The bravest Andretti..... John Andretti at 56

The bravest Andretti

Tom Pidgeon/Getty Images for NASCAR
2.9k shares
share
tweet
emailBy: Robin Miller | 10 hours ago
John’s racing career was as fly-by-night as it was diverse. Yes his last name was Andretti but father Aldo didn’t have the money necessary to send him up the ladder so he went from midgets to sprints to Indy cars the old fashioned way – he earned it.
“John drove my midget for two years, then he ran part-time and we were in Belleville, Kansas one night, just the two of us, and we were struggling,” recalled Rollie Helmling, whose Harold’s Super Markets funded his racing before he became president of USAC.
John aboard one of Rollie Helmling’s midgets. Image by Ken Hopkins

“He got a call from Cary Agajanian who told him that Mike Curb had just fired Tom Sneva and they wanted him to run the Skoal Bandit Indy car at Road America,” Helmling added. “They sent a contract and John was reading it and said he wasn’t sure about a couple of things and I screamed at him: ‘John, we’re in the middle of Kansas, you need a job and it’s Dan Gurney’s car – now sign that thing.’ He did, I was the witness and that got him going.”

Andretti finished sixth in that 1987 IndyCar debut, then drove for Curb full-time in 1988 before going with Vince Granatelli and then Derrick Walker in 1990.

“John drove our Porsche (pictured below) with Teo Fabi and he was such a good guy and put a lot of effort into his racing,” said Walker. “He had a great sense of humor and not a malicious bone in his body and I never saw him use the Andretti name to get him anything. He was not a silver spoon driver — he worked hard to find sponsors and was always focused on his career.”



His lone IndyCar victory came in 1991 for Jim Hall at Surfers Paradise and following a couple of Indy 500 drives for A.J. Foyt, Andretti headed south. He became a NASCAR full-timer in 1993 and had a good decade in stock cars – winning for Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough.

His 12th and final Indy 500 start came in 2011 yet he never severed his ties with the charity he started in 1997 – The Race for Riley – a go-kart race with proceeds for Riley Children’s Hospital which has raised over $4 million. Even in his weakened condition last October he was in Indianapolis to present a check to the kids.

“John was so caring and sharing and it amazed me how he could endure what he did and still smile through the pain and be so thoughtful,” said Helmling. “These last few months have been so tough and Michael (Andretti) flew him up here in November and I spent an hour with him and he knew he was headed for hospice but he still had such a spirit. That’s the ultimate courage.”

There have been better racers than John Andretti but I never met anybody who faced death with as much grit, heart, benevolence and dignity. In this fast, famous family he should always be remembered as the bravest.



John Andretti, IndyCar, Insights & Analysis, NASCAR

 

John Andretti's career in pictures

emailBy: RACER Staff | January 30, 2020 2:33 PM

There’s not much that John Andretti didn’t drive during a long and successful career that included wins in Champ Car, NASCAR and the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Here’s a look back at some the machinery and moments from his years in the cockpit.


1983 Long Beach GP
Michael and John Andretti in the Long Beach paddock© Ercole Colombo / Studio Colombo | 1983


BMW M12 March
IMSA GT Championship, 1986© Marshall Pruett | 1986


1988 24 Hours of Le Mans
Looking slightly pensive with Uncle Mario© Ranier Schlegelmilch | 1988


1988 Indy 500
Andretti's Indy 500 debut© IMS | 1988

 

1989 24 Hours of Daytona
Heading for a Daytona 24 win© LAT | 1989


1989 Indy 500
Andretti started 12th in the Granatelli Racing Lola© LAT | 1989


1990 Indy 500
Andretti wheeling the very cool Foster's Porsche© Marshall Pruett Archives | 1990


IndyCar Series, Portland, 1992
Andretti in the Hall/VDS Lola© Marshall Pruett Archives | 1992

 

1993 NHRA Southern Nationals, Atlanta
Lighting up the tires in the Taco Bell Express Top Fueller.© NHRA | 1993


NASCAR
Heading for a top 10 for Petty Enterprises at Michigan in 2000© Levitt/LAT | 2000


Grand-Am Road Racing Series
En route to a class win in the Orbit Racing Porsche at Watkins Glen in 2001© Phillips/LAT | 2001


2004 Daytona 500
Taking a quiet moment in the Dale Earnhart, Inc. Chevrolet© Kim/LAT | 2004

 

