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Andy Granatelli Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History (AC1403-0000032) He could not stay away from Indianapolis. He went back in 1952 with the Grancor-Wynn’s Oil, driven by Jim Rathmann, to take second place, and then in 1953 with the Grancor/Elgin Piston Pin driven by Fred Agabashian for a fourth-place finish. But it’s Granatelli’s return to the Indy 500 in 1963 with a supercharged engine called the “Novi” that set him apart from other race car designers.Īndy Granatelli, president of Studebaker Paxton Division, is shown at the controls of a Paxton dynamometer, running final tuning tests on the 775 HP supercharged Novi racing engine that powered both of the four-wheel-drive STP Specials in the Indianapolis 500, May 1965. They took their first car, the Grancor V8, a pre-war Harry Miller-designed chassis with a Ford V8 engine to the Indianapolis 500 in 1946, with Danny Kladis as the driver. Kladis only completed 46 laps and was disqualified when the car was towed after stalling the crew found that the fuel valve had been turned off. As a founder of the Hurricane Hot Rod Racing Association promoting hot rod and stock car races throughout the Midwest (especially at Soldiers Field in Chicago), the Granatelli boys got a taste for speed. Persistent, tenacious, with a “can do” attitude, Andy formed the Granatelli Corporation, known as Grancor Automotive Specialists, in 1945, pioneering the concept of mass merchandising performance products as well as power and speed equipment. Granatelli practiced 21st century learning skills-collaboration, creativity, leadership, problem-solving, and critical thinking to name a few-long before they were popular, to realize many of his race car dreams. It was here that they honed their garage tinkering skills to become master mechanics who worked on Ford V8 engines. Andy’s quest for Indy 500 fame began in Chicago, where, at the age of 20 in 1943, he and his brothers pooled money and purchased a Texaco gas station on the north side of the city and named it Andy’s Super Service. Granatelli was the second of three sons, between Joseph (1919–2003) and Vincent (b.
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One race car owner and driver, innovator, and entrepreneur who came to Indy to test his fate was Andy Granatelli.Īnthony Vincent Granatelli (1923–2013) was born in Dallas, Texas, to Italian immigrant, Vincenzo Granatelli (1894–1977?) and Carmela “Minnie” Cardinale (1902–1936). Sometimes this is met with great success, sometimes with failure. The speedway itself is a laboratory for automotive engineering progress where new technologies and advances in tires, engines, fuel, exhaust and brake systems, and aerodynamics , make their debut before large crowds. It’s a race filled with technological innovations, engineering creativity, mechanical prowess, entrepreneurial aspirations, danger, and sadly, tragedy. Since May 30, 1911, the race known as the “Indy 500” has been held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Indianapolis 500 is one of the most prestigious motorsports events in the world and the premier motorsport car race in the United States.
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Andy Granatelli, in They Call Me Mister 500, page 227)
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If there was ever a sure destiny, a sort of beautiful, inevitable fate at work, it was my love affair with the Novi.