Alfa Romeo 308

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum featured this Alfa Romeo 308 in a special “From the Vault” exhibit at the 2019 PRI (Performance Racing Industry) show in Indianapolis Indiana,  an unusual car with a colorful history. 

This car, one of four built in the Milan factory, is powered by a supercharged 2.99 liter (182 cubic inch) eight-cylinder inline engine was designed by Gioacchino Colombo built for the 1938 Grand Prix season.  

After the season ended the 308 was sold to French racer Raymond Sommer. Sommer, who had raced in the United States in the 1936 George Vanderbilt Cup race, used this 308 to win several hill climbs and a street race in 1939 before he sold the car to a pair of Americans in early 1940 as he enlisted as a private in the French army.

The car was brought to the United States via the Italian liner the SS Rex by its new owners, Richard T Wharton and Thomas W Dewart, who were described as “young wealthy New York sportsmen” and officers with the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA), an amateur sports car racing club. Wharton’s mother was a Standard Oil heiress, while Dewart’s father was the publisher of the New York Sun newspaper.

This historic photo shows Deacon Litz in the Richard Wharton Maserati  

on the inside of the last row on the pace lap before the start of the 1939 Indy 500 

courtesy of the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies 

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection 

The previous year, Wharton had entered one of three  Maserati V8RI racers (a total of four were built) entered at Indianapolis in 1939.  Wharton’s silver car that carried number 52 was driven by veteran Pennsylvania driver Artha “Deacon” Litz in the 1939 International 500-Mile Sweepstakes.

“Deacon,” who weighed a plump 225 pounds, qualified with a four-lap average of 117.979 MPH (miles per hour) for his twelfth consecutive ‘500’ start.  Litz qualified for the 31st position and he shared the final row with Harry McQuinn and Billy DeVore. Unfortunately, only seven laps after the start of the 1939 Decoration Day classic, the Maserati, chassis number 4502, was forced into pits with mechanical troubles.

The crew worked over the Maserati V-8 engine for fifteen minutes until the car was retired with “valve trouble,” and placed last. After repairs, Wharton reportedly later drove the Maserati in ARCA events, including a race that was held in conjunction with the 1940 New York World’s Fair.  

Wharton and Dewart initially pursued Tazio Nuvolari to reunite with the Alfa-Romeo 308 for the 1940 Indianapolis 500-mile race, but in early May they hired veteran driver Clarence “Chet” Miller who had raced in ten consecutive 500-mile races at Indianapolis since 1930. Miller left the Boyle team to drive for the new team with their Italian machine.

Miller who had driven the last four 500-miles races in front-wheel drive machines for Mike Boyle, told an interviewer “I have driven front drives for the past four years and become accustomed to the handling. Going into a rear-drive of conventional American racing design, while I felt I could go fast with it, I would be under a strain throughout and would be dog-tired if I got into the latter stages of the race.”  It sounded like Miller was counting on the Alfa’s four-wheel independent suspension to smooth out the bumpy brick surface and help to conserve his energy. 

      

The 38-year old Miller assured his interviewer that he was completely recovered from his injuries sustained in the 1938 Indianapolis ‘500’ three-car crash that took the life of Floyd Roberts. Miller was hailed as a hero after he crashed into the wooden infield fence to avoid Bob Swanson who was prone on the track after he had been thrown from his crashing machine. Chet sustained a broken shoulder after his car flipped - he spent eight weeks in the hospital and was out of racing for six months.

This photo shows Chet Miller weighing our featured car in 1940

courtesy of the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies 

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection 

Chet practiced the Alfa at 124 MPH, but the scheduled qualifying sessions in 1940 were plagued by rain and gusty winds and Miller did not get on track for his ten-mile run until Monday May 27.  Miller posted an average speed of 121.392 MPH, good enough for the 27^th starting position on the outside of the ninth row.

Later that evening, Chet was elected President of the Champion Spark Plug 100-mile per hour club succeeding Zeke Meyer, who gained membership with his 1936 Indianapolis ninth-place finish. Miller had earned his membership in the exclusive club because of his 1935 fifth-place finish in which he averaged 100.474 MPH for the 500 miles.

Chet Miller's 1940 IMS qualifying photo 

courtesy of the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies 

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection 

The 1940 Indianapolis ‘500’ proved to be a disappointment for many drivers, as the last fifty laps of the race was run under the caution flag due to persistent rain showers which froze the field in position, Despite his hopes that the Alfa would preserve his energy, Miller had stopped on lap 148, just before the caution flag came out and been replaced by Englishman Henry Banks. 

With the Alfa Romeo in seventeenth place, all the cars were flagged off the track after Wilbur Shaw and the first three finishers took the checkered flag. The Alfa Romeo 308 #34 finished with 189 laps completed and the Wharton-Dewart Motor Racing Team won $605 compared to winning car owner Mike Boyle who collected $31,675. In addition to a new Studebaker Champion, race winner Shaw also won an electric refrigerator.  

Wharton and Dewart did not enter the Alfa-Romeo 308 for the 1941 Indianapolis 500-mile race, and it and the Maserati V8RI were later sold to Milt Marion in 1944, while both Wharton and Dewart were serving in the US Navy in World War 2. 

Marion ran the Long island-based Marion Engineering & Machine Company and had started racing as a driver on the New York dirt tracks in the mid-nineteen twenties before he tried his hand at Indianapolis in 1931. Marion tried but failed to qualify at Indianapolis as a driver on six occasions, with his last attempt in 1937.

The highlight of Marion’s driving career came on March 8, 1936 when he won a AAA “strictly stock car” race held on a 1.5-mile course on Daytona Beach. Driving a 1936 Ford V8 convertible sponsored by Permatex Form-A-Gasket, Milt won the race which was shortened by nine miles from its planned 250-mile distance when the tide came in, at an average speed of 52 MPH. Another competitor in that day’s race was a local service station owner named William France who years later founded his own stock car racing association that held races on the beach.  

