Car Guy Magazine Car Guy Magazine issue 115 | Page 16

ABOVE Three generations, Marco, Michael and Mario Andretti.
“Bobby Unser clearly broke the rules,” Andretti says. But Unser and team owner Roger Penske challenged before a United States
Auto Club panel, which reduced the severity of Unser’s penalty and
instead imposed a $40,000 fine and reinstated his victory.
“It was farce,” says Andretti. “I was given all of the accolades.
I was the one that took the photos with the trophy. I was the one
that was giving the keys to the pace car at the banquet and then this
appeal took it all back.”
These frustrating racing episodes have done nothing but fortify Andretti’s steely determination, and it’s a trait that has served
him well in his post-racing business ventures. These include Andretti’s numerous spokesman roles for companies such as Chevron,
Magnaflow Performance Exhaust components and Environmental
Systems Products, a company that manufactures emissions testing
equipment. Andretti is also pooling his forty years of tire testing
experience--much of it during the height of ruthless competition
between Firestone and Goodyear that wrought dramatic racing tire
innovations--to serve as a spokesman for Bridgestone Firestone.

14 CarGuyMagazine.com

When Andretti began testing in 1964, the racing tire was six inches
wide with treads that were grooved into the rubber by hand. It was through
such testing in 1966 that Andretti stumbled upon the superior performance
of racing slicks.
“It was a fluke, actually,” he says. Just before the tire test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Andretti learned that no time had allotted to
grove his tires. “And I was told ‘go out on a slick but be very, very careful,’”
he remembers. He proceeded to shatter the track lap record running on the
slicks, clocking lap speeds approaching 167 miles per hour. By 1970, racing
on slicks was the norm.