Mario Andretti was 15 years old when his family packed their bags and moved from Italy to Nazareth, Pennsylvania. A young Andretti and his twin brother Aldo had witnessed the glory of the Mille Miglia from the Abetone pass and had basked in the spectacle of Formula 1 at Monza. The brothers knew they wanted to race. But according to Mario Andretti himself, it was their big move to the United States that even made that dream a reality.

The Andretti twins were born in Montona, Istria in 1940. Back then, the Istrian land was part of Italy, but after World War II, Yugoslavian communist forces seized the region; before long, it was dangerous to do anything as simple as speak Italian, and hundreds of thousands of people were forced into exile.