2007 Indy 500
Andretti returned to Indy with Panther after a 13-year absence in 2007© Image by Streck/LAT | 2007


2011 Indy 500
Andretti's final Indy appearance came in 2011.© Abbott/LAT | 2011


2012 Daytona 24 Hours
Sharing a Yellow Dragon Motorsports Mazda RX-8 with Jarrett Andretti, Taylor Hacquard and Anders Krohn.© LAT | 2012


2016 Indy 500
Demonstrating the 1952 Agajanian Special at Indy in 2016.© Williams/LAT | 2016

 

2017 Indy 500
Andretti unveils his #CheckIt4Andretti colon cancer awareness campaign at the Speedway in 2017.© IndyCar | 2017


John Andretti
1963-2020© Streck/LAT | 2010

IndyCar

 

The Week In IndyCar special feature with John Andretti, from 2018

Image courtesy IMS
32 shares
share
tweet
emailBy: Marshall Pruett | 3 hours ago

John Andretti’s visit to The Week In IndyCar show in January of 2018, not long after his colon cancer diagnosis was revealed, was my favorite episode back then and remains so today. After listening to the listener-driven interview after his loss on January 30, 2020, I wanted to take another shot at editing the episode, to fix some technical glitches and to trim the show down to the best parts where John spoke on his amazing, multi-faceted career.

Please enjoy the warmth, talent, and humility that endeared Andretti to so many, starting with:

• Update on his physical condition (starts at 6m19s)
• Leading colon cancer awareness initiative (9m15s)
• Toughest Indy 500 competitor and birthday story (11m44s)
• Vehicle he always wanted to race but couldn’t (15m56s)
• How his father Aldo would have fared as an Indy 500 driver (18m07s)
• Favorite race car liveries he’s represented (20m31s)
• 1990 Porsche IndyCar program and 1991 Jim Hall Lola-Chevy
• IndyCar effort (25m08s)
• Dealing with cancer and future goals (38m50s)
• #CheckIt4Andretti (46m29s)
• Favorite Jim Hall stories (52m36s)
• Favorite street car (59m43s)
• Thoughts on Richard Petty (1h02m14s)
• Driving for legendary team owners (1h06m53s)
• Memories of following cousin Michael and Rick Mears during their 1991 Indy 500 duel (1h12m01s)
• Trying his hand racing in the NHRA (1h14m26s)
• Riley Children’s Hospital (1h23m48s)
• Driving styles (1h35m00s)
• Racing at the 1988 Bathurst 1000 (1h45m56s)

 

The John Andretti Easter egg hunt

Image by Martin Spetz
1.1k shares
share
tweet
emailBy: Marshall Pruett | 12 hours ago

He was the driver with an Easter egg career. John Andretti’s resume is filled with impossible variation where all of the big leagues are covered, but those accomplishments only tell a portion of his incredible story.

It’s in the adventure to include his lesser-known outings, from all manner of racing series, that leads to a delightful hunt for surprises throughout the record books. It also gives us a deeper appreciation for how unique Andretti’s spirit was in our world.

John raced and won in IndyCar for the legendary Jim Hall. And in IMSA, for the BMW factory, and for renowned Porsche entrant Jim Busby while claiming overall victory at the prestigious 24 Hours of Daytona. And Rick Hendrick.

And in NASCAR, for The King, Richard Petty, where he scored a famous win at the dizzying Martinsville. And for another legend, Cale Yarborough, in winning the summer Daytona 400. And for Richard Childress. And the Earnhardt family. And more.

He raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, crossing the finish line sixth overall while sharing a car with his famous uncle Mario and cousin Michael as part of the factory Porsche team. After receiving an invite from former baseball star-turned-team owner Jack Clark, he took on the world’s most insane racing machine – an NHRA Top Fuel dragster – and impressed with incredible reaction times and round wins in a form of the sport that was completely foreign to him.

In IndyCar, Andretti drove for Mario’s heated rival, the peerless A.J. Foyt. And Vince Granatelli. And Hall. And his cousin Michael. And more.

Andretti, BMW, Busby, Childress, Clark, Earnhardt, Foyt, Granatelli, Hall, Hendrick, Petty, Porsche, and Yarborough. It’s a Hall of Fame cast who hired John for his driving prowess, rather than the richness of his surname.

With no disrespect to his father Aldo or famous extended family, John was the different member of the Andretti clan whose last name was everything but a master key. There were occasional invites to take part in special Mario-Michael-and-John opportunities, but those are rarities on his CV. Despite having that famous last name, it did not unlock every door, nor would it guarantee a long and steady career in the sport.