  

With the defeat of Japan and Germany, automobile racing resumed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May 1946, albeit with pre-war equipment. Milt Marion entered both his Italian-built machines in March but did not name the drivers.

Once the track opened, Eastern AAA ‘big car’ ace Tommy Hinnershitz, a veteran of the 1941 ‘500,’ was tabbed to drive the Maserati, while midget racer Louis Durant (who birth name was Durant Lewis), was assigned the Alfa-Romeo 308. Durant a Kansas native who lived in Los Angeles, in addition to driving, acted as a race promoter for several pre-war races in his native state.

Durant had initially qualified for the 1941 Indianapolis ‘500,’ but was ‘bumped out’ on the final day of time trials by Al Putnam and the G & S Special became the first alternate. Durant unsuccessfully attempted to bump back into the field with an unidentified car owned by Milt Marion.

Sam Hanks crashed in pre-race practice on May 29 and his damaged car could not be repaired in time, but Chief Steward Ted Doescher stated that the rules called for the “the fastest 33 cars” and would not allow Durant’s car to be substituted.   

The short field due to the lack of Hank’s 7 UP sponsored entry was compounded when on race morning, the garage area fire claimed George Berringer’s rear-engine Gulf-Miller, as well as Marion’s unidentified car, and so the 1941 ‘500’ starting field was comprised of 31 starters.  Louis Durant did manage to compete in the 1941 500’ as he had two stints as a relief driver that covered 84 laps.

Durant, qualified the Alfa-Romeo for the 1946 International 500-mile race in the sixth starting position on the first day of time trials, though he posted the day’s slowest speed average of 118.973 MPH for his ten-mile run. 

Hinnershitz made a qualifying attempt on the final day of time trials on May 28, 1946, but the aged Maserati’s speed was not enough to bump out Al Putman’s qualified machine. Marion later sold the Maserati to the Granatelli brothers who replaced the engine with an Offenhauser.

In the first 500-mile race run at the Speedway in five years, Durant had a steady if not spectacular day as he finished in sixth position crossing the line more than 36 minutes after George Robson took the checkered flag and was the last car to complete the entire race distance. As he averaged 105 MPH for the 500 miles without relief, Durant earned membership into the Champion Spark Plug 100 MPH club.  

 

In 1947, Milt Marion entered his Alfa-Romeo and was allied with Speedway management, rather than siding with the upstart ASPAR (American Society of Professional Auto Racers) organization which was campaigning for a higher purse and threatened to boycott the race.

Marion had signed sponsorship for the Alfa-Romeo from the New York-based Permafuse Corporation, which manufactured and marketed a new system of relining brakes. Instead of the use of rivets, the installer used a strip of patented Permafuse tape to attach the new shoe to the lining. With the assembly clamped together, it was heated in the Permafuse electric oven. When completed, the manufacturer claimed that their system doubled the life of brake linings as the shoe and new lining were “virtually fused together.”

As Louis Durant had allied himself with the ASPAR group, Marion selected Indianapolis rookie Walt Brown from Massapequa New York, an Eastern AAA ‘big car’ racer who was the current track record holder at the one-mile track in Trenton New Jersey as his driver. 

Brown had appeared in several pre-war championship races and had been entered by Marion in six races held in late 1946. Walt was not at the Speedway full-time in the early part of the month of May 1947, as he was a regular on the AAA Eastern big car circuit and ran several big car races in early May, then passed his Indianapolis drivers test on May 22.

 Brown qualified the Alfa-Romeo on May 26 at a speed of 118.355, which placed it fifteenth in the field of 30 starters, and as the fastest non-ASPAR qualifier of the day received a check for $500. 

On Race Day, Walt steadily moved up through the field, largely by attrition as the machines of Ken Fowler, Russ Snowberger, Cliff Bergere and Shorty Cantlon were eliminated by mechanical failure or in the case of Cantlon a fatal crash.

Brown at age 35, wound up as the second-highest finishing rookie in seventh place as fellow rookie 39-year-old Bill Holland finished second. Walt was the last driver to complete the full 500 miles, flagged off a full 37 minutes after winner Mauri Rose took the checkered flag. 

         

Milt Marion entered the Alfa-Romeo for the 1948 Indianapolis 500-mile race but despite its record of two top ten finishes in the last two races, it did attract the interest of any drivers. Late in the month, Colorado driver Johnny Mauro struck a deal and bought the car from Milt Marion.

Mauro reportedly raced for several years in the pre-war period using the nom de guerre “Jack Morris,” although the author has been unable to find any results to confirm this story. Mauro entered a car under his own name in the 1940 22^nd annual Labor Day race up Colorado’s Pikes Peak, and finished either third, fourth or fifth, depending on which newspaper article one chooses to believe. 

In 1947 Mauro became an unwitting player in the ASPAR dispute with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In early 1947 Mauro reached an agreement with Babe Stapp to act as his crew chief for his inaugural entry at Indianapolis and he sent his entry form to Stapp’s home in Los Angeles. Stapp mailed the form onto the Indianapolis Motor Speedway office marked “in care of Ralph Hepburn,” as Hepburn was the original president of the ASPAR group.

The entry form arrived at the Speedway office at 444 North Capitol Avenue before the April 15 deadline, but Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Wilbur Shaw would not open the envelope, as Hepburn the addressee was not associated with the Speedway. Shaw instructed a secretary to place the envelope in the office safe. In early May, Mauro arrived in Indianapolis with his race car and was shocked to learn that he and his car, an older small displacement eight-cylinder supercharged Miller, was not entered. 

Mauro tracked down the paperwork, and the envelope with Stapp’s return address was retrieved from the safe, but Stapp initially refused to allow Shaw to open it. Finally, on May 15 in the presence of several reporters, Shaw opened the envelope which contained the completed entry form and Mauro’s check inside. Shaw allowed Mauro’s entry, which carried sponsorship from the local Phil Kraft Southside bakery chain. Mauro passed his required physical and practiced but was unable to complete his drivers test.  

