Mario Andretti was born in 1940 in Montona, in Istria — then Italy, now Motovun in Croatia, a few dozen kilometres from the Slovenian border. After the Second World War his family left their home as the region passed to Yugoslavia and spent seven years in a refugee camp in Lucca. In 1955 they emigrated to Nazareth, Pennsylvania, with almost nothing. Mario and his twin brother Aldo began racing old stock cars on dirt tracks soon after.
He became one of the most versatile racers who ever lived. He was American national champion in 1965, 1966, 1969 and 1984, won the Daytona 500 in 1967 and the Indianapolis 500 in 1969, the Sebring 12 Hours three times and the Pikes Peak hill climb.
In 1978, driving Colin Chapman’s Lotus 79 — the ground-effect car that sucked itself onto the track — he won the Formula One world championship. He remains the only driver to have won the world title, the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500.
The day he became champion, at Monza, his teammate Ronnie Peterson was fatally injured in a start-line accident, and there was no celebration.
He raced into his fifties and founded a dynasty: his son Michael and grandson Marco both raced at the top level, and the name now belongs to one of America’s largest racing organisations.
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