WHO’S NO. 1 . . . BIG AL OR LITTLE AL? : The Unsers, Father and Son, Will Decide That Question in Race at Miami Saturday.

What I’d like is to have it all come down to little Al and me in the last race. Wouldn’t that be something? --AL UNSER, Oct. 1, 1985

Three races remained and six drivers were in contention for the CART-PPG Indy car championship when the senior Unser made his statement.

Now, only one race remains, and only an Unser can win the championship.

Father leads son by three points, 139-136, going into Saturday’s Beatrice Challenge, a 200-mile road race through Tamiami Park. Nothing like it has ever happened in motor sports before--and perhaps never in any major sporting competition.

It’s as if Phil Niekro were pitching against his son in the seventh game of the World Series. Or Jack Nicklaus and Jack Jr. were in a playoff for the U. S. Open golf championship.

It’s a no-lose situation for the racing family from Albuquerque, N.M.

“I’m going to do my best to win, but to tell the truth, I don’t care who wins,” Al Jr. said. “As far as I’m concerned, we’ve won the championship. The name Al Unser will be on the trophy and we’re going to take a haul of money back to Albuquerque.”

The winner will receive $300,000, the runner-up $200,000 at the CART end-of-season banquet here Sunday night.

Already this year, the junior Unser has won $488,098, and his father has taken $476,607 home to New Mexico.

“I’m just so proud of little Al that winning another championship seems secondary to me,” said the father, who won driving titles in 1970 and 1983, as well as three Indianapolis 500s.

“Of all the highlights of my racing career, the way this year is finishing is the greatest. It’s because of little Al. You can’t believe what a thrill it has been to stand on the victory stand with him so many times. It’s a bigger highlight even than winning Indy.”

Father and son have shared the victory platform five times this season. When little Al won at the Meadowlands and Cleveland, his father was third both times. When big Al won at Phoenix, little Al was second. And they were second and third twice.

“It’s all unbelievable,” big Al said. “First, I never dreamed the boy would be this far along after only three years in these cars. And the way this season started out for both of us, I sure never thought something like this would be happening.”

When the 1985 season opened, Al Unser was only a part-time driver for Roger Penske’s team. He was hired to drive in three 500-mile races only, but when Rick Mears’ shattered foot failed to respond to treatment, Unser was asked to substitute in the Long Beach Grand Prix season opener.

He finished fifth at Long Beach and fourth at Indy, but Mears reclaimed his ride at Milwaukee. Unser sat it out, a circumstance that in retrospect could have cost him the championship. Only when Mears found it too difficult to drive on road circuits did the 46-year-old Unser change from part-time to full-time driver.

“I still feel like I’m just carrying on for Rick,” Unser said. “He’s still No. 1, and it’s his ride.”

Penske shares that thought. Even though his driver is on the verge of winning the national championship, Unser is not in Penske’s 1986 plans.

“I guess you could say I’ll be unemployed after Saturday,” big Al said, grinning.

If the senior Unser wins, it will be the second time Penske has dropped a national champion. He also tied the can to Tom Sneva in 1977.

“I just don’t know about next year but I’m not concerned about it right now,” big Al said. “All doors are still open, but if I don’t get the ride I think is right for me, I can sit back and watch Al Jr. run. But in no way do I want to retire. I still love racing too much to quit. I think I proved at Phoenix that I can still go fast.”

Unser set a record for a one-mile oval Oct. 13 with a qualifying lap of 161.885 m.p.h.

Little Al started 1985 almost as inauspiciously as his father.

Only 23, he had changed teams, leaving old friend Rick Galles to join a newly formed Lotus team. When that deal fell through, however, little Al got a call from Doug Shierson and wound up driving Shierson’s Lola as a replacement for John Paul Jr. after Paul’s indictment on drug trafficking charges.

Young Unser had won only one race in two seasons with Galles and had finished seventh and sixth, respectively, in CART points in 1983 and ’84.

Nothing that happened in this season’s first three races indicated that little Al would be a contender. But when he finished second at Portland, then followed that with consecutive victories at Meadowlands and Cleveland, he was tied with his dad for second place behind defending champion Mario Andretti.

“After I won at Cleveland, I got the feeling that dad wasn’t looking at me as his son anymore,” Al Jr. said.

If little Al wins the championship, he will be its youngest champion. A. J. Foyt, in 1960, and Andretti, in 1965, were both 25 when they won.

If big Al wins, he will be the oldest champion. Foyt, in 1979, big Al in 1983 and Andretti last year were all 44.

Some of the milestones in the Unser family that have led to Saturday’s father-son showdown:

April 19, 1962--Al Jr. was born in Albuquerque. His father was running a junkyard and driving modifieds on weekends. In July he would finish second to brother Bobby in the Pikes Peak hill climb.

