Happy Birthday Mario! Hope you can celebrate a little after your recent loss. Nazareth, PA is about 90 minutes from me. Mario's long time home base. Also home to Martin Guitar. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Back in the 60s Mario drove everything! sprint cars, stock cars, Indy, F1, Sport cars, prototypes etc. Excelled! Read about his Daytona 500 stock car win. They left him sitting on jack at pit stop so good ole boy Lorenzen could get out 1st. He still beat him. Italian Yankee wins Daytona 500!!
I must credit Mario with my lifelong passion for exotic cars. I worked as a towel boy at Andretti’s Car Wash outside of Nazareth growing up and Mario showed up in a red Lamborghini Countach. Flipped up the door and revved her up and I was hooked! Watched some of the Drive Like Andretti documentary last night and would like to see the rest. Anyone know where I can find the entire film? Doesn’t seem to be available for purchase anywhere online. Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat
Forget it. I just saw that YC Mike posted the link in another thread. Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat
Many moons ago, this lad of 12 was autograph hunting at the old teams registration booth at Trenton, bobbing and weaving amongst the station wagons that pulled trailers of Indy cars and tires. Ran up to "Mario" but...ernnnttt....I was quickly advised that "I'm not Mario". I knew Mario had the twin brother, and not wanting to be disrespectful, I replied "I want yours too, Aldo"...... Ala Paul Harvey: "And now.....the rest of the story....." Mario told it himself.... He found the race engines waiting to be installed and noticed name tags on 'em; one for Fred and one for himself. He switched the tags (having a clue what was going on) so ended up with Lorenzen's engine and vice versa (his lobbying Ford for a better engine sounded good in the press). That was why he was faster than Fred that day having qualified behind him......
If folks here haven’t heard it, F1’s “Beyond the Grid” has an hour (maybe 90 min) interview with Mario. It is maybe 1/200 of the time needed to cover his career, but well worth a listen.
Well played, Chris. Well played, Mario! Years back I briefly "met" Mario. He autographed a Ferrari T-shirt I was wearing. The shirt was a favorite so I wore and laundered it into rag status. On the right shoulder remain three little dots of black Sharpie ink, all that remains of his signature, the only autograph I've ever asked for not from an author on his book. I wore the ragged old shirt again on Friday to assemble an engine for a friend, for good luck.
Happy Birthday, I watched you win the Pikes Peak Hill Climb 1968. Second and only other American to win F1 World Drivers Championship besides Phil Hill. Thanks for all the wonderful memories.