The list of drivers who one-time mechanic George Bignotti helped get into the Indianapolis 500 winner's circle reads like a "Who's Who" of international racing.

A.J. Foyt, Graham Hill, Al Unser, Gordon Johncock and Tom Sneva are among the celebrated names. Foyt and Unser won the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing" twice for Bignotti, who today, at a spry 90 years old, splits time living in Las Vegas and Indianapolis.

For the 52nd year -- dating to 1954 when he first served as a mechanic -- Bignotti will be working the Indianapolis 500 when the 90th running takes place today. His role may have changed over the years, but the event, with its pre-race pageantry that includes Jim Nabors singing "Back Home Again in Indiana," still touches him.

"I get a thrill out of it every year," said Bignotti, now a luxury suite host. "It does something to my stomach no matter how many years I've been here."

Bignotti was a mechanic at the Indy 500 for 31 years, as well as a team owner in 1984 when he was runner-up with driver Roberto Guerrero.

The next year, Bignotti sold the team and joined the public relations department of Mobil Oil to help market its new synthetic oil.

Bignotti said when Guerrero finished second to Rick Mears, he had the only car using synthetic oil. It has since become a racing standard.

Once the speedway added suites about "15 or 20 years ago," Bignotti said, Mobil bought one and he became its host. Today, that is where he is scheduled to work.

Bignotti enjoys sharing memories of Indy, expressing that there's nothing like working in a race team's garage on Gasoline Alley in May.

"I miss it," Bignotti said by telephone last week. "You miss working with drivers and getting the cars ready for the race. But everything has to stop sometime. I'm just glad I'm above the earth."

Bignotti's charm and wit are surpassed only by his memory.

No Indy car mechanic has been more successful over such a long span as Bignotti, who was born in 1918 in San Francisco and began living in Las Vegas 16 years ago.

Bignotti was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1993. As a chief mechanic, he has not only won the Indianapolis 500 seven times, but he tuned 11 drivers to 87 Indy car victories.

That includes his first in 1958 at Phoenix with driver Jud Larson, and his last in 1983 with Sneva in Milwaukee.

His two most productive drivers were Foyt and Unser. Bignotti produced a 10-victory season with each, but gives the driver's edge to Foyt, who provided him with 27 victories to Unser's 25.

"I've got to give the edge to A.J.," Bignotti said, "only because he won more times for me."

Foyt said he joined Bignotti because he knew Bignotti had good equipment and was a good mechanic.

They worked together from 1960 to 1965.

"Then his head got too big," Bignotti said of Foyt. "He wouldn't always listen when he was told to pit. But he was a good all-around driver.

"We never got hostile with each other or anything like that. "

Foyt won Indy two more times and finished with 67 victories in Indy cars.

But today's Indy 500 has changed immensely since Foyt's heyday -- and certainly Bignotti's.

A mechanic's creativity and workmanship will be limited today when each of the race's 33 starters use essentially the same type of Honda engine and must abide by rules that greatly restrict adjustments.

When Bignotti was winning at Indy, a mechanic's intelligence was as integral to a car's success as the driver's verve.

"I always prepared cars to the best of my knowledge," said Bignotti, a longtime member of the Canyon Gate Country Club, where he often plays when residing in Las Vegas between October and May. Part of the lure of living here was a passion for golf that Bignotti discovered at age 58.

It's fitting that the highlight of his golf career -- a hole in one three years ago -- happened near Indianapolis, where he'll be remembered in the garages as one of the greatest to work in the country's most famous race.