{"id":75677,"date":"2024-08-14T17:00:12","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T17:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racer.com\/?p=363755"},"modified":"2024-08-14T17:00:12","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T17:00:12","slug":"a-j-foyts-first-match-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/a-j-foyts-first-match-race\/","title":{"rendered":"A.J. Foyt’s first match race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“There are a lot of stories about A.J. People tell me, ‘you should write a book,’” said longtime A.J. Foyt Racing PR specialist Anne Fornoro while <\/em>accepting the 2024 Robin Miller Award at IMS in May. “I say, ‘He pays me not <\/strong>to write a book.’”<\/em><\/p>\n

But A.J. didn’t pay Art Garner not to write a book, and the long wait for an official A.J. biography will end when the first volume of ‘A.J. Foyt: Survivor, Champion, Legend’ is officially released on October 1 though Octane Press. The book is available now for pre-order<\/span>, and here’s a taste of what’s inside:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

There was very little of the traditional New Year optimism at the opening of 1935, the year A.J. Foyt was born. America was deep in the grip of the Depression and Europe was under the growing grip of Nazism. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was starting his third year in office and the \u201cNew Deal\u201d was just beginning to be implemented. Lamar High School, one of several schools Foyt would pass through, was under construction thanks to federal dollars. Houston\u2019s population had surged to more than three hundred thousand and there were so many cars on its roads that city center streets were starting to be paved, although not in the outlying Heights area.<\/p>\n

From the very beginning his parents called him A.J.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had A.J. as long as I can remember,\u201d he says, but \u201cI have no idea why.\u201d A few people called him \u201cLittle Tony,\u201d for a short time, although \u201cjunior\u201d was never an option.<\/p>\n

Tony Foyt had begun to pull away from the extended family following the death of his father, and soon after he married he left the Foyt Brothers Garage. It wasn\u2019t long before the garage itself was gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cLouise finally said, \u2018I had enough of this shit,\u2019\u201d Marie Foyt remembers her aunt saying after the drinking reached new levels. Frances agreed and the garage was sold.<\/p>\n

Tony went to work maintaining the truck fleet for the Duncan Coffee Company \u2014 an offshoot of Maxwell House Coffee \u2014 and withdrew further from the family after the death of Barbara Jean. He continued to race at local tracks and acquired a small open-wheel, open-cockpit car known as a midget. He worked out of his own garage and repaired cars after hours to earn extra money. That\u2019s where A.J.\u2019s earliest memories were formed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can remember Daddy taking me there when I was a little bitty kid,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d do anything, just to be with him. I was so little that he sat me up on the workbench and told me, \u2018Just stay up there out of the way boy.\u2019 He should have put me in the race car in the first place, because it\u2019s where I always ended up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after A.J. turned three Tony gave him a bright red race car of his own. It was powered by a small Briggs & Stratton lawn mower engine like the one used for kid\u2019s go-karts and minibikes for generations to come. Together they laid out a short racecourse around their house.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent hour after hour running around the outside of the house in that race car,\u201d A.J. recalled. \u201cI was the best three-year-old racer in Houston. I learned that if I started it into a slide just at the swing set and drove it close to the corner of the house, I could go a lot faster down my straightaway at the side of the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another of the Foyt families, this one headed by Tony\u2019s uncle and the oldest son, Joseph C. Foyt Jr., lived closest to A.J.\u2019s house. Joe remained closer to Tony than anyone else in the family and he watched as A.J. ran lap after lap around the house in his go-kart.<\/p>\n

\"\" Five-year-old A.J. and Doc Cossey. Foyt Family Collection<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daddy always joked A.J. wasn\u2019t right upstairs,\u201d said Joseph R. Foyt Jr., the son of Joseph R. Foyt, one of the few Foyts Tony and A.J. remained friendly with. \u201cHe said A.J. would drive the go-kart around and around all day long. Tony did a lot of work on other people\u2019s cars out of his garage and A.J. would siphon gas out of those cars to keep his go-kart running. Sometimes he\u2019d get a mouthful of gas. My dad would say, \u2018I think it screwed up his brain cells.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the home course was mastered, A.J. ventured away from his house and out onto the street, where he attracted the attention of neighbors and, before long, the police.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt used to make a lot of noise,\u201d Tony admitted. \u201cSome of the neighbors would call the police. A.J. would see the police car comin\u2019 and come flyin\u2019 in the house and dive under the bed. We would pull him out, and the officer would make him promise not to speed anymore. But the urge would come back, and he would be out there again as fast as he could with that little engine poppin\u2019 away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life stabilized at the Foyt household, although it was tight quarters after Marlene was born on the day before A.J.\u2019s fourth birthday. Tony and Evelyn were committed to providing the family atmosphere they\u2019d never experienced.<\/p>\n

