"HE'S OUT OF FUEL!" the TV announcer screamed into his microphone. "[Michael Andretti] is out of fuel, dropping to the inside! And here comes the finish line! Who's gonna win it?!"
Michael Andretti was in the No. 18 March 86C Cosworth, likely with every muscle in his body clenched. He was about to win the 1986 Portland Budweiser/G.I. Joe's 200, over two seconds ahead of his father, Mario, on the last lap, when he ran out of gas coming out of the final turn. His father caught him, and the two cars flew by the checkered flag at almost exactly the same time.
"Unbelievable!" the TV announcer yelled. "Well, it's perhaps the closest and best Indy-car finish in history!"
It turned out Mario beat Michael by about four inches. "That was so disappointing," Michael Andretti says today. "It's funny the way it worked out. That's probably what cost me the championship that year." The "funniest" thing of all? That race, where father beat son by those fateful four inches, went down on Father's Day. Immediately after the finish, the cameras caught Michael's then-wife, Sandy, sobbing in the pit lane, while he stood with his father at the center of a mob of fans and TV cameras.
"Do you want to say anything to your dad right now?" the TV interviewer asked.
Michael turned to Mario and said, "Well, happy Father's Day, Dad."
When asked about it today, Michael can only chuckle. We're sitting in the Andretti Autosport hospitality area in the infield of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, just before qualifying for the 2022 Gallagher Grand Prix on the track's road course. "It's such a cool story, but it was also incredibly frustrating," he says. "When I offered him a happy Father's Day, I wasn't really sincere. It was really upsetting."
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Denne historien er fra October - November 2022-utgaven av Road & Track.
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MR. CALIFORNIA
MEET THE MAN WHO PUT THE STATE ON THE MAP AS THE LEADER IN THE FIGHT AGAINST VEHICLE EMISSIONS.
RESIDENT ALIEN
THE CZINGER 21C LOOKS LIKE IT ARRIVED FROM A DISTANT PLANET. INSTEAD, IT COMES FROM CALIFORNIA, WHICH IS KIND OF THE SAME THING.
FUNNY FACE
THE CURIOUS CASE OF CALIFORNIA-DIAL WATCHES.
THE PROBLEM WITH ROBERT WILLIAMS
TOWARD THE END of our third interview, Robert Williams gives me some advice about overcoming creative blocks. “Phrase it as a problem,” he says. “
Quiet Riot
In the Ioniq 5 N, Hyundai makes the case that an EV can tamp down racetrack noise without sacrificing capability.
The Sound and the Fury
A legal feud over booming decibels put California's most historic roadracing circuit in jeopardy.
HOLLYWOOD'S GREATEST STUNT DRIVER
CAREY LOFTIN WAS THE KING OF THE SCIENTIFIC WILD-ASS GUESS
OFFLINE
THIS BURBANK BOOKSTORE IS A REPOSITORY FOR THE WORLD OF AUTOMOTIVE INFORMATION NOT ON YOUR PHONE.
THE COURSE OF HISTORY
The West Coast tracks where modern racing was born.
TANK WARFARE
WHAT IF THE WHOLE CAR WERE A GAS TANK?