Rick Mears

Richard Ravon Mears, born 3 December 1951, is an American former race car driver from Wichita, Kansas, raised in Bakersfield, California. He started in off-road racing, made his Champ Car debut at the 1976 California 500 and was taken on by Roger Penske in 1978, when he won his first race at Milwaukee and shared Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year honours with Larry Rice. He is one of four men to win the Indianapolis 500 four times, in 1979, 1984, 1988 and 1991, and holds the record for pole positions in the race with six. He was also a three-time Indycar and World Series champion, in 1979, 1981 and 1982. He came within 0.16 of a second of a win at the 1982 Indianapolis 500, a finish that stood for ten years as the closest in the race, and in 1980 he tested a Formula One Brabham twice but turned down a 1981 contract to stay in American oval racing.