IndyCar heroes

With the new US open-wheel season underway, time to celebrate some outstanding characters and big winners.

1 DARIO FRANCHITTI

West Lothian-born Franchitti worked up through single seaters and touring cars to CART/IndyCar (the same thing, for our purposes) in 1997. He won the series four times between 2007 and 2011, and won the Indy 500 three times, interrupted by an extremely unwise half-season in Nascar in 2008.

2 DANICA PATRICK

After early US karting success, Patrick moved to the UK to race single-seaters in Europe and then the US. In 2005 she became the širst woman to lead the Indy 500 and in 2008 the širst woman to win an IndyCar race. Since 2010 she’s mixed Indy and Nascar; expect her to retire after this year’s Indy 500.

3 MICHAEL ANDRETTI

The son of Mario Andretti (IndyCar and F1 champ) and father of Marco Andretti (two IndyCar wins so far) won the CART title in 1991 and now runs a Formula E team and the IndyCar team Alonso raced with last year. Busy!

4 EMERSON FITTIPALDI

After two F1 title wins, Fittipaldi moved to CART and won the Indy 500 twice. The second win was notable for his advanced aged, 47, but the širst caused more of a stir: he bucked decades of Indy tradition by drinking orange juice (he grew oranges in Brazil) rather than milk to celebrate.

5 SCOTT DIXON

New Zealander Dixon is the winningest non-US driver in IndyCar. But it’s not been easy. In 2005 Dixon and his Ganassi team-mates smashed up 28 cars in a single season. He’s been immortalised on a New Zealand postage stamp (as were Denny Hulme and Bruce McLaren).

6 GRAHAM HILL

There was a brief ’60s vogue among British F1 drivers for having a bash at the Brickyard. Jim Clark won in 1965 and Graham Hill competed in the Indy 500 three times, winning on his širst attempt in 1966. (Jackie Stewart’s prospects of a win in that race were scuppered by mechanical failure.)

7 NIGEL MANSELL

The 1992 F1 champ won the CART series in 1993 – the širst person to win in his širst season, driving for the team co-owned by movie/salad dressing/car racing legend Paul Newman. Mansell’s second season in the US was less successful, and he managed to fall out with most of America.

8 JUAN PABLO MONTOYA

Six years after Nigel Mansell became the širst driver to become CART champion in his rookie year, Montoya did the same thing. He was headed in the opposite direction – towards F1, unlike Mansell – and was the youngest ever series winner, at just 24.

Montoya has made a speciality of winning things širst time out – as well as the IndyCar title, he also won the Indy 500 at his širst attempt, and the 24 Hours of Daytona.

9 KENNY BRÄCK

The 1998 IndyCar champ and 1999 Indy 500 winner survived one of the toughest crashes ever measured in motorsport: a deceleration of 214g at Ford Worth in 2003. In his comeback 18 months later he set the fastest qualifying time at the Indy 500. Now retired but does the odd classic rally.

10 FERNANDO ALONSO

Seems determined to add an Indy 500 win and Le Mans 24 Hour victory to his 2006 07 Monaco GP wins for the prized Triple Crown. Crazy dream? Not at all. When he raced in the 2017 Indy 500, he DNF’d (his engine conked out) but had led for 27 laps. And he has the backing of McLaren boss Zak Brown.