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Re: Revson, Foyt, Hill, Shelby...
Posted By: avincent52
I respected Mears and he was very good at the oval thing, but I think that most of it had to do with how good the Penske team was then. And Donahue helped build that. Donahue left a solid foundation.
BTW, Donahue went to Brown. ??? Brown? UPS?
: I put Donahue in the category with Andretti
: and Gurney as the greatest American road
: racers ever. And I would put A.J. Foyt in
: that league as well [Phil Hill and Carrol
: Shelby probably as well].
I have to disagree with you. Andretti was the World Champion. Yes he was.
Gurney was a contender, built his own car and won races with it, and Jim Clark said he was the only driver he feared or some such. Carroll Shelby built cars too [with Gurney even] after his racing career was shortened by heart problems, and I believe he won LeMans too with Aston Martin in 1959.
Phil deserves much respect for winning the championship and I'd elevate him for that. Yup...
But Foyt? Sure, he won LeMans. But partnered with Gurney. I don't think that Foyt was world champion material or even close. Then again, I always hated his guts. Probably too heavy for the F1 cars...
But trivia facts: Mario won Indy 500, Daytona 500, F1 World Championship.
Foyt won Indy 500, Daytona 500, and LeMans. They are the only people who can claim that.
I was never a big fan of Foyt either, but I do respect his accomplishments.
I never got the impression that Shelby was a really great driver, at least on the level with those two. He set something like 16 US and World Speed records in addition to LeMans. People don't win LeMans by being "marginal" or "adequate" drivers.
I'd put the pantheon of American road racers (in that order, with the emphasis on F1) as such: Andretti. Gurney. HIll. Revson. Donahue............... Eddie Cheever. Yup.
Revson was an underrated driver. He was as fast as Hulme andJ Jody Scheckter, his teammate and a former world champion. And he won races over the likes of Stewart and Fittipaldi. Very sad. The darn Shadow at Kylamai Agreed.
The last race of the first IROC was run at Daytona--Donahue set up a perfect last turn slipstream pass for the win. The earlier rounds may have been at Riverside. The only year they ran Porsches. I remember watching that.
It is pretty amazing to me that we haven't had an American win an F1 race in 30 years, since 1978. Yeah, I know.
At that moment, no American had even competed in the tour de france (jock boyer did so a couple years later IIRC) I'm sure American's competed, just never contended...
and we've had two American champions and nine wins since. 10 Wins: Greg LeMond 3, Lance Armstrong 7.
Americans have enjoyed sporadic success in European soccer. Surprisingly enough.
But in F1 it's been Eddie Cheever and Scott Speed.
(I guess Jacques Villeneuve is a North American.) =)
best
Allen | 