This Andretti lacked the automatic prequalification that Mario and Michael carried into negotiations, and for that alone, I’ve long marveled at all John achieved. He earned those 440 NASCAR starts and 15 Daytona 500s, those 83 IndyCar drives and 12 Indy 500s, nearly 50 sports car starts spanning 1984 through 2012, and all the other crazy outings in between.

Consider these classic John Andretti resume entries: In 1988, he made his Indy 500 debut with Curb Racing and then, weeks later, flew east to France where, at 25 years old, he participated in his first 24 Hours of Le Mans, and just for fun, he added Australia’s great race – the Bathurst 1000 – to his amazing year of firsts after getting a call from Garry Rogers to be his co-driver at Mount Panorama.

The idea of adding one’s name to Indy, Le Mans, and Bathurst, all in the same season, borders on fantasy for most drivers.
‘It’s June, so this must be Le Mans.’ John Andretti’s busy 1988 included being part of an all-Andretti line-up in this Porsche 962 at La Sarthe. Image by Rainer Schlegelmilch

And in another typical John Andretti moment, he arrived at the Sydney airport, ready to tackle the punishing Bathurst circuit, while walking slowly and gingerly on crutches. John suffered an explosive crash at the August 21 Pocono IndyCar race, which forced him to miss the next two IndyCar races due to significant foot and leg injuries.

Team owner Mike Curb, who serves as a co-entrant on Bryan Herta’s cars today, and was part of Dan Wheldon’s second Indy 500 win, recalls Andretti’s Pocono crash as the most violent he’d witnessed prior to Wheldon’s fatal impact at Las Vegas in 2011.

Andretti had almost six weeks to heal before the October 2 event at Mt Panorama, but he cut the recovery period short by returning early for the September 25 home IndyCar race at Nazareth. It set his healing back a fair bit.

Undeterred, Andretti spent the better part of 30 hours on planes to sprint from Pennsylvania to Australia to race the following weekend. Once there, his lower extremities took a new round of battering when a tire blew during the race. It was nowhere near as bad as Pocono, but John went hard into the wall, which left his aching feet tangled in the Holden Commodore’s pedals. New wounds from Bathurst kept him out of the Curb Racing IndyCar seat for the final two races of the year, and afterwards, he also lost his spot on the IndyCar grid.

Andretti would use the offseason to heal and turned up for his first race, now with Busby’s IMSA outfit, and in yet another classic moment, won the effing 24 Hours of Daytona in his first drive for the team.

That’s the irrepressible John Andretti I loved. And we’ve yet to start the proper Easter egg hunt.

 

PART 2

His Bathurst 1000 appearance ranks atop the top of unexpected outings, just as his call-up to drive for Jaguar, on its IMSA swansong in 1993 at the 24 Hours of Daytona, jumps out as one of Andretti’s finer and sneakier appearances.

Go back to his earliest days in the sport, and it’s all but impossible to draw a line from where he started to where he finished. John’s formative stages had little to do with sports cars and Indy car; he took a page from his father and uncle, rather than his cousin, and built his foundation in short track racing. From the Midwest to the Northeast to the west coast, Andretti popped up in the early 1980s as a sprint and midget driver. USAC and a mix of regional circle-track championships were his home. And his exploits on dirt weren’t reserved for the U.S.; Andretti’s talents were on display in Australia’s hardcore short-oval scene well before he raced at Bathurst.
There’s no shortage of Hall of Famers among the list of people that Andretti drove for during his career. Image by LAT

The Easter egg routine took root during John’s roundy-round era as an SCCA Super Vee race pops up – akin to today’s Indy Pro 2000 cars – and then there was an IMSA race or two in the second-tier GTP Lights class with an unheralded team. The old and oft-forgotten 1980s SCCA Can-Am series – a shell of its former self – also bears Andretti’s name at the even more forgotten Green Valley Raceway in Texas.

Returning to the John Andretti classics, 1987 stands out as another prime example of why he was beloved by so many people. BMW North America axed its glorious 1986 IMSA GTP program after a single season, despite John and Davy Jones taking a late and energizing win at the 500km Watkins Glen race. Without any serious offers coming his way, he made a bold decision to accept the only thing BMW had to give: a ride in a mostly stock M3 street car in IMSA’s production-based Firestone Firehawk series.

For the sake of comparison, it was like losing a full-time IndyCar ride and choosing to continue with the same manufacturer in go karts.

There was almost nothing lower on the pro-racing ladder for John to take, and yet, thanks to that unquenchable passion for driving, he signed up and had an almighty blast banging fenders and playing in a new form of racing. It’s such an obscure entry, you won’t readily find those Firehawk drives on his resume.

In the ultimate Easter egg season, we can’t forget 1993, so let John uncork just some of the things he raced and accomplished.

