This Week in Motorhead History: Super Mario Brothers

On February 28, 1940, Mario Andretti and his twin brother, Aldo, were born in Montona, a town on the peninsula of Istria which at the time was a part of Italy.

We mention Aldo because, while today Mario is known worldwide as a championship-winning racing driver, few people are aware that Mario is a twin, and that Aldo, father to NASCAR and Indycar winner John Andretti, was a pretty good shoe himself.

After the Andretti family emigrated to the United State in 1955, settling in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, the brothers soon discovered the dirt track in town and began taking turns racing a modified Hudson.  Each was successful, each earning race victories, but they were racing without the approval or knowledge of their parents.  The deception was revealed when Aldo suffered serious injuries in a crash.

Despite their parents’ disapproval, the brothers continued to race, moving quickly from the stock car at Nazareth to open-cockpit cars.  Mario and Aldo shared a TQ Midget at tracks in New Jersey, sometime confounding race officials since the brothers were identical twins.  In the TQ Midget, Mario scored what he later stated was his “first victory of any consequence” in the Armory in Teaneck, New Jersey, which earned him what he was seeking: Attention from car owners further up the racing ladder.

The brothers moved to the Midgets and Sprint Cars on the USAC and IMCA circuits, but from here their racing careers diverged:  Mario secured a ride for the 1967 Daytona 500, which he won, and as virtually every follower of racing knows, went on to win the 1969 Indy 500 and subsequently the 1978 Formula One World Championship.  But 1969 was also the year in which Aldo stopped racing, after receiving devastating injuries in a Sprint Car crash.

While Aldo left the driver’s seat, he remained active in racing, and to this day is often seen at the track.  When Aldo’s son, John, began racing stock cars at the Dorney Park bullring in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Aldo was there, as occasionally was Mario.  Having by that time won the Formula One world championship, Mario attending a local short-track race was attention-getting.

John Andretti progressed through the USAC Midget ranks as had his father and uncle, and ultimately recorded victories in Indycar, NASCAR, and sports cars.  Mario’s son, Michael, was a championship-winning driver in Indycars before becoming an equally-successful team owner, and Michael’s son Marco is the face of the Andretti family in Indycar racing today.  John’s son Jarett is an accomplished driver in both USAC open-wheel cars and ARCA stock cars.

So the birth of the twin brothers in 1940 was also the birth of a racing dynasty. 

Image top right: John Andretti via Wikipedia Commons

Image top left: Mario Andretti 1969 via Wikipedia Commons

Image bottom right: Mario left, Aldo right via Wikipedia Commons