American Honda backs Evening with Mario Andretti in Long Beach (Update)
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| Mario Andretti at Indy in 1994 – He was 54 years old and still competitive |
The genius of Mario Andretti – excerpts from Gordon Kirby's latest column. Donnie Hoevel was Andretti's chief mechanic during his final years. Hoevel remembers the last tire test Mario did with Goodyear at Indianapolis near the end of 1994.
"They had every Goodyear engineer known to man out there and they all said they were disappointed it was all over because they loved to do tire tests with the old man," Hoevel said. "There were times when they'd slip in a set of control tires without telling him and he'd say, 'Ah, you guys are trying to fool me! You can't fool me. I know what you're doing.' There aren't too many people who have that kind of feel."
Neil Ressler was Ford's racing boss in those days. Ressler oversaw Ford's technical involvement with the Benetton team in F1 and Newman/Haas in Indy cars.
"We were taking instrumentation on those cars in '93 and '94 and I remember Mario would go into the turns and give the steering wheel a flick," Ressler recalls. "The cornering speeds were close to 230 mph at Indy and he'd flick the wheel just to see what the car was doing. Honest to God. How he could do that I have no idea. I guess he had good enough car control that he could catch it, even at 54 years old."
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| Mario Andretti |
04/04/14 American Honda Motor Co., Inc., will support the RRDC Evening with Mario Andretti presented by Firestone by hosting the cocktail reception for the fifth consecutive year at the Road Racing Drivers Club's sixth annual West Coast banquet, held prior to the 40th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach (Calif.).
"American Honda is profoundly pleased to support the Road Racing Drivers Club in its salute to racing legend Mario Andretti," said John Mendel, Executive Vice President, Automobile Division, American Honda Motor Co., Inc. “Mario's long career encompassed every major racing championship from Indy cars to Formula 1 and even NASCAR, and he won in them all.
His championships in both Formula 1 and Indy car are a testament to his rare combination of skill and versatility. His continued involvement as an all-encompassing 'ambassador' for motorsports – including his services driving the Honda-powered two-seat Indy car – says everything you need to know of his love for the sport."
"The members of the RRDC are honored to have American Honda return for the fifth straight year to host the reception at the RRDC's West Coast banquet," said RRDC president Bobby Rahal. "Honda's presence and record in North American racing competition is remarkable, and we're proud to have them join us in celebrating Mario Andretti's unparalleled contributions to the sport."
Italian-born Mario Andretti began racing stock cars in his adopted hometown of Nazareth, Pa., by 1959. That was the start of an illustrious 36-year career that saw the versatile driver compete and win in every discipline he entered – midgets, sprint cars, dirt track cars, stock cars, Indy cars, Formula One, Formula 5000 and sports cars.
Over the years, he's won 111 major events, including the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500. Among his many titles, he captured four national Indy Car championships (1965, 1966, 1969 and 1984), the Formula One World Championship (1978), was named Driver of the Year in three different decades (the '60s, '70s, and '80s), Driver of the Quarter Century (in the '90s) and was selected by both the media and fans as America’s Driver of the Century. He is also enshrined in the Indianapolis 500 Hall of Fame, the Motorsports Hall of Fame, the Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame, the Sprint Car Hall of Fame, the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, the Sebring Hall of Fame and the Automotive Hall of Fame.
The dinner's proceeds will help support the RRDC’s young driver initiatives, including its groundbreaking www.SAFEisFAST.com program and the Team USA Scholarship, which the RRDC has backed since 1997. Previous banquets have honored Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, Roger Penske, Jim Hall and Brian Redman, drawing fans and luminaries from all forms of motorsports.
The RRDC Evening with Mario Andretti presented by Firestone will be held on Thursday, April 10, at the Hilton Hotel, 701 West Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, Calif., with cocktails at 6 p.m. and dinner at 7:15 p.m. Tickets are $200 per person ($175 for RRDC members) and must be purchased in advance. Very few seats remain, so anyone who would like to attend should contact Jeremy Shaw at rrdc2@cox.net as soon as possible.