Mauro, who worked as an accountant when not racing, returned with the supercharged Miller in 1948 but was not competitive in the car which press reports indicated had the smallest engine on the grounds, which leads the author to suspect it was a 91-cubic inch powered Miller. Mauro saw the unused Alfa Romeo 308 in the Garage Area and struck a deal with Milt Marion to buy the car and transferred the Phil Kraft sponsorship to his new ride.    

On May 25, 1948 the day following the finalization of his purchase of the Alfa Romeo 308, Mauro took the car out on track for practice and promptly spun in turn two, but he managed to collect the car without hitting anything and returned to the pit area with a bent wheel. Two days later May 27, Mauro was the slowest of the seven qualifiers with a four-lap average of 121.790 MPH, to start from the 27^th position.

Once again in 1948 in the 32^nd International 500-mile Sweepstakes, Mauro and his Alfa proved the old adage that the best finishes do not necessarily go to the swiftest, as the trusty 308 posted its third consecutive top ten finish when Mauro crossed the line in ninth place with 198 laps completed when he was flagged off the track forty minutes after winner Mauri Rose took the checkered flag. 

To complete the race, Mauro relied on the relief efforts of Louis Durant, the 1946 Alfa driver, who drove the car from lap 112 to lap 140. The day following the race, race officials announced that a recheck of the scoring tape revealed that Mauro had finished in eighth place and for his efforts, Mauro the car owner earned $4115.     

   

On Labor Day 1948, Mauro drove his Alfa Romeo 308 in the 12.42-mile AAA-sanctioned Pikes Peak Hill Climb and finished third with a time of 16 minutes and 55 seconds, one minute and six seconds slower than the winner Al Rogers who drove an Offenhauser-powered machine to victory. Mauro’s finish was celebrated in a nationwide advertisement for Mobil Oil that appeared in newspapers just days after the event.

Johnny Mauro entered the now eleven-year-old Alfa Romeo, for the 1949 Indianapolis ‘500,’ but technology had caught up as the “railbirds” opined that it would take an average qualifying speed of better than 126 MPH to make the 33-car starting field. Mauro himself never presented the car for qualifying, but Tony Bettenhausen gave it a try on May 28^th after his original entry was bumped.

Tony and his Flavell Special powered by a Sparks “little six” 183-cubic inch supercharged six-cylinder engine was bumped from the starting field. Robert Flavell from Los Angeles purchased the car in late 1946 from the original owner, Joel Thorne, after Joel got himself into one of his periodic legal jams and needed some fast cash. The Flavell/Sparks car had easily qualified for the 1947 and 1948 editions of the ‘500,’ but like the Alfa, it had reached the limit of its speed at 125.754 MPH and was bumped.

Tony could not find the speed in the Alfa Romeo 308 in a desperate attempt to bump back into the field, so the Mauro Alfa Romeo 308 missed the big show at Indianapolis in 1949.

Mauro qualified the Alfa 308 fourth overall for the annual Labor Day 1949 Pikes Peak Hill Climb, but on race day, crowd control was lax and errant spectators caught several drivers out. Mauro was within sight of the finish line when he had to swerve to avoid two women with cameras who had wandered into the racing line. Though he avoided a tragedy, Mauro crashed the Alfa Romeo into a parked car and did not finish.

On March 23, 1950 it was announced by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that it had received Johnny Mauro’s entry of the Alfa-Romeo along with two others for Jack McGrath and Cecil Green. Headed into the final weekend of time trials, the 308’s engine threw a rod and the damage was not repaired in time to make a qualifying attempt. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway would not see another Alfa-Romeo entry until 1990.    

In 1952, Mauro entered a Ferrari 375 Grand Prix car at Indianapolis with sponsorship from the locally-based Kennedy Tank company. Mauro probably used his family connections to obtain the 4.5-liter V-12 powered machine as his brother owned an exotic car dealership in Denver. Unfortunately, the white with blue trim Kennedy Tank Ferrari 375 never approached qualifying speeds.    

Mauro raced the Ferrari 375 at Pikes Peak through 1956, and in 1958 Mauro founded the United States Truck Driving School, Inc. (USTDS) to train professional truck drivers. Mauro donated the Alfa Romeo 308 to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1969, and in 2003, Mauro  was killed in a traffic accident in his hometown of Denver when he was 92 years old.

Color photographs by the author 

1909 Buick racer 

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum featured four cars from the Speedway’s history in a special “From the Vault” exhibit at the 2019 PRI (Performance Racing Industry) show. 

One car in the exhibit, the 1909 Buick, is of interest since to racing historians as it participated in the earliest automobile races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in August 1909 and won the second race held at the track.  

After the purchase of the 328-acre Pressley Farm property in December 1908 by four partners – Carl Fisher, James Allison, Frank Wheeler and Arthur Newby – construction on the track started in March 1909. The racing surface of the 2-1/2-mile oval was created by the placement of layers of gravel and limestone mixed with tar and oil of varying thickness topped with crushed stone chips.

The first motorized racing event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a series of motorcycle races, held on August 14, 1909, did not go well due to failure of the track surface and the planned second day of racing was cancelled by Indiana Motorcycle Club officials.  

The first three-day automobile racing meet, sanctioned by the American Automobile Association (AAA), was scheduled for August 19 through the 21^st, 1909 with each day to feature several short races and a long-distance trophy race. Anticipation for these events ran high as many automobile manufacturers entered cars for the Indianapolis races.   

David Buick started his eponymous automobile company in 1903 with a majority partner Benjamin Briscoe, who soon sold his shares in the company to James H. Whiting, who moved the company to Flint Michigan. The following year, Whitting lost control of the company to William Durant, and in 1906 David Buick sold his shares and left the company. Durant soon built Buick into one of the top-selling car brands in America. 

