Thursday, April 15, 2004 | 9:27 a.m.
Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
According to the biography on his Web site, Mario Andretti is "often referred to as the greatest race car driver of all time."
I have a problem with that.
It's the use of the word "often." That seems to leave a little room in the high groove for dissent when really, there should be none.
Andretti is the only man to have won the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500 and the piece de resistance, considering only two Americans have done it and none since him in 1978, the Formula One world driving championship. If there are any Michael Schumacher or Jeff Gordon fans reading, I'll let that be my warm-up lap.
A four-time series champion in Indy cars, Andretti could turn right as well as left, winning the prestigious 12 Hours of Sebring race for sports cars three times. He was the USAC national dirt track champion in 1974, the International Race of Champions titlist in 1979 and first up the hill at Pikes Peak in 1969.
Other than a Country Squire station wagon and Astroturf, there isn't a car he hasn't raced or a surface he hasn't conquered.
He's the only man to win Indy car races in four decades and was named Driver of the Century for the one that featured combustible engines by both the Associated Press and Racer magazine.
And yet, he's not finished. At 64, he still gets offers to drive in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the only major auto race he hasn't won (his best finish in eight starts is second).
Although you might say Andretti is fast nearing retirement, with an emphasis on "fast," I don't think he's in any danger of leaving his blinker on in the fast lane of life as he eases off the throttle to smell the roses of semi-retirement.
Unlike many of his pack-of-smokes-rolled-up-in-the-sleeve contemporaries, Andretti is a bon vivant who transcends his sport to the degree that he has become part of pop culture. For instance, when a cop pulls you over for speeding and asks who in the hell do you think you are, whose name does he invoke? Certainly not Matt Kenseth's.
Andretti is such an icon that his name appears in the song lyrics of a diverse group of musical artists that includes Charlie Daniels, Alan Jackson, the Beastie Boys, Amy Grant, a heavy metal outfit known as Machinehead and the rapper Ice Cube. When was the last time you heard anybody bust a rhyme about Sam Hornish Jr.?
On Wednesday, Andretti was in Las Vegas to bust a little more business. He has lent his name to the racing school formerly known as "Driving 101" that operates out of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and if the professional presentation out at the track is any indication, the Mario Andretti Driving School should run laps around its previous incarnation.
After Andretti was through talking business, he graciously honored any and all interview requests on any and all topics. He said the most rewarding aspect of his career wasn't all the races or championships he won, but the men he raced along the way. His only regret? Not getting to race against the one man who might have been his equal.
"I've been fortunate to race against many of the absolute icons of the sport," he said of a list of rivals that includes A.J. Foyt, Richard Petty, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Parnelli Jones, Dale Earnhardt and Dan Gurney. "But I would have loved to have raced against Senna."
Ayrton Senna was a three-time Formula One world champion who in 1994 was just beginning to wind down a great career as Michael Schumacher was beginning one. On May 1, it will be 10 years since Senna was killed at the San Marino Grand Prix when a piece of suspension pierced his helmet after his car left the track and smashed into a concrete barrier.
"He was just one of those special talents that come along once in a lifetime," Andretti said of Senna, whose funeral in Brazil rivaled President Kennedy's.
As for the heaviest of today's leadfoots, Andretti said there are too many to identify by name.
"You always have the standouts," he said. "In Formula One, you've got Michael Schumacher, and in NASCAR you have the usual suspects, the ones you would love to bang fenders with. Every discipline has some standouts and I have a lot of respect for the great talents that are out there. I just wish there was no age limit."
But at least his place in history is secure. Unlike in other sports, where the best contemporary players are often compared to and, in many cases, seemed to have surpassed the heroes of yesteryear (at least statistically), the commercialization of auto racing has eliminated the kind of all-around stars that were prevalent during much of Andretti's career.
"The driver contracts are so much bigger, and the investment the teams have in the drivers, plus all of the sponsors that are involved, can easily create a conflict of interest were a driver to (cross over)," he said. "If I'm a car owner and have quite a bit invested in a guy, I wouldn't want him to break so much as a finger (driving for somebody else).
"In my day, it was coming to that. I would have a lot of painful arguments with my car owners. But I would usually wind up saying that I don't think they could pay me enough to own me. That's the way I've always been, and I've been quite arrogant about it."
He was anything but arrogant on Wednesday. As I walked away from the world's greatest race car driver, he was still holding court with the other jesters in the local media, his silver firesuit shimmering in the noonday sun, creating an illusion of speed and prestige.
Mario Andretti still looks fast, even when he's standing still.
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