AJ Foyt

AJ Foyt

Nation:	United States
Automobile world championship
First start:	Indianapolis 500 1958
Last start:	Indianapolis 500 1960
Constructors
1958–1959 Kuzma · 1960 Kurtis Kraft
statistics
World Cup balance:	no World Cup placement
Starts Victories Poles SR 3 - - -
World Cup points :	-
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

Anthony Joseph "AJ" Foyt (born January 16, 1935 in Houston , Texas ) is a former American racing driver .

Career

Foyt is considered a US motorsport legend as he won many important and highly regarded races. He triumphed four times at the Indianapolis 500 in 35 participations . In 1972 he won the Daytona 500 , which is part of the NASCAR series, in which he took a total of seven race wins. Foyt was also successful in sports car races . In 1967 he won the Le Mans 24-hour race . This was followed by victories in the 24-hour race at Daytona ( 1983 , 1985 ) and the 12-hour race at Sebring in 1985 , both in a Porsche 962 .

Foyt's winning car at the Indy 500 in 1977, a self-made car called the Coyote-Foyt

His main field of activity, however, was the Indycar or Champ Car single seaters. From 1957 to 1993 he took part in 369 races, achieved 53 best times in practice and won 67 races. He won the USAC championship in 1960 , 1961 , 1963 , 1964 , 1967 , 1975 and 1979 . After the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) split off, however, Foyt could no longer win any races there.

On January 17, 1965, Foyt had a serious accident at the Motor Trend 500 when he drove his car off the track due to a brake defect in order to prevent a collision with other vehicles. The car rolled over several times at more than 100 mph (around 160 km / h). The racing doctor initially declared the unconscious and hypoxic Foyt dead, but Parnelli Jones managed to resuscitate him. Foyt suffered a spinal fracture and a broken sternum, among other things, about three months passed before he could race again.

He won the International Race of Champions twice on identical near-production Chevrolet Camaro . With an Oldsmobile Aerotech he achieved several world records, including a. the highest average speed on a closed circuit, 413.788 km / h on August 27, 1987 on the 12.411 km test track near Fort Stockton , Texas.

Personal

His grandson AJ Foyt IV is also a racing driver and drove a. a. also in the IndyCar Series ( 2003 - 2010 ).

statistics

Results in the automobile world championship

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11
1958
				16 *
1959
		10
1960
			25 *

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1967	Shelby American Inc.	Ford GT40 Mk.IV	Dan Gurney	Overall victory

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1963	Nickey Chevrolet Co.	Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray	Jim Hurtubise		failure	Engine failure
1964	Mecom Racing Team	Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport	John Cannon		Rank 22
1966	Holman & Moody	Ford GT40 MK.II	Ronnie Bucknum		Rank 12
1967	Ford Motor Company	Ford GT40 Mk.IIB	Lloyd Ruby		Rank 2
1984	Henn's Swap Shop Racing	Porsche 935 L.	Bob Wollek	Derek Bell	Rank 3
1985	Preston Henn	Porsche 962	Bob Wollek		Overall victory
1986	Henn's Swap Shop Racing	Porsche 962	Drake Olson		failure	Gearbox damage
1987	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Porsche 962	Hurley Haywood	Danny Sullivan	failure	accident
1988	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Porsche 962	Hurley Haywood		Rank 4

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd
Frank Nichels	Pontiac Tempest	DAY	SEB	SEB	MAY	TAR	BER	ONLY	LEM	TAV	CCA	RTT	ONLY	BRI	BRI	PAR
		DNF
1963	Nickey Chevrolet Co.	Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
					DNF
1964	Don Fong Mecom Racing Team	Ferrari 250 GTO Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
			DNF	22nd
1966	Holman & Moody	Ford GT40	DAY	SEB	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	MUG	CCE	HOK	SIM	ONLY	ZEL
				12
1967	Carroll Shelby International Ford	Ford GT40	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
			DNF	2					1

Web links

Commons : AJ Foyt  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• biography
• Team website
• AJ Foyt: King of the Indy 500
• International Motorsports Hall of Fame page
• AJ Foyt's IROC and NASCAR driving career at racing-reference.info

Individual evidence

1. ↑ TDIH: January 17, 1965. nascaryesteryear.wordpress.com, January 7, 2013, accessed on April 24, 2013 (English).