On This Week #14: An American home hero
On April 3, 1977, Mario Andretti became the first American to win a Formula 1 race on home soil, when he finished first for Lotus at the United States Grand Prix West in Long Beach. A feat made all the more extraordinary by the fact that he was the only American in the race. And, to this date, nobody has ever equalled his achievement – despite the unstinting efforts of Formula 1's promoter to make the sport take off in the United States.
Mario was already a two-time grand prix winner by the time he got to Long Beach in 1977, having won on his Ferrari debut back in 1971 in South Africa, then again five years later at the famous 1976 Japanese Grand Prix, when James Hunt won the title at a rain-soaked Fuji circuit.
But to win at home was something else. In Mario's own words: “Obviously it was a huge win for me. To win on a home track is extra special. And later in 1977 I won the Italian Grand Prix, so to win in my native Italy and in my permanent home in the United States, it just doesn't get any better than that.”
Yet his victory in Long Beach was far from a foregone conclusion. This is a notoriously tough circuit to pass on, and while Andretti qualified his Lotus second, he was passed by Jody Scheckter's Wolf at the start, who leapfrogged both him and Ferrari's Niki Lauda, who had got underway from pole.
Behind there was chaos: the Ferrari of Reutemann also pulled alongside Andretti as they headed towards the first turn. Braking too late, Reutemann slid wide and Andretti narrowly avoided him. The mess continued with James Hunt's McLaren hitting the Brabham of John Watson and flying into the air before skidding down an escape road.
Following that initial excitement it settled into a three-way battle with Scheckter in the lead, followed closely by Andretti and Lauda. The trio stayed within seconds of each other for most of the race. But by lap 76 (of 80), Scheckter's Wolf was leaking oil, spraying Andretti with a fine mist that blocked his view, while the South African was also losing pressure in his front tyres.
Andretti felt he had one good chance under braking: he chose his moment entering the hairpin on lap 77, going down from fifth to first gear. It wasn't a done deal for Andretti as Lauda also got past Scheckter the following lap, but the American held the Austrian off for the remaining two laps to seal a momentous victory by less than a second: the first of four victories he would claim that year.
That win was significant not only for him, but also for the Long Beach race as a whole, which was struggling financially. The organisers later admitted that had it not been for Andretti's win, future grands prix would not have been commercially viable. And even Andretti himself noticed the difference afterwards.
Thanks to Andretti's victory, Long Beach enjoyed an upmarket renaissance – and there's even some talk that Formula 1 might perhaps return there in the future.
If so, Super Mario, would be the first to approve. “I love street racing, and street racing was being reborn in a very big way in Long Beach,” said Andretti. “It's kind of fun to drop down from Ocean. Wherever you are in street racing, you've got to roll with the geography. It's a matter of taking everything to the limit, no matter what you're given. Long Beach had some special characteristics that are more challenging, like flying off Ocean. You could really gain or lose time depending on how you line up your car.”
Having been more or less continuously used for IndyCar as well, Long Beach is now the longest-running major street race in North America. But it was Andretti who really put it on the map.
