Yahoo Autos What Does AJ Foyt Eat Before A Race?
New York strip, he says. And a baked potato and a hot fudge sundae. And then, Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr-whom nobody calls Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr-got behind the wheel of the the red-and-white Ford GT40 Mark IV, went 212 miles per hour down the Mulsanne Straight, and won Le Mans for the first time, and for Ford, and for America.
Hell yeah.
AJ Foyt-four-time winner of the Indy 500, winner of the Daytona 500, the 24 Hours of Daytona the 24 Hours of Le Mans, as well as 67 IndyCar races and seven IndyCar titles-sat down with Hot Rod Magazine for a look at the 81-year-old's career.
Next year will be a big year for Foyt, and fans of Foyt, to remember and reflect: in February it will be the 45th anniversary of his Daytona 500 win, in a Mercury; in May it will be 50 years since his second Indy 500 victory, and 40 years since his second IROC championship.
But, perhaps most importantly, it will be 50 years since he and Dan Gurney took the 24 Hours of Le Mans home to Dearborn. (That's him in the sunglasses above, with Dan Gurney on his left, after winning the 1967 Le Mans.) "You're a very Texas and American guy," asked Hot Rod's John Pearley Huffman. (Foyt, born in Houston, picked up the nickname "Super Tex." Another hell yeah.) "Were you comfortable racing in Europe?"
"It was OK," said Foyt. "I just didn't care to go to breakfast with a damn tie and all that on. And I wouldn't do it."
1967's Le Mans running was Foyt's first, last, and only time at the storied endurance race. And it was the only overall victory ever accomplished by a pair of Americans. ("He's a super guy. And Dan was a hell of a road racer.") Why hasn't anyone done that since? 50 years-it's been a long time. It's about time an American returned to Le Mans and made American endurance racing great again, and all that. Foyt would agree, we bet.
Images via Ford
