It was decision time: “Either stay and succumb to communism, hardline communism, or leave. Andretti says his family stayed put for a few years, hoping things would work out, but it gradually became clear that a change was needed. Combine that with cobblestone streets and hilly terrain, and it was inevitable that the brothers would navigate more than a few wild rides around their neighborhood.īut the tenor of the village began to change after World War II ended and Montona fell under Communist rule. Andretti recalls terrorizing the “old ladies” in the village with a homemade cart that resembled a wagon with no wheels-no wheels and, of course, no brakes. Meanwhile, Mario and Aldo couldn’t help getting into some trouble here and there, as little boys do. But there was no refrigeration, so his mother, Rina Andretti, had to help his grandmother fetch goods from the butcher several times a day-it was a two-kilometer trek, up and down a hill. His grandparents owned a small hotel with a restaurant, where his grandmother dazzled patrons with her exceptional cooking skills. (Editor's Note: Sadly, at the time of press, Aldo Andretti passed away at the age of 80.) Andretti says his father, Alvise Andretti, owned and operated several farms. You might say that Andretti got his first taste of the need for speed in Montona, Italy, the small hillside village where Andretti and his twin brother, Aldo, were born in 1940. By the time he was doing his best taxi driver impression in the Holland Tunnel, he already knew he wanted to make a career out of going fast. And it certainly wouldn’t be the last time the future racing legend would pull a gutsy maneuver behind the steering wheel. It wouldn’t be the last time Andretti feared the wrath of his father. The car was promptly pulled over by a police officer as soon as the then 16-year-old Andretti and his family emerged from the tunnel. All was well until he tried to pull off that passing stunt. “My objective was, as soon as I got my driver’s license, I wanted to show my parents I could drive in New York, so we went to New York,” he recalls. But tell that to a young Mario Andretti with something to prove to his parents. There’s no passing in the Holland Tunnel.
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