near Trieste, Italy during the Second World War and at the age of 15 his
parents moved to the promise land of America, which they found in
Pennsylvania. From there his racing career took off, as he moved from
competing in local sprint car races to IndyCars in 1964. He impressed the
establishment immediately with his great talent and by his second year he had won the championship.
After dominating IndyCars for three years he made the move to Formula 1 in
impressive fashion by taking pole in his very first race at
Watkins Glen.
He made sporadic F1 appearances until 1975 when he joined the Parnelli team full
time. After the team folded he went back to the struggling team that gave
him his F1 debut, Lotus. Here, under Colin Chapman, Andretti experienced
his greatest success in F1, winning 11 races between 1976 and 1978 and claiming
the drivers championship in 1978. His career tailed off after that and in
1982, after joining Alfa Romeo, he quit F1 to concentrate on IndyCars full
time. He won another IndyCar drivers title in 1984 and continued to be on
pace until he retired in 1994.
Although Mario stayed out of racing for a few years, he drove in the Le Mans
24 hours race for Panoz in 2000 and it is expected he will make more
appearances, since it is the only major race he has not won.
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