Most people know of Mario Andretti for his having won the Indianapolis 500 in 1969 or the Formula 1 World Championship in 1978. Racing fans also know of his upset victory in the 1967 Daytona 500 and his four Indycar series championships.
But it was on March 3, 1962, that Mario Andretti won what he later described as his “first victory of any consequence.” It was an indoor race for midget cars in an armory in Teaneck, New Jersey, and while it was small-time racing Andretti viewed it as an important stepping stone to the big time.
Andretti had begun racing a Hudson stock car on the dirt track in his hometown of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, in partnership with his twin brother, Aldo. Having enjoyed reasonable success in the Hudson, in 1961 he ventured into Sprint cars, racing a very old car on the United Racing Club circuit. Here Andretti struggled, so in order to gain experience and perhaps the attention of influential car owners he decided to compete in the winter indoor races for small cars known as TQ Midgets.
He bought a car powered by a two-cylinder Triumph motorcycle engine, a car formerly campaigned by Bobby Marshman, and entered the first of the indoor races on January 6, 1962. Two months later, with the experience gained in the rough-and-tumble indoor races, Andretti won a thriller at Teaneck.
In the 35-lap main event that night, Andretti raced wheel-to-wheel with veteran driver Len Duncan, a many-time indoor race winner and a championship-winning driver on the summertime circuit. The two ran side-by-side under the checkered flag, Andretti winning by less than two feet.
Andretti went on to win a total of four TQ Midget races, one each at the Teaneck Armory and the Island Garden arena in Hempstead, New York, and one each during the summer racing season at Pine Brook Stadium and Wall Stadium in New Jersey. (Only Wall Stadium continues in operation today.)
His stint in the TQ Midgets did indeed provide a rung up the ladder, because the following summer Andretti was a hired driver in the American Racing Drivers Club and by 1963 he was competing in the United State Auto Club’s national championship series. Mario Andretti was on his way, and it began with a TQ Midget in an Armory in New Jersey.
The photos accompanying this story shows Andretti’s TQ Midget as it appears today, restored and on display at the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing in York Springs, Pennsylvania.