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At first mention, the 1999 Indy car season might not necessarily ring a bell.
For those of us who experienced it in the media or followed it as fans, however, it probably should.
Veteran motorsports writer John Oreovicz's new book, Class of ’99: Triumph and Tragedy in the 1999 CART Indy Car Series is the latest motorsports offering from publishers Octane Press. The book promises to be more than simply a look back at a glorious time in IndyCar racing history.
As noted motorsports scribe and author of multiple racing books, including Indy Split, Time Flies—The History of PacWest Racing, and The Winning Adventure: Honda's Decade in CART Racing, Oreovicz points out, "It's really the most compelling single season of Indy car racing in history."
Class of '99: Triumph and Tragedy in the 1999 CART IndyCar Series
Oreovicz makes a strong case for just that in his comprehensive 368-page book that comes out on October 7.
"It really did have this changing of the guard where these new guys established themselves," Oreovicz says. "Alex Zanardi went back to Formula 1, and there was a thought that Jimmy Vassar and Michael Andretti and Al Unser Jr. would just kind of takeover as the established veterans in former champions, but it didn't happen. Then you had these guys who came into the series in the late '90s—Greg Moore in '96. Dario Franchitti in '97, Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan in '98, Juan Pablo Montoya in '99—and they took over.
"It was the way they did it, in the sense that Moore was kind of the ringleader that got these young guys together. Castroneves wasn't really part of the group at the beginning—he kind of kept to himself. But Moore was kind of the ringleader that created this group of friends."
Racers sharing time in the paddock as friends wasn't always the norm back in the day.
"Racing drivers, if you ask A.J. (Foyt) and Mario (Andretti) and Bobby Unser and those guys—the greatest generation of Indy car drivers—they weren't really friends. A lot of that had to go with the circumstances. Guys got killed left and right in the '60s and '70s, and the drivers had to become kind of anesthetized to it. By the late '90s, it was a lot safer.
"You don't like to say it, but one of the compelling aspects of '99 was that it did have aspect of tragedy to it. Gonzalo Rodriguez got killed at Laguna Seca, and of course Greg Moore died in the season finale."
Moore's death all but eliminated the end-of-season celebration at the 2-mile oval in California for that year.
"In the championship, Franchitti and Montoya tied on points," Orevicz says. "This terrible race ends at Fontana, their best friend gets killed, and neither of them could think about celebrating a championship. It had all the emotions."
The book's author interviewed all the consequential drivers for the book and even pulls some notes from earlier interviews with Moore.
"That was one of the great things about it, how candid and honest they were in remembering it," Oreovicz says. "Montoya, he says, 'Jesus, I didn't like Helio at all. He really disrespected me when we were in England coming up. When I got to Indy car in 1999, I wanted to kick his ass.' "
That all changed for Montoya and Castroneves when they became teammates and friends at Team Penske years later in 2014.
The book at times also proved to be as enlightening to the drivers as it was for the author.
"I think in some ways the book did kind of remind them how important it was," Oreovicz says. "A lot of the focus was on Franchitti and Montoya because they were the championship contenders, but both Helio and Tony told me, 'Hey, you're absolutely right to write the book because it was a huge year.' "
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