Buick factory photo and specifications of the 1909 Buick 16B roadster 

Durant believed in the promotion of Buick sales through automobile racing, and Buick publicized their racing success through press releases. Durant built a successful team in 1909 led by Swiss emigre Louis Chevrolet, teamed with George DeWitt, Lewis Strang and Bob Burman. The team primarily drove Buick model 16B racers with a 112-inch wheelbase roadster chassis powered by the proven Buick four-cylinder engine.

The Buick 16B racers, stripped of their fenders, running boards and lights made extensive use of wood for the floorboards and firewall with the seats mounted directly to the floorboards and the car rides on 34-inch diameter wood spoke wheels with mechanical brakes on the two rear wheels only.  

Louis Chevrolet and the Buick 16B photographed 

at the 1909 Ira Cobe Trophy race

Photograph appears courtesy of IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection  

The Buick factory team arrived Indianapolis “in a big express rail car” with a level of optimism on the strength of the victory by Chevrolet at the previous AAA race held the Crown Point Indiana road course - the 395-mile Ira Cobe Trophy Race held two months earlier. Chevrolet led the final four 23 ¼- mile laps at Crown Point to win with an elapsed time of just over eight hours even though the Buick only ran on three cylinders for much of the event.  

On Tuesday August 17 on the way to the Speedway for practice, Cliff Litterall, a mechanic with the Stoddard-Dayton team which was headquartered in a shop near downtown, jumped (or fell) from the race car in which he was riding and was run over by a following team car. The 28-year old Litterall (alternately spelled Littrell) suffered a crushed chest and the father of two died in Methodist Hospital on Thursday morning. 

The opening slate of five races began at noon before a crowd of 12,000 spectators on Thursday August 19.  The first event was a five-mile race for stripped chassis AAA class 4 machines with engines that displaced from 161 to 230 cubic inches.

The Buick entry that competed in the first event was a Buick Model 10 powered by a four-cylinder engine that displaced 165 cubic inches with George DeWitt behind the wheel, and DeWitt finished third behind a pair of Stoddard-Dayton machines. After the first event, drivers already complained about the track surface and the extreme danger posed by the open drainage ditches adjacent to the racing surface.

The day’s second event, a ten-mile race for stripped chassis AAA class 3 cars with engines that displaced 231 to 300 cubic inches, featured three Buick 16B racers, all equipped with a 298-cubic four-cylinder engine, which fitted with a single Schebler carburetor developed 32 horsepower.  

Louis Chevrolet led the 4-lap race wire-to-wire from the standing start in our featured car followed by teammates Strang and Burman. Chevrolet’s winning time of eight minutes and 56 4/5 seconds was a new world record for the ten-mile distance that eclipsed the old record set at the Empire City one-mile horse track in New York in October 1908 by a remarkable 15 seconds. Unfortunately the identity of the Buick's riding mechanic is not known. 

The third race of the day was a five-mile race for stripped chassis AAA class 2 machines with engines sized from 301 to 450 cubic inches and again, Chevrolet, Strang and Burman were entered in Buicks, these were probably equipped with 318 cubic inch engines. Burman finished second and Chevrolet third behind William Bourque in a Knox. The fourth race was a “free-for-all” 10-mile handicap race won by Harry Stillman in a local entry, the Marmon.          

The finale for Thursday was the 250-mile (100 lap) Prest-O-lite Trophy race for Class 2 machines with three 318-cubic inch displacement Buicks entered for Chevrolet, Burman and Strang. The Prest-O-Lite Company, owned by Fisher and Allison, manufactured and sold cylinders filled with compressed acetylene gas used to power headlights.

Strang retired early from the race after his Buick caught fire, while Chevrolet led the first 14 laps before he yielded to Burman and later made a pit stop. On the 58^th lap, the Knox, driven by Bourque with his riding mechanic Harry Holcomb, hit a rut, left the track, veered into the drainage ditch and flipped. The crushed car came to rest upside down against a fence and both men suffered fatal skull fractures in the accident, thus they became the first fatalities recorded at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Press reports indicated that the Buick driven by Louis Chevrolet was directly behind the Knox and that it was only through Louis’ “superior driving skills” that he avoided colliding with the crashing Knox. Chevrolet retired from the race immediately, reportedly he was blinded after his goggles were smashed and Louis withdrew. 

Late in the race it came down to a duel between Fred Ellis in the Jackson and Burman in the Buick – Ellis led from lap 82 to lap 88, then faded as Burman led the rest of the distance to claim the Prest-O-lite Trophy and the $1,000 prize.   

On Saturday August 21, the scheduled 300-mile Wheeler-Schebler Trophy race, the grand finale of the Indianapolis meet, was cut short due to deteriorating track conditions which had resulted in several crashes and the fatalities of Claude Kellum, a riding mechanic, and two spectators.

Kellum was originally assigned by National Motor Vehicle Company to ride with Johnny Aitken, whose #8 National dropped out on lap 40.  Later during the race, the #10 National’s original riding mechanic, Robert Lyne fainted, and Kellum replaced Lyne. On lap 70, the right front tire burst on the National driven by Charles Merz (later the Chief Steward at the Speedway) crashed through a fence and Kellum and two spectators were killed.     

Research for this article also uncovered two lawsuits that occurred in the aftermath of the 1909 Wheeler-Schebler Trophy race that may be of interest to racing historians.

When the race was stopped at 94 laps or 235 miles, due to ruts in the surface and clouds of dust, referee S B Stevens declared the race as “abandoned,” in effect the AAA stated that there was no race and thus no winner. Accordingly, the Speedway declined to award the Wheeler-Schebler trophy which was valued at $10,000 and announced that the race for the trophy would be run as the first race of the 1910 season.  

