Living and racing in America

The Andretti’s arrived in America in 1955, and started racing a souped up ’48 Hudson at Nazareth in 1959, remembers Jim Cooke. Mario Andretti’s passion and burning desire had him doing more than 100 races by 1963, including 3rd place at Thompson, CN Speedway. He’s seen here-above next to his Curtis Craft chassis.

Mario Andretti began dirt track racing with his twin brother Aldo in 1959. The twins were surprised to find that Nazareth hosted a half-mile dirt track, Nazareth Speedway. They used money they made working at their Uncle’s Sunoco station to refurbish a 1948 Hudson, using a stolen beer barrel as a fuel tank.

The car was ready to race when the twins were 19 years old, but the minimum age was 21, so the brothers convinced a newspaper editor to falsify their drivers’ licences. After Aldo got into a major accident, the local police chief spotted the forgery but turned a blind eye to save Aldo’s health insurance.