Go to the RM Auction in Monterey this weekend, register as a bidder and you just might walk away as the new owner of this immortal racing car. This is the Sprint car in which A.J. Foyt won his first major championship, the 1960 USAC Eastern Sprint Car title, driving for A.J. Watson, who built this car in 1958.
This completely traditional early car, with a cross-sprint front suspension, torsion-bar rear and 220 Offy for power, is painted as it appeared in 1961, when Foyt wore the number 1 as a reigning USAC champion, and owned the car himself, with George Bignotti as crew chief. This was then Chevrolet power was invading Sprint cars, most notably with Parnelli Jones and Jim Hurtubise as drivers, but Foyt manned up and raced them hard with the now-supposedly outclassed Offenhauser. Foyt won Indy in 1961, but the Watson-built Sprint car made his rep as a rock-hard racer. The car was later driven by Bob Hogle, Buzz Rose and Gordon Woolley, all inductees into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame, like Foyt and Watson. Just unbelievable.