Tony Bettenhausen

Tony Bettenhausen, an American driver born in 1916, is credited with thirteen World Championship starts between 1950 and 1960. Like many American racers of the period, his appearances came at the Indianapolis 500, which counted toward the Formula 1 World Championship from 1950 to 1960.

Across eleven consecutive seasons he drove machinery from five American constructors — Kurtis Kraft, Deidt, Kuzma, Epperly and Watson — beginning with a point-scoring run in a Kurtis Kraft in the championship's inaugural 1950 season.

His best years by the championship's measure were 1955, when three points brought him thirteenth in the final standings — his highest classification — and 1958, when four points in an Epperly placed him seventeenth. He added three more points in 1959 and recorded a podium finish among his championship results.

In total Bettenhausen accumulated eleven points and one podium from his thirteen starts, making him one of the more consistently successful of the American oval-racing specialists whose Indianapolis results appear in the World Championship records of the 1950s.