A copy of the Jackson advertisement in the Indianapolis Star 

that led to the AAA banning Jackson from racing for a time 

The Jackson Automobile Company of Jackson Michigan owner of the car driven by Leigh Lynch that was leading the race when it was stopped, sued the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on August 26^th to obtain the trophy, and Jackson published newspaper advertisements after the race in the Indianapolis Star newspaper that announced that its car had won the race. After a hearing, the AAA Contest Board announced on October 12, 1919 that the Jackson Automobile Company was banned from AAA competition until January 1, 1910. 

Another legal case related to the 1909 Wheeler-Schebler Trophy race was filed in April 1910, when Carrie Kellum the widow of the mechanic killed in the crash of the National sued both the National Motor Vehicle Company and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for negligence and asked for $10,000 in damages. The case was heard in Hancock (County) Circuit Court in December 1912 and the jury awarded Ms. Kellum $7,000 in damages. After an appeal by the Speedway, the award was affirmed by the Indiana Supreme Court in June 1915.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum acquired the Buick Model 16B in 1964 and it has been painstakingly restored to its appearance on August 19, 1909 when it won the second automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

All color photographs by the author 

The nineteen seventies

open-wheel race cars of Mario Andretti

During 2019, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum is celebrating the 50^th anniversary of Mario Andretti’s 1969 Indianapolis 500-mile race win with a special exhibit open through November 10, 2019. The exhibition entitled “Mario Andretti: ICON” was the genesis of this article that focuses on several of the significant cars from Mario Andretti’s nineteen seventies open-wheel racing career.

The story of Mario Andretti’s nineteen seventies USAC (United States Auto Club) career began with an unknown chassis manufacturer, McNamara, and none of these cars were represented in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum “ICON” anniversary display for reasons that will become clear to the reader.  

1970 USAC season

In 1969, Andretti joined Andy Granatelli’s STP Racing Team, and won the 1969 Indianapolis ‘500’ and the 1969 USAC National Championship. Before the 1970 season, Andretti’s long-time crew chief Clint Brawner left the STP racing team after disputes with car owner Andy Granatelli, and Jim McGee became Andretti’s crew chief. 

In early 1970, Andy Granatelli, always an innovator, (witness his experimentation with turbine power and four-wheel drive) announced that he had ordered four new cars to be built in West Germany by expatriate American Francis McNamara, who had two years of experience in building Formula Vee and Formula Ford race cars. The day-glo STP red McNamara cars, designed by Austrian Josef Karasek, would be powered by 159-cubic inch turbocharged DOHC (double overhead camshaft) “short stroke” Ford engines.

Granatelli outlined in the mid-January press release that there would be four different cars built – one specifically for the Indianapolis ‘500,’ and another for the road courses (of which there were three on the 1970 USAC schedule) possibly powered by a 320-cubic inch Ford stock-block engine. A third chassis configuration would be built specifically to race on one-mile ovals, and finally Granatelli promised a specific car would be built for the new Ontario Motor Speedway.

Andy described the Ontario car as “a super car for a super track, it will be designed to cope with possible high temperatures and high wind conditions in the first California 500 on September 6.”  The press release did not provide clarity on what the differences between the chassis were to be, and nearly 50 years later, it is difficult for a historian to confirm how many McNamara T-500 chassis, with its signature wide triangular-shaped aluminum tub were built, and what, if any, differences existed between them.  

The first McNamara T-500 chassis arrived late in Indianapolis, with the shipment from California delayed due to the trucker’s strike according to Granatelli. The car arrived on May 10, 1970, passed technical inspection on May 11 and Andretti crashed the McNamara that afternoon in a turn four crash. Mario told reporters that a universal joint broke which caused the McNamara to spin and hit the wall hard, which severely damaged the left side of the car.

Mario and the 1970 McNamara T-500

Photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Over two days and nights, the STP team rebuilt the McNamara with a new monocoque but Mario got only two days of track time before qualifying opened on May 16. In a gritty performance, Andretti posted the day’s eighth fastest run on ‘Pole Day’ with a four-lap average that was only two miles per hour slower than that of pole position winner Al Unser.   

During the 1970 Indianapolis 500-mile race Andretti was never in contention, as he made several unscheduled pit stops. In his post-race interview with Robin Miller, published in the Indianapolis Star newspaper, Andretti explained that “everything was beautiful for the first four laps then all of a sudden I didn’t have a race car under me anymore.”

Mario explained to Miller “I couldn’t go through the turns or come off of them. I figured I was dangerous as hell - to me and everybody else - and I nearly quit ten times. It was a feeling of total helplessness.”  On lap 172, Andretti drove into the infield grass in turn two to avoid a five-car incident and after the McNamara T-500 ran over something, he heard “a real loud bink.” Back on track, rather than being knocked out of the race, as he first feared, Mario claimed the McNamara chassis handled better afterward and “I was flying,” but he finished the 500-mile race in sixth position one lap behind first-time winner Al Unser.

In summary, regarding the McNamara T-500 at Indianapolis, Mario told Miller that “I was pleased at the performance when it ran and I’m going to stick with it.” During the rest of the 1970 USAC season, Andretti posted two pole position qualifying efforts but just one win with the McNamara T-500 at the ‘Rocky Mountain 150’ at Colorado’s Continental Divide Raceway road course. Andretti destroyed one McNamara T-500 chassis in a practice crash prior to the 1970 USAC season finale at Phoenix Arizona.  It is unclear how many, if any, of the McNamara T-500 chassis remain.

1971 USAC season

It appears that only two 1971 McNamara T-501 chassis were built. Compared to 1970, the T-501 used a lower profile monocoque with a wider body, fitted with what a press release identified as “hydro-pneumatic load leveler suspension” inboard rear brakes, radically offset fuel tanks and unique “stair-step” side-mounted airfoils. In initial testing at Phoenix International Raceway, Andretti claimed he ran within one second of the track record, and “we think it will be successful.”   

