A.J. Foyt: Survivor, Champion, Legend (Vol. 1)
by Art Garner
As this is posting, the book is just now arriving in stores with its author and the man he wrote about appearing at book signings. At each the line of customers extends out the door, down the street and around the corner with people wanting to obtain their own copy as well as author Art Garner’s signature—but it’s really his book’s subject, Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr., they want to meet. When those folks finally sit down to read the first volume of A.J.’s life story, subtitled Survivor Champion Legend, they are in for a treat. Both his story and the manner in which it is told makes this over 600-page book a real attention-holding page turner—words not usually used to describe a non-fiction book. Foyt turns out to be, in Garner’s words, “a natural story teller” and Garner his equal at capturing the intensity of the moments in words printed on the pages.
The little guy in the foreground is none other than a nine-year-old A.J. already with that very determined look. And just wait until you read and discover the whole story behind this photo.
There are other similar descriptions of Foyt written by others but noteworthy for its succinctness is this published in 1972 attributed to AP’s motorsports editor Bloys Britt. “Hardnose, sometimes violent, often truculent, always intense, sometimes boisterous, many times gentle, impetuous, rough, forceful, vehement, self-made, never vengeful. He would laugh with you one minute, completely ignore you the next.”
A.J.’s story ”begins with the Foyt family in Eastern Europe and runs through 1977 when A.J. wins his fourth Indy 500. Volume Two will pick up in 1978, trace his career through retirements and follow his race teams in the years afterward.” Each of the 39 chapters of this first volume begins with a black and white photo on the left-hand page with the chapter’s text beginning on the facing page. Other images are on two 16-page inserts, all mainly black and white.
In the days prior to radio communications between crew and driver, happy though Foyt was at being the 500 winner in 1964, no way could he muster a smile when he learned two drivers he respected and admired had lost their lives.
Describing the book itself doesn’t begin to convey the excellence of the writing or editing and proofreading. Typos on the over 600 pages are less than the fingers on one hand. And there are extensive chapter end notes plus a thorough index.
A.J.’s life’s focus was racing, thus his story and the book, of necessity, relate race details. Intermixed are personal stories about the man and his family. As a mere lad he had worked for his dad’s repair business where he’d begun to develop that hands-on knowledge. Later, dad Tony would be his son’s race crew chief as they were so very attuned to one another.
Top left is a study in contrasts. Today’s race teams travel in expensive 18-wheelers, drivers fly in private jets. Back then the race car owner/driver trailered his car from track to track often on little sleep, staying in cheap motels or sleeping in the car. Below is A.J. with another driver, Sonny Morgan. Facing page, the pretty blonde is A.J.’s wife Lucy.
Family was everything to A.J. Of the lass he’d met while she was still in high school and wed before she’d graduated he said “She wasn’t wild about racing, and it was life to me. We fought like cats and dogs. We didn’t have a thing in common. So we did the only sensible thing. We got married.” Lucy (Zarr) Foyt was practical enough to know that while family was important to A.J., it took second seat to his racing as some years he was away from home for 300 of the 365 days. So she tended the home fires and raised their sons and daughter, attending races where and when she could. But she would always be at the Indy 500 for she and Mari Hulman George had formed an especially close friendship.
Foyt would also prove to be wise with his winnings quoted by one reporter who described Foyt’s investments as, “oil, real estate—including property on Lake Travis near Austin—and, in typical Texas style, livestock” before quoting A.J. as saying ”I want to have something left when I’m done racing.” Later too he would invest in thoroughbred race horses—winning ones at that—in part motivated by the eldest of his three children, son Tony (A.J. III) who had developed the same passion for working with race horses as his dad had for auto racing.
He dropped out of high school before graduating but that didn’t mean he wasn’t learned and savvy proving to be as adept a businessman as he was a race car builder, driver, and team owner.
Following being mesmerized page after page by the story of Foyt’s first 40+ years, 1935 to 1977, a reader arrives at the book’s last page already longing for more. There’s promise of that more in the final few sentences. “The second half of his career was about to begin. There’d be more peaks to climb, more incredible days at the track, including victories, championships, and record speeds. There would be valleys, including the loss of loved ones, terrible crashes, and serious injuries. And he’d also be dragged into a dark and bitter political battle that put the very future of the sport he loved so much at risk. Through it all, Foyt would take on all comers the only way he knew how: straight on.”
That second volume is hinted to debut May 2026. Doubtless Foyt’s legion of fans, many of whom are forming those long lines to attend his and author Art Garner’s book signings, and readers such as your reviewer who have so thoroughly enjoyed the first volume might hope that projected release date of the second volume might be advanced.
Copyright 2024 Helen V Hutchings (speedreaders.info)
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