Andretti had the look of a winner from the moment he arrived at Indy, but success at the 2.5-mile track didn’t come easy for the versatile racer.
“I didn’t finish in ’66, ’67 or ’68, so the next race that I finished from my rookie year was ’69,” Andretti said. “All the people that were on the team that I was able to win it for, not just for myself but for Andy Granatelli, and in my opinion, nobody deserved that victory more than he did because of what he meant to the speedway.”
Granatelli’s greatest innovation was the turbine-powered car that revolutionized the Indy 500 in 1967 and ’68. Parnelli Jones dominated the 1967 race only to drop out with four laps left when a $1.50 bearing failed. Joe Leonard was in charge of the 1968 500 until his STP Turbine Wedge flamed out on lap 192.
USAC officials were fearful the turbine would change the face of the Indy 500 forever and essentially legislated it out of the sport.
Granatelli was furious at the outcome but continued to look for a way to win that elusive Indianapolis 500.
“To him, the book says, the cars were listed by owner, but the bottom line is his innovative spirit with the Novis and then of course the jet cars,” Andretti said, referring to the turbines. “He was always trying to think outside the box and we came here in ’69 with a state-of-the-art, four-wheel drive Lotus, but not with the jet engine. We had the new Ford engine.
“We were breaking records in practice and I was really happy with the car, but soon we found out how fragile the car was, and I said, ‘Oh, boy, here we go again.’
“I think the first weekend was rained out, so there was just — we were going on to the second weekend, and on the Thursday, a wheel snapped right off coming off of turn four and I almost killed myself on that one,” Andretti added. “It destroyed the car and then Colin Chapman decided to pull all three of the cars out of the race, so we had a spare car that we did not intend to race, the Brawner Hawk.
“The good thing about the Brawner Hawk is that the last race just before here, which was Hanford, we won. But there were some other issues with it.”
Andretti continued to practice for the 500 in the Brawner Hawk and he was the second-fastest qualifier for the race.
“Burns are burns, but a lot of it was like there was some swelling and my breathing was not very good because it was wrapped, my nose, so you just had to breathe with the mouth, and you got really dry when you do that,” Andretti recalled. “That’s why I had this big bottle of Gatorade that actually leaked out. But nevertheless, I mean, it was annoying for sure.
“When you have a job at hand like that, I mean, you don’t even — you don’t bother with those things. Those are small things. I think your adrenaline takes over and you just do your job.”
Andretti felt anxiety regarding the Brawner Hawk.
“We were really treading toward adversity on this one and then in the race I had overheating like you can’t believe,” Andretti explained. “It was really hot in the cockpit because we had to put an extra oil radiator in right behind my seat, and we didn’t qualify that way so we had to hide it. So Clint Brawner put a big bottle of Gatorade in the cockpit with me so I could suck it up, and about, I don’t know, 20 laps into the race I was already really hot.
“And all of a sudden I see this swirling in the cockpit, and I said, ‘Oh, no, I must have a radiator leak or something.’ But the engine was singing. We kept going and going and we were up in the front and we led more than half the race.”
The green fluid was actually the Gatorade coming from Andretti’s drink bottle. Because the car was running so hot, Andretti had convinced himself the fluid was from the radiator.
Despite the overheating, the car continued to perform and Andretti kept it out front.
“Crossing that finish line was just the greatest moment of my life,” Andretti said. “It was just amazing, just like the 900-pound gorilla was lifted off my shoulders.
“I figure from here on, it’s going to be easy to put a half a dozen together.
“But this turned out to be the one.”
[/subscribers_only]