Motor racing icon Mario Andretti and his twin brother Aldo were born on this date, February 28, exactly 76 years ago in the town of Montona, Istria in what was then the Kingdom of Italy. The town was subsequently annexed by Yugoslavia at the end of World War 2 and is now called Motovun, located within Croatia.
The Andretti family left in 1948 and eventually emigrated to America in 1955 where they settled in Nazareth in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. By this time Mario had already started racing cars competitively aged 13, and in American he went on to race first in stock cars and then open-wheel cars including NASCAR and especially IndyCar in which he's a four-time champion and former Indianapolis 500 champion.
Sadly Aldo had a less lucky time competing and suffered a number of serious injuries during his own career, which resulted in facial reconstructive surgery in 1969 that means that the twins' resemblance is no longer identical.
Mario went on to spend the latter half of the 1970s racing full-time in Formula One, and he was eventually crowned world champion in 1978 while competing for John Player Team Lotus. These days he spends most of his time with his family in the US including son Michael and grandson Marco, both of whom followed him into the family business. Mario is still very active himself, giving lucky prize winners the drive of a lifetime in the official IndyCar two-seater.
He was also the official ambassador for the Circuit of The Americas when it staged its first US Formula One Grand Prix, and to mark Andretti's birthday today here he is serving as master of ceremonies on the podium after the 2014 race, congratulating race winner Lewis Hamilton on his success. Lewis, for his part, clearly has an eye on swiping Andretti's formidable Texas stetson if he can get away with it...
