mario andretti...

Never Won LeMans after trying for 25 years.

Other than that he's won it all.


Regards,

Jon P. Kofod
www.flatoutracing.net

 

Formula One World Champion (1978)
Champ Car Champion (1965-66, 1969, 1984)
IROC Champion (1979)
USAC National Dirt Track Champion (1974)
Indianapolis 500 Winner (1969)
Daytona 500 Winner (1967)
Sebring 12 Hour Winner (1967, 1970, 1972)
Pikes Peak Hill Climb Winner (1969)
Indianapolis 500 Polesitter (1966-67, 1987)
Le Mans 24 Hour Runner Up (1995)
12 Formula One Wins (South Africa 1971, Japan
1976, United States, Spain, France, Italy 1977,
Argentina, Belgium, Spain, France, Germany,
Holland 1978).

http://www.cfm.globalf1.net/legends/mario_andretti/

 

In modern terms, the only driver who perhaps comes closest to
Mario Andretti's record of winning in so many different categories
is Tom Kristensen.

Of course, Tom has accomplished six victories, tying Mario's old
Ferrari team mate Jacky Ickx this year at Le Mans and was never given a proper shot at F-1 (thanks to Eddie Irvine and Jacques Villeneuve) but
in terms of pure talent, Kristensen is right there.

The most interesting apect about Andretti was while he was winning
the Formula One World Championship in 1978, he was racing sprint cars on short dirt track ovals in the northeast on his weekends off. Imagine that
happening today?!

BHW

 

Not sure what you mean by modern times, but Tom K, while a world class driver in his own right isn't in the same league as Andretti and someone else who hasn't been mentioned in terms of winning at different forms of motorsport. Other than F3000 I wasn't aware that Tom raced anything other than sports cars (LMP's).

A.J. Foyt

He won 4 Indy 500's, won the Daytona 500, Daytona 24 Hours, won LeMans three times, won a USAC dirt car championship. Foyt is one of only three drivers to win races on oval speedways, road courses, and dirt tracks in a single season. USAC stock car champion in 1968, 1978, and 1979.

He like Mario did it all in every type of car conceivable.

Regards,

Jon

 

Foyt won Le Mans 3 times? Better check that one again.

 

Bill, you are correct. He won LeMans once (GT40's) and two Daytona 25 hours. Three 24 hour titles in all.

Thanks for the correction.

Jon

 

I have always been a huge Mario Andretti fan and believe him to be one of the finest all rounders of all time. Today being able to do sprint cars and F1 in the same season is unheard of but in his day, Andretti was racing just about anything on any given weekend. I think that his equal must be Stirling Moss. A fantastic all rounder, Moss was fast in anything he drove. Some will argue that Moss never won the F1 title but true enthusiasts will recognize that this was only down to poor luck and a desire to drive British cars (not the best at the time)

As an aside, while not winning outright, Mario Andretti has won LeMans in class.

I do agree also with the AJ Foyt argument as he is a fantastic driver in anything he drove.

 

It is a lot easier to get behind Mario... Class Talent etc


AJ, while a fantastic racer leaves a bit to be desired on the personal interaction side but he is one of the greatest of all time.

 

I agree with just about everything which has been written here about Andretti and Foyt. I will add that although he became a little "long in the tooth" in his last years racing CART, he still was not that far off the pace, particularly on ovals.

I watched Foyt crash at turn 1 at Road America and it was a horrific accident. It, more or less, ended his career in open wheel racing although he was not too competitive in his later years. Unlike Andretti, I don't think Foyt really liked racing on road courses although he was very good at it.

 

Another driver who could win in anything was Parnelli Jones. While never an endurance racer in the conventional sense, he won in sports cars, Indy, dirt, Trans Am, sprints, Baja 1000 and Jackie Stewart said that he would have been terrific at F1.

Dan Gurney was very complimentary (and surprised at) Foyt's road racing skills. He apparently was offered an F1 ride by a couple of teams (Gurney included) but demurred because "there was no money to be made in European racing."

 

Congratulations Eric


you win a prize for being the very first person in history to use the word "demurred" in any sentence dealing with AJ Foyt!

 

Kristensen has won in every form of racing he's been involved with from Go Karts to the German F-3 Championship to Japanese Group C (where he was teamed with Villeneuve and Irvine and regualarly faster in the same cars) to European F-3000 to sportscars.

