It's one of the most indelible moments in auto racing history. On May 30, 1969, Mario Andretti, driving an STP-sponsored Hawk, won the Indianapolis 500 and pulled into the speedway's Victory Lane. There, wearing an STP tomato-red sport coat that emphasized his rotund body, was STP's spiritual leader and CEO, 46-year-old Andy Granatelli. Without a moment's hesitation, Granatelli grabbed Andretti's cheeks and kissed him on the right one. At that instant, Granatelli was at least as famous as the driver who had won the race. And Andy Granatelli was everything that was right with auto racing. Granatelli died on Sunday at the ripe age of 90. And it's that kiss, that moment, for which he'll always be remembered.
Along with his brothers Vince and Joe, Andy had been trying to win the 500 since 1946. But it wasn't enough for Granatelli that he win the 500, he had to do it on his own terms. So he developed the notoriously powerful and fragile Novi supercharged V-8 through the 1950s and '60s long after others had given up. But while it made a mighty noise, it never won the race. Then in 1967, Granatelli showed up with a radical new car that put a turbine engine alongside driver Parnelli Jones.
The turbine car was underwhelming in qualifying and utterly dominating during the race. By the end of the first lap it was in first place and, after a day's rain delay, it was nearly a full lap ahead as the race rushed to a conclusion. Then a bearing in the transmission failed with four laps left.
Granatelli and STP returned with the new Lotus 56 turbine car for driver Joe Leonard, but that one failed a few laps from the end as well. In 1969, after the turbines had been banned, the team had planned to use an all-wheel drive Lotus, but that car failed to qualify. So Mario Andretti got into the backup car: the older, conventional Hawk, and won. Go figure.
In 1973 Gordon Johncock would drive another Granatelli-owned STP car to victory in the 500. But Granatelli's second Indy 500 win would be his last. And it was enough to earn induction into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1992.
Even before his first Indy win, Granatelli was such a well-known ambassador of the sport that he had a brief role as the "Association President" in Disney's The Love Bug, released in March 1969. It would be his sole acting job.
He called himself "Mr. 500," but Granatelli was first and foremost a brilliant marketing man. After being appointed CEO of STP in 1963, he inhabited the brand. He wore outrageous outfits covered in the oil treatment's logo. STP stickers showed up not only on race cars, but virtually every Schwinn Sting Ray owned by a Sixties kid. He made the STP logo utterly ubiquitous in American racing even though most American racers couldn't tell you what the stuff was beyond being "The Racer's Edge."
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In 1972 Granatelli signed a sponsorship agreement with Richard Petty that would have the NASCAR legend add STP red to his blue cars to create an instantly iconic paint scheme. Suddenly national consumer brands were aware of NASCAR as a marketing tool, because of how freakishly successful the combination of Petty and Granatelli's STP was. The modern era of NASCAR racing, it can be argued, began the moment Richard Petty signed on with STP in Granatelli's Chicago office.
While Granatelli was born in Dallas, he moved to California as his career wound down. Shrewdly investing in large tracts of real estate surrounding Santa Barbara, he settled in that city's suburb of Montecito and began a final chapter in his life as an involved citizen and good neighbor.
If there was a car show near Santa Barbara, it seemed he was always the grand marshal. He could be found in the better restaurants around town enjoying ample portions of the food and signing autographs when asked. He was active with youth organizations and virtually any charity that asked. He and his wife Dolly were patrons of just about every local arts group. And if you heard a supercharged engine go by on State Street, it was as often as not Granatelli in his Paxton blown Suburban.
Back when racing invited innovation and spectacle, no one was better at delivering both than Andy Granatelli. Those are things of which we could always use more.
from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com
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