Texaco/Havoline
Racing History – The Early Days
 The auto industry was in its infancy when a Texaco ad featured a racing car on a dirt track, piloted by Louis Disbrow, a record-setting driver who attested to the superior performance of the company’s motor oil and gasoline. That 1913 ad was followed four years later by the real thing: a cross-country test of Texaco products by a two-man team that drove a Maxwell touring car from Newark, N.J., to Los Angeles, Calif., in 10 days and 16 hours.
Fast forward to 1930, when Texaco employee Stu Hawley broke cross-country records by driving a Buick, fueled and lubricated by Texaco, from New York to Los Angeles and back in just under six days. That same year, James Hargis and Charles Creighton covered the same distance in 42 days. What took them so long? They drove the entire route backwards -- hence their nickname, "The Backward Boys."
When Texaco began sponsoring auto racing in 1972, it knew the value of product testing under the most demanding circumstances. The company had applied the same philosophy of rigorous product testing to Havoline Motor Oil, since acquiring the rights to the lubricant line in 1931. Now, with its sponsorship of auto racing, Texaco and Havoline were put under the spotlight of a sport that provided high drama and enormous popularity.
Texaco scored big with its first sponsorship of Emerson Fittipaldi, who became world champion on the Formula One circuit in 1972 despite a series of mishaps that included an accident involving the truck carrying his car from one race to another. On that occasion, the resourceful Fittipaldi drove the race in a training car. His perseverance and talent paid off as he repeated his world championship performance in 1974. That winning tradition continued in 1976 when Britain’s James Hunt drove a Texaco-backed McLaren-Ford to the Formula One world title.
Texaco made history when it sponsored Janet Guthrie’s Indy Car. When she lined up among the drivers at the 1978 Indianapolis 500, the announcer cried for the first time, "Lady and gentlemen, start your engines." Guthrie became the Indy 500’s first lady starter and finisher, earning ninth place though she drove the race with a fractured wrist. The "Texaco Star Wildcat" racing car in which she drove in 1978 was later donated to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame.
Others on the honor roll of Havoline-sponsored drivers include Tom Sneva, Don "the Snake" Prudhomme, the legendary Mario Andretti and his sons Michael and Jeff, Davey Allison, Dominic Dobson, Ernie Irvan, Nigel Mansell, Paul Tracy, Dale Jarrett, Christian Fittipaldi, Kenny Irwin, Ricky Rudd, Cristiano da Matta, Jamie McMurray, Casey Mears now Juan Pablo Montoya.
The Havoline Racing legacy continues today, represented on the NASCAR circuit by Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. With each race, they will preserve — and build on — a winning tradition.
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