The other drivers steered high to avoid them. Aldo watched for any small opening, then he saw it: Down along the inside of the banked oval, puddles had formed from the previous day’s rain. Mario observed from the pits as the green flag welcomed the roaring pack of 20 onto the dirt track.
Something felt right about the stripped interior of the car. Given that the twins had dreamed about this day for years, Aldo should have been nervous. Thanks to countless nights spent reading Speed Age magazine, though, Mario and Aldo knew something the others didn’t: That model handled better at high speeds than most stock cars.īecause the drivers lined up by points earned throughout the season and Aldo had none, he started at the back of the first heat, a qualifying event for the feature race later that afternoon. And compared with the smaller Chevys and Fords the competition ran, their Hornet looked like a bus. Dressed head to toe in those zippered uniforms, they didn’t exactly blend with the locals in T-shirts. Aldo won.Įven the fans at the top of the packed bleachers that Saturday could see that the newcomers stood out. Now that race day had arrived, a single question remained: Which one of the brothers was going to drive first? Mario pulled a nickel from his pocket and tossed it in the air. Only 19 years old and a few birthdays removed from their childhood in an Italian refugee camp, the immigrants had scoured junkyards for a frame, learned to weld, and dropped in an engine.
When Mario and Aldo Andretti rolled their red Hudson Hornet into Pennsylvania’s Nazareth Speedway for the first time in the spring of 1959, the twins arrived with professional racing uniforms and ambitions to match. The greatest racing dynasty in history began with a coin flip.
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