Widely experienced chief mechanic and author Sal Incandela has passed away at his home in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, Nevada. He was 61.
During an extensive career in racing as a mechanic, engineer, crew chief and team principal, the Italian-born, French-educated Incandela worked for several championship-winning teams, including Toleman, which won the 1980 Formula Two title with Brian Henton; McLaren, where he assisted James Hunt’s successful bid for the F1 crown; and Brabham, where a second World Championship was achieved with Nelson Piquet in 1983.
That same year he published a well-received technical book The Anatomy and Development of the Formula One Racing Car from 1975, which featured Forewords by old friends Gordon Murray and Patrick Tambay and was subsequently translated into French.
In the mid-’80s he came to America to work on Indycars with first Dick Simon, then later with Vince Granatelli, Frank Arciero and Bernard Jourdain, before forming his own team, Indy Regency Racing, to contest the Firestone Indy Lights series in 1991. That team graduated to Indycars in ’93, fielding a competitive car for Arie Luyendyk the following year, but then returned to Indy Lights. With the advent of the Indy Racing League, Incandela ran cars for Johnny Unser, Cory Witherill and Hideki Noda with little success before joining the Toyota Atlantic Championship in 2002, but the team was subsequently disbanded.
Incandela is survived by his wife Lesley, son Daniel, and daughters Chantal and Stephanie. The family suggests that donations in Sal’s memory be made to the Championship Auto Racing Auxiliary (CARA) organization, www.caracharities.org.
