A historic first, and last, for Andretti at Long Beach

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Mario Andretti won the 1977 US Grand Prix West at Long Beach on this day 47 years ago.

The thrilling event was marked by a titanic three-way battle between the Lotus driver, Wolf's Jody Scheckter and Ferrari's Niki Lauda.

It took the better part of 76 laps out of the race's 80 for Andretti to prevail with the elegant Lotus 78 and secure his third career win in the F1 world championship.

Mario's triumph at Long Beach remains to this day the only victory for an American driver on home soil in the history of Grand Prix racing.