15 minutes with Mario

[Liz]

This Thursday I will have 15 minutes to interview Mario Andretti. Needless to say, i am overjoyed. Do you have any questions you'd like me to ask him?

I was informed that there are two ground rules to be observed:

(1) All questions must be about sports cars; i.e. no IRL/CART/F1 questions .

(2) Absolutely no questions regarding Mikey.

[Tim Northcutt]

That has to take the fun out of it for you, Liz....

OK...Sportscars....

Of his Sebring victories, which in his mind is the most memorable and why?

(He did win it 3 times, correct????)

What views, if any, does he have on the new direction sportscar racing has gone with the ACO as the major sanctioning body and the two series here in North American (ALMS) and in Europe (LMES)?

How about one, world-wide series with races both hee and in Europe?

Would he ever consider putting a sportscar team together as an owner or a team manager (you get the idea...Mario not behind the wheel) to make a run at Le Mans?

Those are a few ideas anyway....for whatever it is worth...

[cybersdorf]

Does he still speak Italian?

[Fab]

Does he remember Speed Merchants ?

And why no question about the son ?

[The Badger]

How does he feel about never having won LeMans , and after comming so close in i995 with Courage ?

[Thommy]

Will there be a comeback? Maybe at the 24hrs Nurburgring (the good old Nordschleife)?

[Megatron]

Never give up on Le Mans.

Are you still upset at the IMSA folks putting insane engine restrictions on the TWR-Porsche in 1995? That might have made you a winner in all the "Big 3" in the same year. Well, even if your not, your fans still are.

You have driven a lot of prototypes over the years, the Ferrari, the Alfa Romeo, the Ford GT40, the 935, and the 956/962, the TWR Porsche, Panoz, etc. Is there anything that sets one apart. Did you enjoy any particular prototype over the rest? ANd who are among your favorite co-drivers to drive with?

[Tim Northcutt]

Great Q's, Megatron!!!!

Just stick to those....but they might take more than 15 minutes....

There's a lot of meat and potatoes in those queries, though....

[cybersdorf]

Originally posted by Fab
And why no question about the son ?

That's a question about the son!

[Tim Northcutt]

Originally posted by cybersdorf
That's a question about the son!

To Fab:

Seriously,

There has been a TON of flak over Michael, after becoming a team owner in open-wheeled racing, moving his team and operations from Champ Cars (CART) to the Indy Racing League....

and add to that Michael's "less than positive comments about CART after he left when it was the Series that really put him on the map (on his merits as a driver, without riding the coatails of his last name)...."

followed by a nice layer of Mario's views from the very beginning of the "Open-Wheel Feud" concerning the impact of Tony Geoerge and the IRL would and has had on the future of open-wheeled racing (Mario has been very public and very critical of TG and the IRL)....when in many people's eyes, Champ Cars was just fine as one series in 1994 and 1995....the "new league' was divisive and was going to kill the sport...

Thus you can see why he doesn't want to get into it....Mario's views on the IRL are well-known, and his son immediately jumped to the racing series that his father is so critical of when he became a team owner.....

Then to Cap it all Off:

These "diverse opinions within the Andretti family" (how diplomatic is that?) have been hashed, re-hashed, reheated, and overcooked for the past 20 months by every journalist who either follows auto racing, or is just an "Entertainment Tonight" type who doesn't have a clue , but "read something somewhere" about it so it is the first question they ask Mario when they talk to him....whther the interview was about him as a person, his winery business, or anything else....

Mario is probably sick and tired of giving the same answers to the same question that has been out there for nearly two years now....

I don't blame him....

Mario is his own man....

Michael is his own man...and Michael did what he thought was best for his business...after all, the team he bought into had a long-standing relationship with Honda when he bought it....Honda didn't stay in CART...it went to the IRL...that was one of many reasons why the "prodigal son" left the series where he made his bones....

Sorry for the long explanation, Fab, but the whole open-wheel thing in the U.S. reads like a cheap soap opera....

