Arie Luyendijk

Arie Luyendyk
Luyendyk at Indianapolis, May 2010
Nationality	Netherlands
Born	(1953-09-21) 21 September 1953 (age 63) Sommelsdijk, Netherlands

Arie Luyendyk (anglicised form of Arie Luijendijk; born 21 September 1953) is a Dutch former auto racing driver, and winner of the 1990 and 1997 Indianapolis 500 races. In 2014, he was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. He is also known as "The Flying Dutchman".

Luyendyk won a total of seven Indy car races, including three in the CART series, all of them on ovals.

Luyendyk started racing in the early 1970s, winning a number of Dutch national titles. In 1977, he won the European Super Vee championship, and switched to Formula Three. Success continued to elude him until he moved to the United States in 1984, where he immediately won the Super Vee championship.

With the help of sponsor Provimi Veal, Luyendyk ran his first full Champ Car season in 1985, winning the rookie of the year title both for the season and the Indianapolis 500. Gaining additional sponsorship from Domino's Pizza (and changing his racing number to 30, as at the time Domino's guaranteed customers that delivery orders would arrive in 30 minutes or less), his first win in the series came five years later in 1990, at the most important race of the series, with a record average speed of 185.981 mph (299.307 km/h). Luyendyk won the 1990 Indianapolis 500 for Doug Shierson Racing. His average speed record which stood for 23 years, was finally broken in the 2013 97th Indianapolis 500 by Tony Kanaan with an average speed of 187.433 mph (301.644 km/h).

Luyendyk continued to perform well at Indianapolis, scoring pole positions in 1993, 1997 and 1999, and retiring from the race while leading on three occasions. In 1995, Luyendyk controlled the race early until an incident with Scott Sharp put him several laps down. For the rest of the race, Luyendyk was able to make up all his laps and barely beat winner Jacques Villeneuve at the stripe to get his final lap back and finish on the lead lap.