We’re exceptionally late to you with the news of George Bignotti’s passing but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t dedicate some space to one of the greatest American wrenchers who has ever walked the face of the Earth. Bignotti was an Indy 500 winning crew chief seven times and most of those times were during an era when the crew chief was responsible to every inch of the car and he had a single helper as his entire crew. Unlike today’s massive team efforts, back in the 1950s and 1960s, things were far more humble. They were also far more dependent on the grey matter that resided between the ears of said crew chief. There was no data acquisition, there was no telemetry, there was not so much as a digital damned watch when George Bignotti first started wrenching on Indy cars in 1958. His gift was the ability to listen to a driver and tune virtually every element of the car to get the guy what he wanted. If it was more horsepower, George could dial that up. If it was a tighter handling chassis, George could handle that as well. He was an amazingly gifted man who was able to apply his skill set to the perfect forum, the Indy 500 and sprint car racing (along with anything else he decided to dip he toes into). Oh, that’s another thing we should mention, Bignotti was as good at tuning a car on asphalt as he was on dirt. The number of people that could do it then was tiny and those that can do it now are pretty much vapor.
George Bignotti lived to be 97 years old, in itself that is an amazing run. When you factor in that most of his life was lived at tracks, with racers, in the heat of the action, and around hundreds if not thousands of chemicals, equipment, and just plain scenarios that could have killed him and did not, it is all that much more impressive. It is safe to say that George outlived virtually all of his contemporaries in the crew chief role when he was most active in it.
One of the other major things to consider when looking at the career of George Bignotti at Indy (and outside of Indy…it was not the only place he worked) is that he was one of the few guys to make the transition between the front engine cars at Indy and the modern rear engine style. There were many guys who had mastered those front engine cars and literally disappeared when the rear engine machines started to rule the roost. His intrinsic understanding of mechanical things led him to not only figure out the rear engine stuff, but master it. Think about what he saw, learned, and mastered in just tire technology alone. From the tall, narrow meats of the beloved front motor cars to the short fat slicks that were the order of the day by the time he hung it up, George was there and at the front of virtually all of the major mechanical changes at Indy that occurred during the transition to the so called “modern era”.
Another phase of Bignotti’s career that needs attention was his ability to morph himself into a leader of a group as opposed to the singular wrench on a team. Again, while other old timers struggled to transition to different chassis types or tire types, Bignotti ate it all up and in what had to have been the most significant change to his operation, he was able to stand back and orchestrate a talented team of wrench swingers at the end of his career in the 1980s. He had seen racing transition to the big time and he was one of the few guys that were able to able to actually adapt to the new environment.
There are no more George Bignotti’s. He was a singular talent and a light that burned amazingly bright for nearly three decades in the open wheel scene around the country. He lived to 97 and by all accounts was pretty active up until his last evening’s sleep. We should all be so lucky to have the experiences and knowledge that George had during his life. Godspeed to the true master of the Brickyard.
First, you didn’t mention the date he died. I hadn’t heard this news, so it would have been nice.
He was an incredible man.
While its true that there won’t be more like him, or like Carol Shelby, or Kieth Black, or Bill Jenkins, even, there willl be more like him. Only different.
The technology changes, people don’t. No one is really smarter than the next person. Sure, there are differences in I.Q. ratings and things like that, but it is the passion in the man that detirmines his drive and ability, not the times he lives in.
It may be because of how racing is done today, how media is presented, that similarly driven and successful people don’t show up like he did on our radar screen. Back then, Indy was THE motorsports event. I haven’t watched Indy since they effectively banned the turbine cars. Same with NHRA. There is no innovation, no room for guys like Bignotti today. It’s all a big show, a circus. Certainly it always has been to the promoters.
The next Bignotti may not ever have his number of championships or noteriety. Maybe he (or she) will prefer to work the small tracks, open wheel motorcycle powered mini sprints, or Jalopy Drags kind of racing. But they’ll be there.
That doesn’t diminish what George did one iota. Godspeed, George Bignotti.