Press photo of Mario testing of the McNamara T-501

Author's collection

Mario crashed the new McNamara T-501 chassis later during pre-season tire testing and he raced a “new” T-501 chassis at Phoenix and Trenton. The original damaged McNamara T-501 chassis was rebuilt in time for Mario’s new STP teammate, 24-year old Steve Krisiloff to drive for the 1971 Indianapolis ‘500’

Both Andretti and Krisiloff struggled with handling issues with their McNamara T-501 chassis and never achieved lap speeds to match the new McLaren M16s. The night before ‘Pole Day’ time trials, McNamara designer Josef Karasek was awarded the 1971 Louis Schwitzer Award for Engineering Innovation and Excellence by the Indiana section of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) for design innovations of the 1970 McNamara T-500.

Karasek’s 1970 McNamara T-500 design was cited by the SAE for its use of “expanded water radiator areas for improved cooling” (definitely needed with the heat generated by the DOHC turbocharged Ford engine) and “rear suspension struts and braces mounted directly to the engine and transmission case instead of the monocoque chassis.” This marked the third time that Indianapolis entries from Andy Granatelli had won the Schwitzer award, as his previous winners included the 1967 Paxton turbine car and the 1969 Lotus Type 64, which was crashed by Andretti in practice withdrawn and never raced.

The ill-fated 1969 Lotus Type 64 in the Andretti: ICON exhibit

Mario in the McNamara T-501 was not considered a threat to contend for the pole position, and he started the 1971 ‘500’ from ninth position, while Krisiloff qualified 22^nd then crashed later that day in practice, and the STP team worked overtime to repair Krisloff’s car.

May 27, 1971, brought a surprise as Boone County (Indiana) Judge C. Michael Riley granted a temporary injunction to McNamara Racing that barred the Speedway from payment of race prize money to the STP Corporation based on what McNamara claimed in his lawsuit was non-payment of $30,756.73.

On race day, in turn three on lap 11, the turbocharged DOHC Ford engine in Krisiloff’s McNamara blew in spectacular fashion and he crashed. Gordon Johncock spun in the oil from Krisiloff’s car and collided with Andretti. With three other drivers involved in the same wreck - Krisiloff, Johncock, and Mel Kenyon - Mario finished the 1971 Indianapolis ‘500’ in the 30^th place.  

Both before and after the 1971 Indianapolis ‘500,’ there were published rumors that Granatelli and Andretti were about to split, but Mario finished the season with the STP Racing Team. Krisiloff’s car wrecked in the ‘500’ was repaired yet again and became Mario’s backup car for the rest of the season. Throughout the 1971 season the McNamara was never competitive despite changes made by crew chief Jim McGee to improve the car’s performance.  Andretti scored best finishes of a second place and two fourth place finishes in his ten-race USAC season and wound up ninth in the USAC Marlboro Championship Trail standings.

In December 1971, the McNamara Racing lawsuit against the STP Corporation was dismissed after a hearing during which Francis McNamara testified that no money was owed and that there had been no financial settlement outside of court. It was later announced that McNamara Racing had failed, and that its German assets were being liquidated.

1972 USAC season

Another car that was not part of the Andretti “ICON” display was the 1972 VPJ-1. For the 1972 USAC season, Mario and Jim McGee both joined the Torrance California based Vel’s Parnelli Jones (VPJ) Racing Team which arguably was the first modern “super team.” In addition to Andretti, the team owned by Velko "Vel" Miletich and Parnelli Jones, boasted the driving talents of Joe Leonard and two-time and defending Indianapolis ‘500’ winner Al Unser who had driven a VPJ ‘Colt’ to victory in 1970 and 1971

Beside McGee, the VPJ “super team” featured the mechanical talents of George Bignotti, James Dilamarter, and John Capels, along with engine builder Charles Tabucchi, and dynamometer engineer Takeo “Chickie” Hirashima. Parnelli Jones made the bold move to hire a full-team team designer, former Lotus designer Maurice Philippe (also known as Phillippe).

Joe Leonard’s car carried full season sponsorship from Samsonite luggage, while Andretti’s and Unser’s cars carried full season sponsorship from Viceroy cigarettes. The Viceroy/VPJ sponsorship announcement caused Phillip Morris USA, the makers of the Marlboro cigarette brand, which had become the USAC National Championship series sponsor for 1971, to withdraw any further series support. The individual car sponsorships were supplemented by a massive influx of funding from the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, which was engaged in a “tire war” with Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

The restored Samsonite VPJ-1 at the 2018 PRI show

A press photo of the VPJ drivers and Parnelli Jones

 with the VPJ-1 at the official press unveiling

at Ontario Motor Speedway in 1972 

Left to right - Joe Leonard, Al Unser, Parnelli Jones and Mario

Philippe's 1972 design for the VPJ Racing Team featured symmetrical air foils that sprouted at a 45-degree angle off the monocoque beside the driver - identified as “dihedral wings” which also contained the radiators. The most shocking featured of Phillippe’s patented design was the lack of a rear wing mounted behind the turbocharged Offenhauser engine, as Philippe believed that the dihedral wings provided enough downforce as they reduced drag.

The new VPJ-1 design also featured new Phillipe-designed suspension technology known as “dual camber compensators” which was designed to keep the triangular shaped chassis monocoque level in all racing conditions and the VPJ-1 rode on patented lightweight four-spoke cast racing wheels wrapped in Firestone tires.

In early testing the VPJ-1 proved to be a horrible combination – it was both scary and slow. The team went to work to revise the design and develop the VPJ-1, which included the loss of the dihedral wings during the month of May. Despite the early problems, the revised VPJ-1 race cars finished second, third, and eighth in the 1972 Indianapolis 500. 

As the 1972 season progressed the VPJ-1 cars evolved and by the season finale at Phoenix, they all looked much different than the original design with front wings on either side of the car’s nose and a massive rear wing. In the middle of the 1972 USAC season, Joe Leonard won three consecutive races – the 200-mile race at Michigan, the Schaefer (beer) 500-mile race at Pocono Raceway and the ‘Tony Bettenhausen 200’ at Milwaukee Wisconsin.

