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Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

Resilience, victory emerge from tragedy for Andretti

By GARY SHELTON
Published April 4, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - There is something to the kid. Something fast, something familiar.

Heck, Will Riehl could have told you that. Hang on, world, he would have said. Marco Andretti is about to take you for a ride.

There is something to the kid. Something swift, something strong.

Do not pay attention to the youth in Marco's eyes, Will would have warned you. Look for the fire instead. Watch the way he guides his machine through the traffic. Watch the way he stalks the leader. Watch for the stare that comes with the family crest.

Yep, there is something to the kid, all right. Something relentless, something resilient.

Something worthy of his name.

Marco Andretti, son of a son of a speedster, won his initial start in the Infiniti Pro Series Sunday afternoon, and you could almost hear his competitors moan. Great. Here comes another one . Grandson of Mario, son of Michael, Marco managed to remind the world of both while introducing himself. Yeah, he is old enough for this. Yeah, he is tough enough.

If only he had lived long enough, Will Riehl could have told you that, too.

Riehl was 18, the same age as Marco, when he died Saturday morning. He lost control of his car while passing, police say, and it crossed the median where it was hit by three cars. Riehl and a passenger were killed.

Riehl planned to be here for this, of course. He was going to be the guy grinning in Victory Lane, the guy who shared the dreams of this day and a hundred more even better. He was Marco's buddy. He wasn't going to miss this.

Do you want to know about focus? Try strapping yourself into a cockpit less than 24 hours after learning your best friend died at the wheel. Try pushing the pain to somewhere else so you can whip around corners at almost 100 mph. Try postponing your grief until the job at hand is completed.

On the first day of Andretti's pro career, he is reminded of just how close tears are to triumph in this sport. One second he is smiling over his win, the next his face is drawn because of his loss.

"Will was my best friend," Marco says quietly. "He was a guy you could really trust, a guy you could count on. He was more mature, more of a grown-up, than anyone I knew. He had so many things going for him. It's hard...."

Andretti's voice gives way, and he averts his eyes as if to hide his pain. Even for a high school senior, his face is impossibly young; in sadness, it looks almost delicate. Being old enough to drive a race car is one thing; being old enough to deal with a loss this deep is harder.

Marco and Will had known each other all of their lives, and they had plans to know each other for the rest of them. Will was going to accompany Marco this summer on his racing circuit before starting at FSU in the fall. Eventually, Michael said, he could see Will working as Marco's personal manager.

Oh, Marco will tell you that Will's spirit was with him. On his final few laps, he said, visions of Will's face kept entering his mind. "This is for him," Marco said. "Losing him made me push harder."

Late Saturday night, Mario met with his grandson to talk about loss. Mario told him there was nothing that could be said, nothing that could be done, to change things. All he can do is win the race for his friend.

"That's the only way you can pay homage," Mario said. "You have to go on and hope your buddy up there is smiling on you and helping you out."

Dee Ann Andretti, Marco's grandmother, put it this way: "His best friend was riding with him. It's been hard. The boy grew up with us."

Even before Sunday, the racing world has seen Marco coming. He is the anointed one, the one who seems to have a half-dozen Indy 500 victories in his future. Marco Andretti's DNA runs deep, observers have said for a while. Also, fast. Answer to a famous name, and everyone starts to crank up the pressure and the expectations and the advantages early.

This, however, was the display of a different quality. No matter the sport, then, resiliency is one of the marks of greatness. At 18, Marco has shown it already.

"He showed me something today I hadn't seen before," Michael said of his son. "He blew me away. I mean, he's shown it all his life, but you never know how someone is going to handle the pressure, particularly given the circumstances.

"He didn't just show me. He showed the world. He's going to win a lot of races."

There was a point in the race, Michael points out, when Marco was running second. He had the early lead, but he overshot a turn, and he spent much of the race chasing Wade Cunningham. Then came Lap 31, and Marco flashed past him into the lead.

"He had a couple of other opportunities that were 50-50," Michael said, "but he stayed patient until he got his chance. I guarantee you at 18, I would have taken that 50-50 shot, and who knows what will happen?

Said Mario: "The kid knows how to win. He really does."

There are times, Mario says, when he watches Marco race and sees flashes of Michael. Then there are times he is reminded of himself. Soon, in a year or two, Marco will move up to the big cars. Who knows how many trophies he can win? Who knows what else he has to show?

"It's the beginning of another Andretti era," says driver Tony Kanaan.

Andretti is still 18. There are a lot of miles to go. He is still in high school. Life has other hard lessons for him. Yet, on a perfect day, you could swear you could see the future. Yep, this kid looks like the real deal.

Other drivers see the same thing. Ask Dan Wheldon. Hours before he won the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, he sneaked up behind Andretti and threw his arms around him.

"He's going to be more famous than anyone you know," Wheldon said loudly.

More famous than you?

Wheldon grinned. "Waaaaay more famous than me."

There is something to the kid, all right. Something in his heart, something in his Will.

[Last modified April 4, 2005, 01:31:34]