Relive Mario Andretti’s surpising victory in the Indy 500 in this original 1969 Ford color film.

When we review the stellar résumé of Mario Andretti—a Formula 1 world driver’s championship, four IndyCar titles, victory in the 1967 Daytona 500, and three wins at the 12 Hours of Sebring, among the countless feats—one of its more surprising aspects is that in 29 starts, he won the Indy 500 only once. Andretti’s string of misfortune at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was so awful, in fact, that fans invented a strange property to attempt to explain it: the “Andretti Curse.”

The series of weird breaks and mechanical failures was all the more surprising in that Andretti, as one of the world’s top drivers, could command rides with the very best teams in the sport: Penske, Patrick, Newman-Haas. For 1969 he was set to drive a trick four-wheel drive Lotus 64 for STP boss Andy Granatelli. But the Lotus suffered a suspension hub failure and crashed in practice, forcing the use of a backup car. It was the same Brawner Hawk Andretti had placed on the pole in 1967, but now with a turbocharger on the Ford V8, extensive ad hoc modifications, and a tendency to run hot, cooking both the engine and the driver. The trusty Hawk was arguably the sketchiest car Andretti ever drove at Indy, but on race day in 1969, it was the class of the field. Video below.