Anthony Joseph
Foyt

Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr. was born in Houston, Texas, in 1935. His father was a mechanic who ran midget race cars as a hobby. Foyt began racing midgets at seventeen and started in sprint cars in 1956. He took his first midget win at Kansas City in 1957, and later that year moved from the IMCA to the USAC in sprint cars.

His three Formula One starts came between 1958 and 1960, when the Indianapolis 500 counted towards the World Championship. Foyt contested only that race in those years, in a Kuzma in 1958 and 1959 and in a Kurtis Kraft in 1960. His 1958 debut ended with a spin on lap 148. He took no wins, podiums or pole positions in the championship.

In American Championship car racing he won the Indianapolis 500 in 1961 and retained his title in the same year. Further Indianapolis wins followed in 1964, 1967 and 1977, making him the first four-time winner of the race. In total he won 67 Championship car races and seven national titles. He started at Indianapolis 35 years in a row, the last time in 1992, finishing ninth.

Foyt also won in other categories. In 1967 he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Dan Gurney in a Ford GT40 Mk IV, the same year he won the Indianapolis 500. He won the Daytona 500 in 1972. After his driving career he owned A. J. Foyt Enterprises, which fielded teams in CART, the IndyCar Series and NASCAR. In 1999 Kenny Bräck won the Indianapolis 500 in one of its cars.

Source: Wikipedia, “A. J. Foyt”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.