Autosport Plus

The changing face of helmet tech at the Indy 500

The development of helmet technology is intertwined with the Indianapolis 500 and the Andretti family - its a long history that covers much of the family's association with the famous American race

Performance

Our experts' guide on how you can become a better racing driver

When it comes to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Mario Andretti has seen and done it all. The 1969 Indy 500 winner's long career - only AJ Foyt has made more appearances - spanned one of the most dangerous eras in the history of motorsport, traversing front-wheel-drive roadsters, normally aspirated rear-wheel drive, and turbocharged ground-effect cars with ever-more complex aerodynamics that contributed to speeds rising at an almost unabated pace.

At Andretti's first appearance at the Indy 500 in 1965, the qualifying speed of Foyt's polesitting Lotus 34 was 161.2mph. By the time of his 29th and final outing in '94, having taken pole in '66, '67 and '87, the benchmark pace had risen to 228mph and was still climbing, with Arie Luyendyk setting a new course record at 237.0mph in '96.

Share Or Save This Story

Author James Newbold

James Newbold is Autosport's Plus Editor, responsible for coordinating website feature content.

In a sign of things to come, having completed his Politics and International Relations degree at the University of East Anglia in 2015, he left his graduation ceremony early to catch the last train to Brussels for the following day's Spa 24 Hours.

After a period as a freelancer, he joined the Autosport staff in 2018 and won the Motorsport UK young journalist of the year award. He initially edited Autosport magazine's Performance and Engineering supplements before joining the website team in his current role in 2020.

A keen enthusiast of anything that can be categorised unusual or niche, he enjoys unearthing little-known stories across all branches of motorsport, but has spent most of his career covering sportscars and is a regular part of the Le Mans 24 Hours reporting team.

He lives with his wife and children in Plymouth, England.