A.J. Foyt is 80!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

 

A. J. FOYT

 

Check out this great video showing some other Indycar Legends talking about A.J.

Mario Andretti said, "I don't know if there's anyone that admired him as much as I did."

Bobby Unser, "Probably one of the best race drivers that I ever saw.......I learned a lot from him."
 

Indycar Season Countdown 61 Days!

61 days till Indycars come back with racing action
in the GP of St. Pete 
for the first race of the 2014 Indycar season!

 1961
 AJ Foyt won his second Indycar Championship and his first Indianapolis 500
 

A.J Foyt

 

 

Photos from the 1961 USAC Yearbook

 



'Tales from the Indianapolis 500' book

 

 

Tales from the Indianapolis 500
A collection of the greatest Indy 500 stories ever told.

Our Moms late Christmas present, but we got to read it before her.

 

Reasons why you should read it:

 



* It's about Indycar!! (okay, you know that)

 

* It has many first hand short stories of dozens of different drivers on and off the track!

 

* A true 'behind the scenes' look at the Indianapolis 500 over the course of several decades

 

* It has great pictures (Thanks to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway)

  

* It has stories including pit crew guys, team owners, drivers, other media people, and more!

 

* A.J. Foyt liked it and says you should get it. (He wrote the forward for the book.)

 

 

We gave the book back to our mom now.

Since it was technically her gift we thought we ought to let her read it now. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A. J. Foyt

Happy Birthday to the legendary A.J. Foyt.

 

We've read and heard many stories about the first 4 time winner of the Indianapolis 500 (1961, 64, 67 and 77).

 

 

 

Our pappy was at every Indy 500 he raced in, and was there in 1992 with our mom at qualifying when A.J. announced his retirement and took a lap around the speedway.

 

Picture taken from the Floyd Clymer's 1963 Indianapolis 500 Mile Race Yearbook.

 

 

 

George Bignotti and A.J.

As we mentioned in an earlier post,
The great chief mechanic George Bignotti
passed away last week at the age of 97. 

 

For our Throwback Thursday post this week we found this great neat ad featuring him and A.J. Foyt from 1964.

 

 

Indycar Happenings sept 30

 

Five more days till they go back racing
at the Grand Prix of Houston  
but lots of other stuff going lately!
 

 

* Woo-Hoo!! Indycar will be racing on the Indy road course next May! 
Any suggestions on how we get our parents to take us out there for the whole month of May?  (It's a 10 hour trip so there's no driving back and forth.)

* Rumor has it that 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan is going to be racing for Chip Ganassi Racing next year, though no official announcement has been made yet.

*  The Texas Motor Speedway race will be bigger and better next year with an extra 20 laps for the June 7, 2014 event.

*  George Bignotti, a really great race mechanic when our mom was growing up died this week at age 97.  He had 85 Indycar wins and his cars won the Indy 500 7 times with five different drivers including 4 time winners A.J. Foyt and Al Unser, Sr.



George Bignotti with Wally Dallenbach
1973 California 500.

Indy 500 Patches

What do these three patches have in common?

 

Answer:

 

They are from the years when a driver won Indy for a fourth time.

 

AJ Foyt in 1977

 

Al Unser Sr. in 1987

 

Rick Mears in 1991

 

Four weeks to the Indy 500!

Can Dario Franchitti join

A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr. and Rick Mears

as a four-time Indy 500 winner?