Money was tight for nearly everyone and neighborhood kids would pool their pennies to buy an ice cream cone they could share. Occasionally on weekends Evelyn packed a picnic lunch and the family drove to the town of Kemah on Galveston Bay.<\/p>\n

At times Foyt painted the Heights as a tough neighborhood. \u201cYou either learned to take care of yourself or you got the shit beat out of you,\u201d he said in his autobiography. At other times he described it as a very normal place to grow up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Heights was made up of small, mostly neat homes like ours, where middle-class people lived,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had a two-bedroom frame bungalow and plenty of food and clean clothes to wear that were mostly new. It was a good childhood. Very American.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robert \u201cBobby\u201d Waltrip was five years old when he moved to the Heights the same year A.J. was born. He grew up about a half mile away from the Foyts on Heights Boulevard and they later became close friends. He remembered the Heights as an \u201cupscale and highly respectable place to live. Heights Boulevard was a wide street, lined picturesquely with trees and broad spans of grass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christmas was the biggest day of the year in the Foyt household, and the family went all out on decorations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the day in the family,\u201d A.J. said, a tradition he\u2019d carry over to his own family. \u201cMy Momma and Daddy, that\u2019s what they lived for. They decorated everything. On Christmas Eve my Daddy would sing Bohemian carols.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" Three-year-old A.J. Foyt in his first race car. He already has his game face on. Foyt Family Collection<\/p>\n

For entertainment Tony and Evelyn played Texas 42 with Marie and Joseph, a dominos game once called the \u201cnational game of Texas.\u201d Evelyn also was part of a regular Friday night penny-ante poker game with the neighborhood ladies.<\/p>\n

By the time A.J. was five, Tony built his son a replica midget, painted blue and white and carrying No. 8, just like the car known as the \u201cSilver Bullet\u201d that was driven by A.J.\u2019s favorite driver, Doc Cossey. \u201cDaring Doc\u201d was the track champion at the Houston Speed Bowl where Tony often raced his yellow No. 20 midget. While most of the midgets used Ford or Offenhauser engines, the one in A.J.\u2019s car put out just three horsepower.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it would go fifty miles an hour,\u201d Tony said of his son\u2019s car, \u201cand he would go fifty in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Often when Tony was at a track, A.J. made exhibition runs in his car between races, helping to keep fans entertained. Billed as \u201cthe world\u2019s youngest race car driver,\u201d he became a fan favorite, used to hearing the cheers of the crowd.<\/p>\n

It was at this early age that Foyt picked up a chip on his shoulder, where it would remain for the rest of his life. Despite the exhibition runs\u2014or perhaps because of them\u2014he said he was constantly teased about his Daddy\u2019s cars, which were often ragged in appearance and seldom ran up front. Tony had neither the money nor time to build a first-class racer, nor the driving talent to carry a car.<\/p>\n

Many successful people, not just athletes, have a chip on their shoulder motivating them to greatness. Foyt made it clear in the first paragraph of his autobiography what drove him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I heard, \u2018Whatsamatter, kid, can\u2019t your Daddy build race cars?\u2019 once, I heard it a thousand times. If I had to pick one thing that made me a winner, that would be it.\u201d<\/p>\n

One night in 1940 at Buff Stadium, a quarter-mile dirt track in Houston where A.J. often made demonstration runs, he challenged Cossey to a race. Here\u2019s how he recalled the conversation in his autobiography.<\/p>\n

\"\" With his \u201cDaddy\u201d and others at Tony\u2019s garage. Foyt Family Collection<\/p>\n

