A.J. Foyt - Volume One: Survivor, Champion, Legend

Quick! Name as many of the racing drivers who you know of who have won all of the following races: Daytona 500, the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Indianapolis 500. (Answer: There’s only one person who did and that’s A. J. Foyt - and he actually won the Indy 500 race four times!)

He's A.J. Foyt to the world, but if this book was reformatted and published as a gutsy adventure novel, most readers would marvel at the author's wonderful flights of fancy. However, this is not a wildly-imaginative adventure novel and author Garner has here taken no liberties whatsoever with Mister Foyt's amazing life, even though a pretty wide swath of his saga reads like a splashy front-page story from "True Life Adventure Magazine for Men".

If you don't mind, from the above point on, we're going to refer to Mister Foyt by that one name "Foyt" because, for a very (very) long time, that one name was all and anyone in the motorsports world had to hear to know that a force of nature was in the room, on the track, on the phone, or just generally in the vicinity.

Quite candidly and right out of the box, what the author has done here is to put together the most comprehensive and truthful story of the life and times of this great racing driver ever published. 

The Actual Book Review

In the high performance/high risk world of motorsports the term "competitive" is always a good thing to be mentioned when talking about a particular racing driver. In this new book by Art Garner his using that term about his subject could easily be said to be damning with faint praise.

Suffice it to say that Foyt was as competitive as anyone who ever strapped into any race car anywhere, any time, and author Garner supplies ample proof of that attribute on just about every page of this brilliant new book about a guy with the well-earned sobriquet of “SuperTex”.

At 606 pages—which includes 33 pages of notes pinning down the precise when and where of every quoted statement (spoken or printed)—a list of interviewees that reads like a who's who of motorsports, and a truly extensive (nineteen page) index that allows a bit of fun reverse-reading (as in "Gee... I wonder what Foyt thought about so-and-so or that race?”), suffice it to say, this book's technical side is fully-equipped (and then some).

And, readers are going to find that author Garner has a direct way of explaining what happens on the racetrack that's not only quite accurate but well-timed to the story, his frame of reference is very precise in describing all hell breaking loose. You'll know the feeling when you read it.

On further investigation, it turns out that author Garner has a background that had involved his racing a Showroom Stock Mustang in Sports Car Club of America races, about which he modestly recounted: "... won a race at Nelson Ledges, and had a couple of podiums ". (He gets it.)

Most Foyt fans know that he was always hyper-competitive and (to use a commonly overused word that really fits here) driven. A good example might be a little vignette about the 1962 USAC (United States Auto Club, the then sanctioning body for Champ Car racing) season.  Foyt had finished the season second in points to Rodger Ward and, because of what author Garner calls "his aversion to being second," Foyt was asked if he'd prefer to use his familiar "14" in the 1963 season instead of the "2" that he would be allowed to use. As hard on himself as he was on others, he chose to run "2" as something of a little kick in the ass reminder to himself and his team.

Of course, to say that Foyt himself also worked on his own race cars is almost a hapless understatement here. Foyt conceived, helped to build, rebuilt, modified, and repaired (and occasionally to a tire hammer to in times of on track tribulations) his own race cars and (when he became a car owner/entrant) he did the same with his hired hand teammate's cars.

Yes, the stories about his impetuousness are out there, throwing stuff, beating the crap out of recalcitrant race car components, and creating havoc in his own race shop, maybe even going a few rounds (that’s fighting, not buying) at Mate’s White Front Tavern just down the street from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But the results and the respect speak even more clearly about the man. Just in case it was not evident, the story informs the world how deep and heated the flames of competition burned in this guy.

And, when he drove for others he did pretty good too. He raced in a moderate number of sports car events over the years, always learning and putting the information to good use.

His days in the vaunted Can Am Series where unlimited sports cars blistered road courses across North America were choppy to say the least.  Competing against the likes of Mark Donohue, Denny Hulme, George Follmer, Bruce McLaren, Parnelli Jones, Graham Hill, Phil Hill, Bob Bondurant, Jackie Stewart, Mario Andretti, and Dan Gurney,  Foyt's Can-Am rides often turned problematical.