On the strength of his strong finishes, and even though he crashed in practice in Phoenix and did not start the season finale, Joe Leonard captured his second straight USAC national championship and teammate Al Unser finished in fourth place in the 1972 USAC points. Mario qualified for every race in the top eight but suffered a series of mechanical maladies during the 1972 season with his VPJ-1 and finished the USAC Championship Trail in eleventh place.

1973 USAC season

Maurice Phillipe penned the 1973 Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing Team entry, the VPJ-2 which used torsion bars on all four corners and a very shallow monocoque tub, but the most notable feature of the original design was the rear wing which was part of the bodywork over the turbocharged Offenhauser engine.  

The 1973 VPJ car sponsorships carried over from the previous season, with Andretti assigned one of the Viceroy sponsored machines. Throughout the 1973 season the VPJ team experimented with several different engine cover designs and rear wing mountings on the VPJ-2. The car owned by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum was shown at the Mario Andretti “ICON” exhibit as it appeared at the 1973 Indianapolis ‘500;’

Mario won the second heat of the April 1973 “Trentonian Split 300” in his VPJ-2 and in October won the pole position at the 2-mile Texas World Speedway with a stunning 214.58 MPH lap that set a new world’s closed course speed record.  After his historic qualifying effort, Mario led 16 laps in the Fall 1973 USAC “Texas 200” before he retired with a broken valve in the 4-cylinder Offenhauser engine.

The Philippe VPJ-2 design in generally considered by historians as a failure, as Unser and Andretti only won one race each during the 1973 USAC season, while their teammate Joe Leonard scored only a pair of early season fifth-place finishes as his best results in 1973.  Andretti, in fifth place, was the highest finishing VPJ-2 in the 1973 USAC National Championship, in a season dominated by McLaren and Eagle chassis. 

1974 USAC season

The 1974 season began as a disaster for Vel’s Parnelli Jones as sponsor Samsonite pulled out and Firestone Tire slashed their funding, and Joe Leonard was seriously injured in March in a crash at Ontario during the “California 500” that ended Lenard’s racing career. 

Press photo of Mario testing the VPJ-3

Author's collection

Maurice Phillipe’s VPJ-3 design appears to have borrowed a lot from the All-American Racers (AAR) Eagle design. The new the VPJ-3 appeared just once during the 1974 USAC season, at Trenton New Jersey in the “Trentonian 200” in Viceroy livery and Mario was the fastest qualifier.  Mario’s VPJ-3 later appeared briefly during May in practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but the Vel’s Parnelli Jones Team soon switched to 1974 AAR Eagle customer chassis for the Indianapolis 500-mile race and for most of the rest of the 1974 USAC season.  

Andretti drove a modified VPJ-2 in two 1974 races at the Ontario Motor Speedway and the “Rex Mays 200” at Milwaukee but spent most of the season in this 1974 Eagle that was displayed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum “ICON” exhibit in May. Powered by a 159-cubic inch Offenhauser and carrying chassis number #7406, Andretti finished only three 1974 USAC races in this car, with a best finish of third at the “Phoenix 150” season finale.

A big change for Mario Andretti was that his long-time crew chief and friend Jim McGee left Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing Team after the 1973 season and went to work in a similar role with Bob Fletcher's Cobre Tire team

1974-1975 Formula One seasons

In 1968 Mario began to make occasional appearances in Formula One races with the Gold Leaf Lotus Team, with one race in 1968 and three races in 1969. For 1970, the STP Corporation entered Formula One racing with the nascent March factory team with the March 701 for full-time drivers Jo Siffert and Chris Amon with a third car for Andretti at five races.

Mario drove for Scuderia Ferrari in occasional appearances during the 1971, during which he won the season opening Grand Prix of South Africa in the dominant 12-cylinder Ferrari 312B for his first Formula One win. Mario also won both the 32-lap heats of the non-championship 1971 Questor Grand Prix, a race that included Formula 5000 cars, in a Ferrari 312 B. Andretti drove a Ferrari 312B2 in five Formula One races during the 1972 season and then made no Formula One appearances in 1973. 

In 1974 the Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing Team debuted the VPJ-4 Formula 1 car designed by Maurice Philippe which was powered by a 182-cubic inch Cosworth DFV (Double Four Valve) engine. At that time in Formula One, ten of the twelve teams used Cosworth engines – only Ferrari and BRM used their own engines.

Click to enlarge- why does a Firestone

sponsored car carry a Goodyear logo on the wing?

Interestingly during the same period, Roger Penske’s Penske Racing Team was building and developing its own Formula One car, the PC-1 designed by Geoff Ferris also powered by a Cosworth engine.  Both the new American Formula One entries, the VPJ-4 and PC-1 debuted at the same race, the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport, the penultimate round of the 1974 Formula One season. 

Andretti qualified sixteenth in VPJ-4, while 1972 Indianapolis 500-mile race winner Mark Donohue qualified the Penske PC-1 24^th in the 26-car starting grid. Andretti and the VPJ-1 finished seventh, one lap behind the winner Emerson Fittipaldi’s Lotus, while Donohue finished twelfth.    

Two weeks later at the 1974 United States Grand Prix, Andretti qualified the VPJ-4 third on the starting grid but was disqualified when the Cosworth engine stalled on the starting grid and the VPJ crew pushed the car after the rest of the field was away. 

For the 1975 racing season, Mario Andretti only appeared in the three 500-mile ‘Triple Crown” USAC races for Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing Team, as he devoted most of his time and energy to the Formula One circuit. Even so, due to scheduling conflicts Andretti missed the Belgium Grand Prix as he raced at Indianapolis and the Dutch Grand Prix due to his Pocono “Schaefer 500” USAC commitment. 