I walked up to him in the pits and said, \u201cDoc, I can outrun that midget of yours.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSure kid,\u201d Doc said and went right back to the story he was telling a couple of other race drivers.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI mean it, Doc. I can beat you.\u201d I wasn\u2019t going to give up.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAre you serious, kid?\u201d he said, knowing damn well I was. \u201cJust hold on.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He finished his story and went over to Daddy. \u201cTony, is this kid serious? Do you want to let him race me?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Racers can\u2019t stand to be challenged, not even by a kid. <\/em>Daddy didn\u2019t know a thing about it, but I can remember him laughing like hell. \u201cWhat\u2019d he say?\u201d he asked Doc.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe said he could outrun me,\u201d Doc said.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWell, he probably can,\u201d Daddy said. That\u2019s all it took.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tony backed up his son. When the track manager got wind of the challenge, he realized the promotional value of a match race and hyped the event. The good-looking Cossey, with a thin Clark Gable mustache, was also a fan favorite. While most drivers competed in a grimy T-shirt and pants, Cossey adopted a style worn by drivers in Southern California\u2014flashy silk shirts and crisp white pants, a flair A.J. would later emulate.<\/p>\n

A photo of the pair before the race shows Cossey with an uneasy smile, not sure what to make of the situation. Foyt called it an \u201cI\u2019ll take it easy on you, kid,\u201d grin. A.J. has his game face on, a look of determination other racers would see for decades to come.<\/p>\n

\"\" The Foyt Brothers Garage. That\u2019s believed to be A.J.\u2019s grandfather, Thomas Foyt (far left) with his hands on his hips. Foyt Family Collection<\/p>\n

\u201cDoc was still grinning when the man dropped the flag,\u201d is how Foyt remembers it. \u201cGoodbye Doc. I got the jump on him and beat him into the first corner. I threw the midget sideways and I could hear the crowd cheering.\u201d<\/p>\n

His first race may also have been the start of the mythology and legend that is A.J. Foyt. Cossey said years later he didn\u2019t recall much about the race and if Foyt won, implied he must have let the kid finish first.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t remember if he beat me or not,\u201d he said. \u201cI can remember that I had a lot of trouble slowing down and letting him catch up to me. You couldn\u2019t run those (midgets) at slow speeds, and I had to keep slowing down and speeding up for him. It was just one of those exhibition races between races.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, Foyt felt differently. \u201cDoc and I knew damn well that he didn\u2019t let me win.\u201d Even more importantly, \u201cDaddy knew it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It can be debated whether Cossey, who\u2019d go on to win the Texas\/Oklahoma midget championship in 1941 and remain one of the region\u2019s top drivers well into the 1950s, let A.J. win. One thing is not debatable: it\u2019s when Foyt decided he wanted to be a race car driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf ever a kid knew that he had chosen the right profession for himself, I knew it at that moment. The feeling of that car sliding \u2014 the sort of bubble-in-your-stomach feeling \u2014 was one I\u2019ll never forget. That and knowing that I could stop the slide anytime I wanted \u2014 the power that I had to control the car \u2014 beat anything I had ever felt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony said nothing afterward, no words of encouragement or congratulation. It was an era of tough love, long before participation trophies were handed out like candy on Halloween. His daddy\u2019s reaction was A.J.\u2019s first indication that victory was expected, excellence assumed. At the same time, they were now a team, A.J. seldom leaving Tony\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

With success at the racetrack came problems at school. The potential was there but not the interest. He was going to be a race car driver and didn\u2019t see anything in class that would help him reach that goal.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d do anything to avoid going to school. On one trip to Helms Elementary he broke free from his mother and jumped in a mud puddle, forcing her to take him home. Tony wasn\u2019t having any of that, cleaning him up and putting a girl\u2019s dress on him and taking him back to school. That didn\u2019t always work either.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father said Tony would take A.J. to school and before Tony got home, A.J. would be in the front yard playing,\u201d says cousin Joe Foyt. \u201cHe said Tony would beat that boy, trying to keep him in class, but he just wouldn\u2019t stay in school.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“There are a lot of stories about A.J. People tell me, ‘you should write a book,’” said longtime A.J. Foyt Racing PR specialist Anne Fornoro while accepting the 2024 Robin Miller Award at IMS in May. “I say, ‘He pays me not to write a book.’” But A.J. didn’t pay Art Garner not to write …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75678,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","has-thumb","has-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}