“Well that was a unique year, because basically, I was driving everything from go-karts to the Indy 500, to Daytona with the [NHRA] drag team, to the Indianapolis 500 with AJ [Foyt], to the Top Fuel car, to running my first NASCAR race, and who knows what else in between, but… oh yeah, I [also] set a land speed record on Bonneville Salt Flats,” he told me a few years ago.

Karts, the Indy 500 for Foyt where he finished 10th, his first Cup races for Tex Racing, breaking into the NHRA and beating defending Top Fuel champion Joe Amato in his first official round as a drag racer, plus… Bonneville!

And if 1993 wasn’t already rather ridiculous, Andretti drove in the final Moosehead Grand Prix, held on the streets of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in a Formula 3000 car. And finished eighth. At the Moosehead effing Grand Prix!

“Basically, I just took a year off and said, ‘I’m just going to have fun. I’m not going to sign a contract with anybody. I’m going to be a hired gun and I’m just going to go week by week and I’m going to decide where I’m going to race, and what weekends I’m going to race, and that’s what I did,” he said. “Not to sound spoiled or anything, but it was great.”
The Busby Porsche gets a workout around Del Mar in 1989. Andretti and Bob Wollek finished 12th. Image via Marshall Pruett Archives

Going back, I forgot that time in 1989 where he flew to Germany and did a one-off race in the Supercup series in a Porsche 962, and finished second on the cramped Norisring street course. And when he and cousin Michael shared Hendrick’s zillion-horsepower Corvette GTP car in 1988 at Mid-Ohio in the middle of John’s first season-long IndyCar campaign. And when he and former NASCAR teammate Kyle Petty turned up in a Porsche GT car and won their Grand-Am Rolex Series class at Watkins Glen in 2001.

And there’s more. With John Andretti, there’s always more. The Easter egg hunt might never end, and what does that say about the man?

We hail racing’s great utility players, the Foyts and Clarks, the Parnellis and Gurneys, the Hills – Phil and Graham – and the Marios, for blurring racing’s talent lines. As the legend goes, they’d race anything, anywhere, anytime. I’d like to propose we add a second Andretti to that list of all-timers. I bet a few of them would even blush a little bit after reading through John’s resume.

Asked if there was any form of racing he missed out on trying, we have yet another John Andretti classic to admire.

“I was scheduled to drive an unlimited hydroplane… I thought that it would be so cool to drive something like that,” he said as I shrieked and laughed. “It was going to happen. And then all of a sudden, one of those contractual things… I was going to quietly go off and do it, but it got [back] to the [NASCAR] team owner and he put a [stop] to it. I thought that would have been a lot of fun. Certainly differentiate myself from everyone else, that’s for sure.”

‘Differentiate himself.’ That’s the funniest line of all.

I’d offer that a big part of the outpouring of unprecedented love for Andretti in the week since his death has come in response to those efforts to race as often as possible in as many disciplines he could imagine. On dirt, on short ovals, street circuits, road courses, super speedways, drag strips, salt flats, and from Australia and back, how many racing series, and how many fans got to watch John Andretti pour his love for driving into a vehicle that brought crowds joy and memories?

He leaves behind large fan bases in seemingly every series on the planet.

“He’s one of those guys, that we, sadly, collectively as fans, really just took, and you hate to say it, but really just took the talent and took him for granted,” Kyle Petty said.

“But now, as you look at what he’s done, he’s like a Monet or a Picasso when you look back and you think, ‘oh my God’. You know what I mean?”

Yes, we do.

John Andretti, IMSA, IndyCar, Insights & Analysis

 

SERIES: Remembering John Andretti

IndyCar
1.2k shares
share
tweet
emailBy Marshall Pruett | August 20, 2020 9:54 AM

The death of John Andretti on January 30 struck a heavy blow to legions of fans who cherished his versatile driving skills and humanitarian efforts.

As we prepare to hold the first Indianapolis 500 in decades without Andretti, some of his closest friends, former teammates, car owners, confidants, family, and more came together in the days following his loss to share stories about the man whose career spanned IndyCar, NASCAR, IMSA, USAC, the NHRA, and other racing exploits that took him from the short tracks of Australia to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Andretti’s incredible work to raise millions of dollars for Riley Children’s Hospital, and his raw, candid advocacy for colon cancer screening to keep others from meeting his cruel fate, are also central topics explored by many of our guests.

With a life so full of adventures, the 16-part Remembering John Andretti series follows a timeline that weaves interviews looking back on his early days as an up-and-coming driver to his final days where helping others remained a top priority.

