The Shelby American (Fall 2021)

finish line. It was repainted Mustang Nightmist Blue as one of the three en- tries at LeMans for H-M. Entered for Andretti and Bianchi, the car went out in the seventh hour with engine trou- ble. (February 28, 1940 - ) Mario and his twin brother Aldo were born to Alvise and Rina Andretti in Montona, Istria which was part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1940, but which was annexed by treaty to Yugoslavia at the end of WW II. Their home town is now Mo- tovun, Croatia. The Andretti family left everything behind and moved west into Italy during the Istrian exo- dus of 1948, settling into a string of refugee camps in Tuscany. Alvise kept in touch with a brother- in-law who had emigrated to the United States before the war and in 1955 the Andretti family got off the boat with $125 to their name. The boys soon discovered there was a half-mile dirt track in their new home, Nazareth Pennsylvania, so in 1959 they bought a 1948 Hudson and entered it in the Limited Sportsman Class where each won two races of their first four starts. Aldo was seriously hurt near the end of the season; Mario went on to score 21 wins in 46 modified stock car races in 1960. Mario’s racing ambitions included open-wheel racing so he moved on to midget cars in 1961 – 1963, After rac- ing in over 100 events in 1963 he again upped his sights to USAC sprint cars in 1964, finishing 10th in points in 1965. The next year he finished 2nd in points behind Roger McCluskey. Concurrently, USAC sprint cars led to USAC champ cars, and a six-year col- laboration between Andretti and vet- eran mechanic Clint Brawner produced 31 wins in 129 champ car races. Along the way was a 3rd OA and Rookie of the Year at the 1965 Indy, and Series Champion in 1965 (the first single-seater National Championship for Ford since 1903); the pole at Indy in 1966; 2nd in the IndyCar Series in 1967 and 1968; winner at Indy and the season championship in 1969, plus winner at The Pikes Peak Hill Climb in 1969. Andretti had met Colin Chapman at Indy in 1965, the year of Jim Clark’s win for Lotus/Ford. Andretti told Chapman of his desire to move into F1 and was told “ When you’re ready, call me. ” After that call was made in 1968 Chapman gave him a Lotus 49 which Andretti put on the pole at the 1968 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. Between 1966 and 1969 Andretti won 29 of 85 USAC championship races. While focused on his domestic rac- ing efforts in the early ‘70s Andretti participated in F1 sporadically, driv- ing for Lotus, March and Ferrari. He won his first F1 race at the 1971 South African Grand Prix in a Ferrari and went full time into F1 in 1975. His F1 career was then linked to Colin Chap- man and Lotus culminating in aWorld Driver’s Championship in 1978 with six wins, the last at the Italian Gran Prix. Andretti was the second Ameri- canWorld Champion, after Phil Hill in 1961. Andretti’s F1 career spanned 14 years between 1968 and 1982 (zero starts in 1973) during which he won 12 races and had 19 other podium ap- pearances in 128 races. He raced in NASCAR for four seasons, mostly for Holman-Moody from 1966 to 1969 with one win, which happened to be the Daytona 500 in 1967. There were twenty IROC races in the late ‘70s and ‘80s, producing three wins among 19 T-10 finishes. His first sports car race was in 1965 at Bridgehampton where he DNF’d in a Ferrari 275P. But Andretti came along with Holman-Moody’s entrance onto the World Sports Car Champi- onship scene in 1966 leading to his ride with Lucien Bianchi in P/1031 at LeMans. Mario Andretti would appear at LeMans eight more times, but 1966 and 1967 were his two rides at Le- Mans in a GT40. There was some suc- cess in sports cars along the way; he won Sebring three times, 1967 (in J-4 with Bruce McLaren), 1970 (Ferrari 512S) and 1972 (Ferrari 312PB). He was not to return to LeMans until 1982 when he and son Michael qualified their Mirage M12 Ford ninth but failed to start. The next year he and Michael finished 3rd OA in Porsche 956. 1988 brought a 6th OA with Michael and nephew, John An- dretti co-driving a Porsche 962C. Even after retiring from full time racing the fact that he had never won at LeMans drew him back; next in 1995 with a Courage C34/Porsche which he and two co-drivers brought home one lap back in 2nd OA. There was a 13th OA, 2nd LMP finish in 1996 in a Courage C36/Porsche, a DNF in 1997 (again with Michael Andretti) on a crash on lap 197 and a final go in 2000 in a Panoz LMP-1-S which produced a 15th OA finish. With that, Mario An- dretti had driven a race car at LeMans for five decades. Mario Andretti has been inducted into every Hall of Fame relevant to his career, was named Driver of the Year in three decades, has received numer- ous civilian awards and was named Driver of the Century by Racer Maga- zine in 2000. He won his first race at 19 in a jalopy in 1959 and finished 15th OA, 8th in Class at LeMans, 41 years later, at a well-aged 61 years old. Mario Andretti is 81 years old and liv- ing in Nazareth PA. (November 10, 1934 – March 30, 1969) Born in Milan, Italy, Luciano Bianchi was the son of a race mechanic for the pre-war Alpha Romeo Competition Department (read Ferrari). After the war the Bianchi family moved to Bel- gium so dad could maintain a Talbot- Lago T26C for Johnny Claes, among the first of the “gentleman” Grand Prix drivers that emerged after WW II. Luciano became Lucien in Belgium and grew up wrenching and driving; becoming a first class mechanic and hot shoe in the process. He appears in the race record as early as 1951 at age 17; his early years involving rallies and long distance races for Belgian car owners. Success followed and he made his first of thirteen straight starts at Le- Mans in 1956. The next year, Bianchi and fellow Belgian, Georges Harris, brought a Ferrari 500 TRC home 7th OA, 1st S2.0 (as an aside, Ed Hugus and his co-driver finished 8th OA, 1st The SHELBY AMERICAN Fall 2021 72 Mario Andretti Lucien Bianchi