 Mario appeared in twelve 1975 Formula One Grand prix events in the VPJ-4, finished six races and scored points in two races, with a fourth places in Sweden and a fifth place in France.  In qualifying, the VPJ-4 proved to be a mid-pack performer, the exception being a fourth-place qualifying effort at the Spanish Grand Prix.

1976 Formula One season

Phillippe updated the VPJ-4 for the 1976 season, which was known as the VPJ-4B, but the Vel’s Parnelli Jones Team lost the Viceroy sponsorship in both Formula One and USAC. The Al Unser USAC team and the Formula One team carried sponsorship from American Racing Wheels, in effect a self-sponsored program, as Parnelli Jones and partner Art Hale ran American Racing.

The VPJ team elected to skip the Formula One season opener in Brazil and Andretti appeared in a Lotus 77 as the teammate to Ronnie Petersen. At the next Grand Prix, Andretti and the VPJ-4B qualified thirteenth and finished sixth. At the inaugural United States Grand Prix West at Long Beach, Andretti set the fastest lap, but the VPJ-4B dropped out on the 15^th lap after a water leak caused the Cosworth DFV to overheat and fail.

Andretti soon found out from press reporters that team owner "Vel" Miletich told people in the paddock that the VPJ Formula One team was done. Andretti quit VPJ that day and the next day re-joined Lotus for the rest of the Formula One season and finished sixth in the World Drivers Championship. Meanwhile Andretti joined Penske Racing for four USAC races in 1976 in an updated McLaren M16C.

The VPJ-4 was later redesigned by John Barnard and became the turbocharged Cosworth powered VPJ-6 that the VPJ team used from 1975 through the 1979 USAC seasons.

1977 USAC season

For 1977 Mario Andretti was fully engaged in his quest for the Formula One championship with Lotus and he appeared in all seventeen Grand Prix and won four but finished third in the World Drivers Championship for Team Lotus. Andretti still found time in his busy schedule to appear in six races for Penske Racing, four as the driver of this McLaren M24 powered by a turbocharged Cosworth DFX engine.

After six seasons, the ground-breaking McLaren M16 design was replaced by the M24, which was a derivative of the successful McLaren M23 Formula One car. The M24 featured an aluminum honeycomb monocoque chassis with four-wheel double wishbone suspension with the front suspension fitted with inboard coil over shock absorbers. In place of the Cosworth DFV V-8 engine used in Formula One, the M24 was powered by a turbocharged 161-cubic-inch Cosworth DFX engine that developed 725 horsepower in period.

Roger Penske had approached Cosworth Engineering in 1975 about turbocharging the DFV engine that had been raced since 1965 but was met with little interest. The Vel’s Parnelli Jones team headed by Larry Slutter undertook the project in-house beginning in the winter of 1974-1975.

The development period stretched through the 1975 season as the VPJ team learned that there was a lot more to the conversion than the addition of a turbocharger and shortening the cylinder stroke. VPJ eventually debuted their version of the turbocharged Cosworth at the 1975 season finale at Phoenix and Al Unser finished fifth, one spot behind his former teammate Andretti in a one-off race for the Sugaripe Prune team.

During 1976, while the VPJ team raced their version of the turbocharged Cosworth and won three races with Al Unser, others entered the engine race - McLaren and Penske combined in a joint development venture and Cosworth Engineering also began their own development program from a shop in the same town as VPJ headquarters, Torrance California that employed several key former VPJ development program employees.

At the 1977 USAC season opener, the “Jimmy Bryan 150” at Phoenix, the Penske built turbocharged Cosworth engine in Andretti’s CAM2 McLaren blew up after he had qualified, and the car was scratched from the race. The sponsorship of Andretti’s car came from CAM2 motor oil, a joint venture of General Motors, Sun Oil Company and Penske Racing first introduced in 1975.   

Four of the five turbocharged Cosworth-powered entries qualified in the top eight starting positions for the 1977 Indianapolis 500-mile race, including the pole position as Tom Sneva (in the other Penske turbocharged Cosworth powered McLaren M24,) became the first driver to break the 200 MPH barrier at the Speedway. Mario qualified sixth, but unfortunately, in the ‘500,’ a broken exhaust header sidelined the McLaren M24 on lap 47.

In his other four 1977 USAC appearances in this CAM2 car, Andretti never qualified worse than fifth – he started second twice and scored three top five finishes with his best finish a second place at the “Schafer 500” at Pocono behind his teammate Tom Sneva.

In just six race appearances during the 14-race 1977 USAC season, Andretti amassed enough points to finish seventh in the USAC National Championship.  After the 1977 season, the McLaren M24 was sold to George Walther and driven by David “Salt” Walther throughout the 1978 USAC season. Today the McLaren M24 as displayed is owned by collector and vintage racer Jeff Urwin.   

Postscript - 1978 Formula One and beyond

After his third-place finish in the World Driving Championship in 1977 wherein he won more races than the World Champion Niki Lauda, in 1978, Andretti was crowned the World Champion with six race victories to his credit. Mario became the last American driver to win the World Championship, and his victory at the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix is the last Grand Prix race victory for an American driver. Mario maintained a full-time Formula One schedule in the 1979, 1980 and 1981 seasons, then made his final Formula One appearance in a turbocharged Ferrari at the 1982 Caesar’s Palace Grand Prix in Las Vegas Nevada. 

Mario returned full-time to Championship car racing for the 1982 CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) season and finished third in season points in in both 1982 and 1983 before he captured his fourth and final National Championship in 1984.  Mario retired from active open-wheel competition at the end of the 1994 season, but he continues to appear frequently as the driver of the Honda two-seat IndyCar.  

Hopefully this length overview of Mario Andretti’s nineteen seventies racing career has ignited your interest to the entire Andretti exhibit. For more information about the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame and Museum and the “Mario Andretti: ICON” continuing exhibit please visit www.indyracingmuseum.org

All photos by the author unless noted