Legendary American motor-racing driver to compete at Templeton

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33739, 11 January 1975, Page 4

Legendary American motor-racing driver to compete at Templeton

(By

R. O. DEW)

During the last two decades, no driver has enjoyed greater success on the motor-racing circuits of the United States than the almost legendary A. J. Foyt. His record of achievement is fantastic. Three victories in the famed Indianapolis • 500 and another in the testing Mans 24-hour race represent only a tiny fraction of his major triumphs. And yet it is at the wheel of a Volkswagen - powered midget racing car that he has chosen to make his only appearances in New Zealand On

Tuesday night he will make his debut at the Templeton Stadium against a field of international calibre, which will include the present American midget car champion, Mel Kenyon, and the Australian champion, Johnny Fenton.

It will be the most ambitious promotion to be attempted by the Christchurch Speedway Association but, if the interest being created by Foyt’s visit is any indication, it should also be one of the most rewarding. Foyt is perhaps best known for his performances in the mig!. 200 miles-an-hour Indianapolis cars. He has competed in the 500-mile endurance race no less than 17 times for three wins and -two thirds. Although now nearly 40 and in the twilight of his career, he still cherishes an ambition to win thia event for the fourth time.

After his New Zealand visit, he will fly back to America to prepare his 900 brake horsepower racer for this year’s classic. He is unique among active drivers in that he builds and races his own cars. He also assembles, prepares and sells his own engines. He has won more than Sim in prize money and a record five American driving championships. In the 72-year history of the

championships, no other driver has won more than three. He has won a total of 47 national championship races. 13 more than his nearest challenger, Mario Andretti. If Foyt is t'.:e greatest of all American sealed circuit drivers, he must also be the most versatile. He will drive practically anything on four wheels on any tvpe of surface. He has won United States championships in dirt? stock and sprint divisions. And although he has risen to the highest levels of motorsport. he is still a respected competitor in midget car racing. His decision to race in midget cars in New Zealand has been received with some surprise by car racing followers. But it has also created unprecedented prestige for midget car racing in this country. Foyt does not worry unduly about what sort of class he races in. Quite simply, he enjoys racing of anv kind and this is obviously part of the secret to his success. A millionaire with business interests in oil. real estate, ranching, horse racing and car dealerships in Texas, he no longer has to concern himself with the amounts of prize money off —- 1 Cer-

tainly, the money he will receive for coming to New Zealand will make little difference to his finances. He is coming because he wants to and because the trip was recommended to him by his friend and rival. Mel Kenyon. Foyt’s attitude to racing is adequately summed up by the following story, allegedly true, which' has filtered through to New Zealand. He was apparently motoring down a highway between championship races when he saw a turn off to a tiny race track. Having several hours to spare, he decided to satisfy his curiosity by driving down to the track. There was a small, dirt,* sprint car meeting in progress. Foyt spotted an old Indianapolis Offenhausen roadster in the pits, which had qualified for last place on the grid for the main event. He took one look at

the old car and felt that he just had to have a run in it. He bought the drive from the car’s young owner and won the race, lapping the entire field in the process. The prize money was considerably less than he paid to get the drive of the car. Bom in 1935 at Houston, Texas, Anthony Joseph Foyt junior has been involved in cars practically all his life. He was only three when he was given a miniature red racer by his father and by the time he was six he was giving exhibitions in this at his local speedway track. Five years later he was driving a midget his father owned around the family property.

When he was 17, he left school to race motorcycles. He soon graduated to stockcars and then started racing midgets and sprinters. He had his first U.S.A.C. race in a midget at Houston in 1953. He made his championship car debut in August, 1957, at Springfield, Illinois, and the following May drove in his first Indianapolis 500 at the age of 23. In spite of his success and great driving ability, Foyt has not escaped unscathed. In one particularly nasty stock car crash he broke his back, both legs and fractured his skull. But he made a speedy recovery and in 1966, just six months later, suffered second and third degree burns oyer 30 per cent of his body when the Lotus he had purchased from the Scottish driver, Jim Clark, broke its rear suspension, hit a retaining wall and blew up. However, these two incidents, and dozens of lesser ones, have done nothing

to quench his thirst for racing. His appetite for competition is unbelievable. He loves to race and he loves to win. On Tuesday the opposition will be strong. Kenyon, known as “Miraculous Mel” after staging a successful comeback from a dreadful crash in 1965 which left him without a thumb and the second and third joints of all four fingers on his left hand, is the current United States midget car champion. He now drives with a special glove which can be attached to a projecting metal pin on the steering wheel. Kenyon has won the American midget car championship four times — 1964, 1967, 1968 and 1974. In New Zealand he is driving the same Volkswagen car he used to win the championship. Like Foyt, he has also been prominent at Indianapolis but without actually winning the race. He has gained two thirds, a fourth and a fifth. Fenton, who comes from Perth, is the Australian champion this season for the first time. A particularly accomplished performer, he is driving a very fast Sesco midget and should provide some very worthwhile opposition for the two great Americans. Another Australian, Barry Pinchbeck, is also competing. He will drive a Datsun-powered machine. One of the features on Tuesday will be an international teams’ race between America, Australia and New Zealand. The New Zealand pairing has not been decided. This will be left until after a series of qualifying races which wfil be held before the main international events get under way.