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Written in 1962

The man who won the 1961 lndianapolis 500 at record speed and the USAC National Championship in both 1960 and 1961, is confident he can repeat both feats in 1962.

A. J. Foyt Jr.'s swift leap to the top of the racing world has been phenomenal. Conservative USAC officials call the young Texan the best all-round driver in the organization and predict that he will be one of the great drivers of all time.

Foyt has come a long way since his first race at Houston, Texas in the early 1950s, but he was bitten by the racing bug much earlier.

When A.J. was only five, his father, A.J. Foyt, Sr., built him a little 3-bhp car which was capable of 55 mph. "That car made a lot of noise. Some of the neighbors were afraid A.J. would run over someone or get hurt," his mother recalls, "so they would call the police. When A.J. would see a police car coming he would quickly park his little racer, come flying in to the house through a door or window-whichever happened to be most convenient-and dive under his bed. We would pull him out, the officer would lecture him, and he would promise not to speed any more. But it wouldn't last long-that urge would come back and he would be out there again, going as fast as he could."

At six, Foyt's interest in auto racing was even more apparent and he persuaded his father to build him a bigger, much faster car.

"I thought that car was the most beautiful thing there ever was," says Foyt. "It was red and white and I wore a red silk shirt and racing outfit my mother made."

A.J. had the car only a week when he took it to the local midget track and challenged his favorite driver, "Doc" Cossey-one of the best in the area-to a match race. The good natured driver accepted and, to the delight of the fans, the pair raced one lap. A.J. won-with the help of Cossey's developing a little engine trouble. After that taste of victory, Foyt's determination to race was intense and unshakable.

A.J. was 18 when he stepped into his first true racing car at Houston's Playland Park in 1953. After the race his first words were: "My gosh, I was so scared I didn't know what to do or which way to go!"

Nevertheless, he broke the track record qualifying. In his third time out in a midget he won the feature event and his career was launched.

For three years Foyt campaigned through Texas, driving stock cars and midgets. Then he paused to marry a beautiful girl named Lucy.

By 1957, Foyt decided it was time to start competing against some of the bigger names of the Midwest and the West Coast. The same year, at 22, Foyt entered his first National Championship race at Springfield, Illinois, and had the thrill of "bumping" the late Pat O'Connor from the starting field. He finished ninth of 35 and was tabbed the driver to watch.

The same season, in his first time out in a sprint car on the high banked half-mile speedway at, Salem, Ill., Foyt. amazed the experts by setting the fastest qualifying time and winning all events he was in, including the day's feature race.

Foyt got his first big break in racing the next year, when he was assigned to drive the Dean Van Lines Special in the 1958 Indianapolis "500."

"When Mr. Dean asked me to drive his car," says Foyt, "I was the happiest guy in the world."

Although he was disappointed in qualifying no higher than 12th, A.J.'s luck was still with him in his initial 500. The spectacular 16-car pile-up which cost the life of Pat O'Connor came on the very first lap of that race. "All of a sudden," he recalls, "cars were going in all directions when I headed into the backstretch. It was one terrible mess and it shook me up quite a bit. Had I started closer to the front I would have been right in the middle."

On the 148th lap, Foyt and his Dean Van Lines car spun off the track and out of the race. "My radiator hose broke, spewing water on the track which I hit with my own wheels, putting me in a spin," Foyt explains, with a rueful headshake.

He finished 16th. "A fine performance your first time out," said car owner Al Dean. Foyt raced the Dean car in 11 championship events that season. Although he wasn't doing as well as he would have liked-mechanical problems were "bugging" the Dean racing stable-he was gradually building his name in racing from coast to coast. He finished 10th in National Championship standings.

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Author: ArchitectPage

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