But where and when everything worked right he drove those wild, horsepower-crazed, big-banger sports cars with the same sort of commitment and ferocity that he high-balled everything that he ever strapped into from USAC Midgets on tiny, dust-choked quarter-mile dirt tracks in heartland, to 200+ mile an hour blasts down the almost four mile long Mulsanne straight at Le Mans in the monster Ford Mk IV(see next paragraph).

When the Ford Motor company sent Carroll Shelby and his team back to France in 1967, guess what oval track maestro the canny old cowboy Shelby chose to pair up with All-American icon Dan Gurney to take on the legendary "twice around the clock" Le Mans high-speed test of road racing endurance?

Right! A Yank named Anthony Joseph Foyt, Jr.

Shelby’s unique pairing won the great race for Ford. Many years later the always canny Gurney allowed how he drove in practice as well as in the race, always leaving just a bit on the table so as not to be a challenge for his hyper-competitive teammate. In the end, his mindful driving worked well to not stress the powerful car any more than necessary and kept it running beautifully all the way to the win.

Often asked about his intense affair with race driving, one of his best responses was offered to New York Daily News reporter Bill Verigan, “It is a very special feeling that goes far deeper than satisfaction.” he quoted Foyt as saying: “Once you’ve tasted it your keep coming back for more.”, readers of this brilliant new book will find that more than evident.

There are thirty-nine chapters in volume one each with a title that could just as easily be the opening line for it. Chapter 4 is named: "BASIC TRAINING" and covers 1948 -1952, Chapters 9, 10, and 11 spanning but two years salute Foyt's earliest greatness with this medley: "BREAKTHROUGH", "NUMBER ONE", "A RACING CHAMPION". Indeed and in fact, all of the chapter titles here are great guideposts to the work.

As this amazing first volume ends with A. J. Foyt at forty-two years of age, having done enough racing for two or three men, winning many of the most storied motor races in the sport, and surely seeing enough fellow drivers pay the price for the danger that they all courted, many with their limbs, and some with their lives...still racing.

To Be Continued...

And here are the author’s closing words that foreshadow Volume 2 of this remarkable biography of one of the greatest racing drivers of all time:

“The second half of his career was about to begin.  There'd be more peaks to climb, more incredible days at the track, including victories, championships, and record speeds. There would also be valleys, including the loss of loved ones, terrible crashes, and serious injuries. And he'd also be dragged into a dark and bitter political battle that put the very future of the sport he loved so much at risk. Through it all, Foyt would take on all comers the only way he knew how: straight on.”

The Andretti Foreword

This book's foreword was written by another legend, Mario Andretti. In A. J. Foyt's racing world, where everyone on the same racetrack with him was his sworn adversary, there were a few that stood out "just a little bit" (HA!) from the others. One was the great Mario Andretti, a brash young(er) driver who came to America as a refugee at the end of World War II, who became something of a regular impediment in Foyt's racing career In truth, the level of mutual respect that these two had for each other went well beyond rivalry. Both wanted to always be racing against the best, and when they were both on the same racetrack, that was an indisputable fact, and more often than not, a hell of show.

To quote the racing website: "Money Lap":

"A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti are two of the most iconic figures in motorsport history, each with their own unique strengths and achievements.  Foyt’s fearless approach and versatility beautifully contrast with Andretti’s technical skill and adaptability.  Whether you admire Foyt’s rugged determination or Andretti’s global success. There’s no denying that both have left an indelible mark on the world of racing.”

Margin Note

A long-time friend asked me if I could possibly sum this book up in one or two sentences ... this is what came to mind:

1.) Art Garner has done a sterling job of presenting the great A.J. Foyt in heroic (but not mythic) terms.

2.) There's a wealth of true stories here, many of which have became legends as time has rolled on. Here Garner balances those accounts with a very humanistic portrait of an amazing man. 

Extra Credit

If you're a motorsports history fan and you missed Art Garner's award-winning 2014 book: "BLACK NOON The Year They Stopped The Indy 500" you’d certainly be well-advised to seek that book out too, it's another moving and accurate read about high level professional motorsports. This one putting the disastrous 1964 Indianapolis 500 race under the microscope and relating that story in a play-by-play dossier that follows the tragic events of a race which A.J. Foyt won, but that he surely would have given back for a different result…