Johnny Mantz
Johnny Mantz was an American racecar driver.
Champ car
Mantz made 17 starts in the AAA Championship Car series from 1948 to 1952, capturing a victory in his rookie season at the Milwaukee Mile as well as winning the non-championship Indianapolis Sweepstakes at Williams Grove Speedway.Mantz made two starts in the Indianapolis 500. They were 1948 and 1949. He started eighth in 1948 and finished a black-flagged 13th, completing 185 laps. In 1949, he started ninth and finished seventh, completing all 200 laps. In 1953, he drove relief for Walt Faulkner.
Carrera Panamericana
Mantz was a member of the Lincoln team in the first Carrera Panamericana in Mexico in 1950. He and Bill Stroppe were able to lead quite a bit of the multi-day race. With the finish line in sight and no more spare tires to run, Mantz was forced to run on rims and limped across the finish line ending up ninth.Stock car
Mantz was the first USAC Stock Car national champ in 1956.Mantz also made 12 NASCAR Grand National starts from 1950 to 1951 and 1955 to 1956. He won in his third NASCAR race, the first Southern 500 held at Darlington Raceway. This was the first 500-mile race in the history of NASCAR. The newly built Darlington Raceway was also the first "Super Speedway" for NASCAR, even though it was a little under a mile and a half in size. The Southern 500 was also the only paved event for NASCAR in 1950. Mantz and his Plymouth were the race's slowest qualifier, almost 10 MPH slower than the pole winner, Curtis Turner. But because he qualified on the ninth of 15 days of time trials, he started 43rd in the 75 car field. Mantz fitted truck tires that did not wear quickly or blow out, while his competitors had to stop often to pit for new tires. It was his only NASCAR win. He would win by nine laps over the second-place finisher, Fireball Roberts, with an average speed of 75.250MPH. The race took more than six hours to run. Other than the car number, Mantz had one lone sponsorship decal on his car which was placed by the Justice Brothers for the product they were distributing. As of 2010, the speedway presents the Johnny Mantz trophy to the winner of the Southern 500.
Mantz was also the first person to try to bring NASCAR sanctions to the West Coast of the United States. Mantz's last stock car race was in Pomona, California in 1958. He won this race.
Ford Spokesperson
Mantz was featured in several magazine advertisements for Ford cars in the early 1960s.Death
Mantz died at 54 years old in a fatal car accident near Ojai, California.Complete AAA Championship Car results
Indianapolis 500 results
| Starts | 2 |
| Poles | 0 |
| Front Row | 0 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Top 5 | 0 |
| Top 10 | 1 |
| Retired | 0 |