Class of '99: Triumph and Tragedy in the 1999 CART Indy Car Series

For a huge number of Indy car racing fans, October 31, 1999, was the day the music died. On that blackest of Halloweens, the sport lost its brightest young star: Greg Moore. No one person was capable of saving Indy car racing from destroying itself, but if anyone stood a chance, it was Moore. He was just twenty-four years old when he died, and already he had captivated a legion of fans and conquered the world-class drivers he fought against on the track in the CART series.

Moore ultimately didn’t factor in the 1999 CART championship battle that ended in a points tie between Franchitti and brash twenty-three-year-old rookie Juan Pablo Montoya after a modern-era record twenty races. But that remarkable title clash—and its tragic conclusion—was just one of many storylines during what was arguably the most compelling single season of competition in the one-hundred-year history of American open-wheel championship racing.

Class of ’99 recounts the 1999 CART season in detail, combining contemporary reporting and new interviews conducted by author John Oreovicz with many of the key players to bring the year’s personalities and storylines to life with nuance, depth, and reflection.