Racing legend Mario Andretti recalls beginnings at Nazareth Speedway

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

International racing superstar Mario Andretti launched his career from Nazareth Speedway.

Andretti settled in the Nazareth Area upon coming to the U.S. from Italy in 1955. He and his twin brother, Aldo, took their newly finished 1948 Hudson Hornet to the Speedway in 1959, where they each won their first race.

At the Nazareth track, Andretti went on to compete in URC sprint cars and USAC champ cars on the dirt oval track up until the late 1960s and later, in CART Indy cars up until 1994 on the paved oval track. To date, Andretti remains the only driver ever to win the Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500 and the Formula One World Championship.

"Obviously, this was the start of something that turned out to be very good for me," Andretti said of the Nazareth Speedway track. "It all started here in 1959. I have fond memories."

His fondest came on July 12, 1969. Earlier that day, Nazareth Borough hosted a parade to honor Andretti, who was the newly crowned Indy 500 champion. In the parade, Andretti and his wife, Dee Ann Hoch, rode in an Indy 500 pace car. Dee Ann was nine months pregnant with the couple's third child.

Later that evening, after the parade, Andretti took the wheel in the champ car race at Nazareth Speedway. He won the race just moments after Dee Ann's water broke and she went into labor. He made it to the hospital in time to welcome Barbra in the early morning hours of July 13. The racing legend admits he secretly wanted a daughter after having two sons.

When he called his mother-in-law to share the news, Andretti put a dime into the payphone and 75 cents by mistake came out of the change return.

"I said, 'Man, I don't want this day to ever end,'" Andretti said.

Andretti won numerous stock car races at the Speedway in 1959 and 1960, but official records were not kept, according to Patty Reid, his publicist.

"People traveled all over the country to see the races. There were huge lines of traffic," Andretti said, noting many of the races were televised on national television. "I remember that clearly."

Andretti said he wasn’t surprised by the track’s closure in 2004, calling its demise "pretty much predictable" once International Speedway Corp. took ownership. The organization already had owned several other tracks nationally and Andretti believes there was little interest in promoting the local track.

"As soon as it fell into those hands, the place was history," he said. "It's unfortunate, a total shame."

Andretti said what becomes of te property doesn’t matter as long as it’s an asset to the community.

"I would like to see it cleaned up," he said. "It's a premium piece of property and it's an eyesore."