We start with esteemed reporter and author Mark ‘Bones’ Bourcier, who covered Andretti’s first forays into short-track racing in 1981.

Remembering John Andretti, Ep 1, with Bones Bourcier
Remembering John Andretti, Ep 2, with Cary Agajanian

We welcome Cary Agajanian with Part 2 of the Remembering John Andretti series. After meeting John in 1984, Agajanian would become a fixture as Andretti’s ever-present friend, lawyer, and advisor throughout the rest of his life.
Remembering John Andretti, Ep 3, with Erik Wensberg

We welcome Erik Wensberg with Part 3 of the Remembering John Andretti series. BMW’s former program manager gave John his first big pro racing break in 1986 with the brand’s IMSA GTP program, and watched as Andretti passion for driving was demonstrated for BMW in smaller, more obscure series.
Remembering John Andretti, Ep 4, with Davy Jones

We welcome Davy Jones with Part 4 of the Remembering John Andretti series, who looks back to 1986 as he partnered with John in the factory BMW IMSA GTP program and went on to race with–and against–Andretti in the years that followed in IMSA and IndyCar.
Remembering John Andretti, Ep 5, with Mike Curb

We welcome Mike Curb with Part 5 of the Remembering John Andretti series. The famed record producer and label owner gave John his first shot in IndyCar and the Indy 500 in 1987, and shares the story of how they found each other and took on the establishment with one of CART’s smaller teams.
Remembering John Andretti, Ep 6, with Mario Andretti

We welcome Mario Andretti with Part 6 of the Remembering John Andretti series, who chronicles the all-family Porsche 962 effort at the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans where John made his debut at the French endurance racing classic alongside Mario and Michael Andretti.
Remembering John Andretti, Ep 7, with Jim Busby

We welcome Jim Busby with Part 7 of the Remembering John Andretti series. The veteran sports car team owner takes us back to IMSA in 1989 where John scored one of his biggest victories at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in Busby’s Porsche 962, and fought to earn respect from his iconic teammate Bob Wollek over a season of GTP endurance racing.
Remembering John Andretti, Ep 8, with Derrick Walker

We welcome Derrick Walker with Part 8 of the Remembering John Andretti series as the former head of Porsche’s IndyCar team details John’s return to open-wheel racing in 1990.
Remembering John Andretti, Ep 9, with Jim Hall II

We welcome Jim Hall II with Part 9 of the Remembering John Andretti series, who shares stories of looking after his father’s IndyCar program and working with John, who earned a famous win on debut in 1991 at Surfers Paradise.
Remembering John Andretti, Ep 10, with Jack Clark

We welcome Major League Baseball all-star Jack Clark with Part 10 of the Remembering John Andretti series. Of all the crazy things John attempted in his career, driving Clark’s NHRA Top Fuel dragster in 1993 was the wildest of all.
Remembering John Andretti, Ep 11, with Bryan Herta

We welcome Bryan Herta with Part 11 of the Remembering John Andretti series. As an Indy 500 rookie in 1994 with the A.J. Foyt Racing team, Herta was fortunate to have John as a veteran teammate to learn from–all while Andretti was preparing to do the first ‘Double’ by racing at Indy and NASCAR’s Charlotte 600 on the same day.
Remembering John Andretti, Ep 12, with Jeff Burton

We welcome Jeff Burton with Part 12 of the Remembering John Andretti series where he details a friendship that began in 1994 as rookies on the NASCAR Cup trail.
Remembering John Andretti, Ep 13, with Kyle Petty

We welcome Kyle Petty with Part 13 of the Remembering John Andretti series. Petty brings us back to 1994 and John’s arrival at Petty Enterprises where two of the sport’s biggest families came together in NASCAR and made indelible memories.
Remembering John Andretti, Ep 14, with Dennis Reinbold

We welcome IndyCar team owner Dennis Reinbold with Part 14 of the Remembering John Andretti series where he details their long friendship and the partnership with Richard Petty to run John at the 2009 Indy 500.
Remembering John Andretti, Ep 15, with Anders Krohn

We welcome Anders Krohn with Part 15 of the Remembering John Andretti series where he recounts partnering with John and Jarrett Andretti at the 2012 Rolex 24 At Daytona and all the assumptions he quickly abandoned on John’s farewell to endurance racing.
Remembering John Andretti, Ep 16, with Dave Wilson
We close our 16-part Remembering John Andretti feature with his friend, radio host Dave ‘The King’ Wilson, who shares stories of their charitable efforts that have raised millions of dollars for Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis.








IndyCar, NASCAR,