Title: Al Speyer: Firestone’s IndyCar Champion Passes Away
Influential Firestone Racing Leader Al Speyer Dies at 75
INDIANAPOLIS - Al Speyer, a key figure in firestone’s successful return to INDYCAR SERIES racing and the Indianapolis 500 in the 1990s, and a longtime Bridgestone Americas executive, has died at the age of 75. Speyer’s leadership revitalized the Firestone brand through motorsports and secured its position as the exclusive tire supplier for the INDYCAR SERIES for nearly two decades.
Speyer’s impact extended beyond the racetrack. He oversaw a period of meaningful growth for Firestone, doubling its consumer market share between 1994 and 1999 and boosting North American brand sales by approximately 20 percent annually during that time. His dedication to INDYCAR culminated in Firestone’s victory at the 1996 Indianapolis 500 – their first in 25 years – and a continued partnership that included the historic 100th Running of the “500” in 2016.
A graduate of Syracuse University with a degree in mechanical engineering, Speyer joined Bridgestone Americas and held various technical and management roles before becoming executive director of Firestone Racing in 2001.He brokered an extension of the INDYCAR tire supply deal through 2018.
“When I talk about the return being successful in the ’90s, not only we were successful on the racetrack, but we doubled Firestone’s business consumer market from 1994 to 1999,” Speyer told INDYCAR.com upon his retirement in 2013. “We were growing Firestone brand sales in North American about 20 percent a year, and that’s a lot when you pick up 1 or 2 percentage points a year. The INDYCAR program was the spark that lit the fire. I look at those days from a motorsports position and what I was overseeing as nirvana as far as what we were doing on the racetrack and what we were doing for the brand.”
Throughout his career, Speyer worked across a diverse range of motorsport disciplines, including stock cars, sports cars, drag racing, Formula One, SCCA, Trans Am, IMSA and the Firehawk Endurance Series.
Bridgestone Americas released a statement saying, “We are deeply saddened by the passing of Al Speyer, a beloved member of the Bridgestone and Firestone family for nearly four decades… Al guided Firestone Racing with passion, leadership and played a key role in paving the way for Firestone’s return to INDYCAR and the Indianapolis 500 in 1995.”
Speyer is survived by his wife, Jane, and son, Erik. The family will announce details of a Celebration of Life gathering at a later date.