And Mario is probably as tired of talking about it as racing fans are of reading about it....

Hope that helps to answer your question...

[Liz]

I think part of it is that this article is a lead-in to his installation in the Sebring Hall of Fame, and fifteen minutes is not very long even to cover the excellent material y'all have provided. Personally I'd love to spend the whole 15 minutes talking about the Lotus 79 (the most perfect car ever made) and getting Mario's comparison of Enzo Ferrari with Colin Chapman. But that, too, would take WAY more than 15 minutes.

And I'm going to ask him if he's thought about doing the Paris-Dakar. Can't you just imagine it?

[jj2728]

ask him if lemans is still an option for him and how he rated amon as a co-driver....they were teamed up in 69....sebring and monza i believe.....the 69 ferrari 312p spyder is my all time fav ferrari sports car.....

[cybersdorf]

what does he think about such Halls of Fame, Life Achievement Awards, and suchlike? Does he value them, do they mean anything to him at all?

[chris24]

He says in his book "Driving Passion" that he rates his most satisfying victory as the win at Sebring when he beat Steve Mcqueen after stepping into the third placed Ferrari after his broke down. Ask him if some of the joys of that victory were not diluted because he only drove the final part of the race in that car, and the cars other drivers did most of the race distance.

[Aysedasi]

Does he like my pictures in his book, Mario Andretti - The Complete Record?....

[Tim Northcutt]

Well...if it is a lead-in to his induction to the Sebring Hall of Fame, the question

OK...Sportscars....

Of his Sebring victories, which in his mind is the most memorable and why?

(He did win it 3 times -- 1967, 1970 and 1972)

Or...

Since you have competed many places and on many historic circuits around the world, is there anything about the Sebring circuit, or the 12-hour race that stands out in your mind that sets it apart from other events (sportscars or other types of race cars) that you have competed in?


NOTE:

After "taking flight" in one of Michael's IRL cars last May, I seriously doubt that the family is going to let him race in ANY kind of car for ANY reason....the word was out prior to his test session at Indy that Mario and Michael were the ONLY family members who thouhgt his return to a car -- even just to test it -- was a good thing....

His wife and daughter were allegedly very vocal about the decision, and afterwards, Mario said that you only get so many breaks in life and that this "close call" was a "wake up call" to finally say "enough."

I don't see him driving a rally car, a dirt car, or even a go-kart cometitively after that 1/4 mile long flight that damn near put him into the 2nd Turn Grandstands at the brickyard....

and if he ever gives it a second thought, I think he may be killed before he can ever don the driving suit...by his wife or his daughter...

[Fab]

I see...

Thank you for the explanations, Tim !

[Liz]

On the other hand, I can't imagine an Italian man bending to the will of women as to whether it's time to quit racing. (Notice how much attention Zanardi paid to his wife's plea that he not race anymore). But I'm not going to suggest any such thing at this time.

[Adam43]

I would just like to know what a 512 was like to drive. *drool*

[Mal]

What is his opinion on the rise of Grand am in the US and what affect will this have on ALMS

[Liz]

I have had my 15 minutes and I want to tell you that Mario is every bit as charming as I always thought he'd be. I was never so nervous before in my life, but he made it all very easy. Fifteen minutes isn't much time, but I did get many of your questions in, and got one little "scoop" that you might find exciting.

The interview will be on our site Sunday morning and I hope you will enjoy it. There's nobody like Mario in the world and we'll never see another one either.

[The Badger]

Originally posted by Liz
On the other hand, I can't imagine an Italian man bending to the will of women

I certainly can !!! They dont do anything else

[Aysedasi]

Well done Liz - I'm very envious!

[Tim Northcutt]

NO!!!!!!

I'll be away from my computer after today, and will not get back to it until AFTER Sebring!!!!!

Thus, I won't know your "Scoop"......

Question for you, Liz:

Is the "scoop" tied to whether or not he will drive?

[Liz]

Yes it is -- but not this year.