Comparing different eras is always difficult but all one need to is point to the "Race of Champions" on the Canary Islands a couple of years ago where Tom arrived, the freshly crowned ALMS LMP 900 champion, going up against FIA World Rally, desert raid, stock car, open wheel, etc. drivers in the head to head competition in buggies up the hill and he set the fastest time of the weekend in his first attempt!

Thus, my linking him to a modern Mario Andretti. The guy is flat out fast in no matter what equipment he is in and during the important Michelin F-1 tire tests with Williams and Jaguar, where Tom did thousands of kilometers of testing and never put a wheel wrong.

Each attending engineer said to a man, "This is the best guy we've ever worked with" which may not seem like much until you remember these guys worked with the likes of Senna, Prost and Mansell (to name a few).

Having seen lap times from testing and qualifying at events like Sebring, having Kristensen on a team automatically gives that team a 1-2 second advantage over an idential car. We've now seen it time and again.

Six times winner of the most important race in the world? It should come
as no surprise what so ever.

BHW

 

AJ Foyt is a nice guy if he's "off duty", say at the Stockman Cafe in Waller.....

Mario is the same, really...very smooth and low key in casual settings, very focused once behind the wheel.

You have to pick the right moment to interact with either one, I don't like people interrupting my train of thought in "the office" either!!

 

Sir Moss is also very gracious, and his wife is very funny!

Mario cites Sterling as his influence in motorsports.....

 

LOL, that could well be so.

There was a pretty good little article in Motor Sport recently talking about this. AJ even knew that he'd have to move to Europe and lose some weight. Michael Andretti should have consulted with AJ before going over.

 

You RARELY see 'em together in the same room.....LOL!

 

I think it's Mario becauise he's the most versatile so with all due respect to such greats as Nuvolari, Fangio and Moss he's the greatest in my opinion.

I've seen Clark PJ, and Gurney race and they were great but Mario's versatility was unmatched, I've seen him in F1, Indy Cars and Endurance racing (Sebring '67 with McLaren, victorious in a Ford GT/Mk 4).

 

Mario is a tremendous talent, no question. His only weakness was his bad mechanical luck, or perhaps it was just lack of sympathy for machinery. One of his mechanics once said "Mario is a great driver, but he could break an anvil with a rubber mallet."

Gary

 

Any stories on why this Kristensen never got into F1?

 

IMHO Jim Clark's versatility matched that of any other driver, ever - when he had a chance to use it.

After 1962 he hardly ever drove anything except a Lotus, and Lotus stopped doing Le Mans and similar sportscar races after being blocked by the Le Mans scrutineers with the Lotus 23 in 1962. Clark had been very fast in the obsolete Aston-Martin DBR1/300 (3rd Le Mans 1961), and in the DB4 Zagato against the faster SWB's and GTO's in 1961-2. in Can-Am he was stuck with the Lotus 30 and 40 ("a Lotus 30 with 10 more mistakes"-Richie Ginther) which were among Chapman's worst cars (flexible chassis and undersized brakes).

Clark nearly won Indy first time out, did win in 1965, second in 1966 (when almost all the cars were rear-engined) and drove another USAC car in a race somewhere (Vollstedt in Japan?), he also loved to drive anything out of pure curiosity and IIRC did a NASCAR race somewhere.

He was very fast in the Ford/Lotus Cortina saloons, mostly on three or even two wheels, and even drove one at Sebring in 1965. He also drove a Lotus-Cortina rally car in the British RAC Rally in 1966 and was right up with the leaders when he crashed.

He had a couple of practise/fun drives in historic racing cars and was immediately faster than the (pretty competent) owners.


And then Sir Stirling Moss.............also blindingly fast in anything he drove, including rally cars (did well in the Monte Carlo Rally a couple of times). But he lived in different times, when a driver could keep busy and earn a good living by driving a lot of different classes without so much travel.......so while he was The Man in F1, F2, F3, sportscars, GT's and whatever else he drove, the rallies he did weren't special stage rallies (ie on loose gravel) as they were when Clark drove, and he didn't do many saloon car races, and he rarely drove in the USA, except in his usual races (F1 and sports) when they were held there.

Just my $0.02.

Paul M

 

I agree. My only rap on Andretti is that he was a consistent car breaker.

As for Clark, he was a fantastic driver. I am sorry that he never got to race big block Can Am cars. If he had been as dominant in powerful cars as he was in small engine cars I think it would be fair to say that he was the best ever.