May 30, 1970--Al Unser won his first Indianapolis 500 for the Vel’s Parnelli Jones team. When he returned home he built little Al a racing go-kart.

“Looking back, I realize how much I learned driving a go-kart,” little Al said. “Things like racing wheel to wheel with other guys, how to handle myself in traffic, especially when coming up on slower traffic. It sure made it easier for me when I got into bigger equipment.”

May 28, 1978--Al Unser won his third Indianapolis 500 while little Al, by then a budding sprint car driver, sat home in Albuquerque--grounded by his father for skipping school.

Said little Al: “I’d won some races around home and being only 16 and still in school, I felt like I was hot stuff, so I took a few days off from school to act like a big shot. Dad had promised me I could go back to Indy for the race and I was really excited, but when he heard I’d skipped school he really got tough on me. He not only canceled my trip to Indy, he grounded me from racing. When he won Indy I felt terrible that I wasn’t there to see him.”

Big Al said: “I’d never finished high school and the most important thing in my mind was for the kid to get his diploma. When I heard he’d ditched classes I saw red. I really came down on him hard but he’d asked for it.”

Aug. 29, 1982--Little Al, winner of the 1981 Super Vee and 1982 Can-Am championships, made his Indy car debut against his father at Riverside International Raceway. Son finished fifth, father’s engine broke.

Big Al said: “I have never had such a strange feeling as I did that day. I had always said I would retire when it was time for little Al to race Indy cars, but here he was, ready to race, and I wasn’t ready to quit. I’m still not. I’d never expected him to do what he’s done so quickly.

“I was proud, yes, but I was also a concerned parent. Racing all those years with my brother Bobby made the situation a little easier, but even though Bobby and I were brothers, it was nothing like being out there with my own son. I always raced hard, but I also kept an eye on what was happening to little Al. Only a father will ever know what I felt. I don’t know how Mom ever stood it when Bobby and I were out there racing at the same time.”

Little Al said: “When I was growing up I felt sure I’d get to Indy some day, but like Dad, I’d always felt it would be after he retired. When we lined up at Riverside, I thought it was neat. I still do.”

June 17, 1984--Al Unser Jr. won his first Indy car race, a 200-miler at Portland. It was Father’s Day.

Big Al, teary-eyed at the race’s end, said: “Son, I’m real proud of you. It was the best Father’s Day gift you could have given me.”

Little Al said: “To win at what my dad has been doing so long, it really meant a lot. What I remember most is the look on Dad’s face when I won. He’d had a disappointing day. His engine blew up on the first lap, but he watched the whole race. It was neat to see him smiling after all that.”

Nov. 9, 1985--Father vs. son for the national championship on a 9-turn, 1.78-mile temporary road course laid out by Ralph Sanchez on the southwest side of Miami.

Little Al said: “It’s like old times--two Unsers going for the championship--only my name isn’t Bobby.” In 1970, Al and Bobby finished 1-2, although it wasn’t close. “It’s neat that the only one who’s left to beat is my dad.”

Big Al said: “When we’re out there racing, I treat him like any other driver, but he isn’t any other driver. I just hope if it comes down to the last lap or two that he remembers what I’ve always taught him, that his father is to be respected.”

The family confrontation is about all anyone is talking about at Tamiami Park. No one seems concerned about who will win the $428,000 race, or if the course will be the fastest of CART’s four temporary circuits. About the only question is, “Which Unser do you think will win, the old man or the kid?”

Bobby Rahal, who has a mathematical chance of passing little Al for second money--but no chance of beating big Al for first--looks at the Unser race as a toss-up.

“If both of them finish, I’d have to go with big Al because he has the Penske crew and they have a habit of finishing,” Rahal said. “But on road courses, little Al has much the better record, so how can you pick against him? I think it goes down to the fact that if he doesn’t win the race, little Al has to beat his dad by two positions to win the championship. That little edge may be the difference for big Al.”

Rahal has 116 points, 20 fewer than little Al. To collect second money, Rahal would have to win the pole in today’s qualifying, then win the race and have little Al finish 12th or worse. If Rahal scored the maximum 22 points--20 for winning the race, 1 for winning the pole and 1 for leading the most laps--and big Al didn’t even start, Rahal would still fall one point shy of the championship.

Bobby Unser, brother and uncle and himself a three-time Indy 500 winner, is here to do color commentary for NBC-TV Saturday. He sees the race as a battle of big Al’s experience and cunning against little Al’s youthful enthusiasm and flat-out style of driving.

“If I had a favorite, I’d like to see my brother win,” Bobby said. “It’s probably his last chance and there are plenty of years ahead for little Al.”

Junior doesn’t see it that way.

“Dad’s had a long career and he’s won championships that I haven’t won,” he said. “Now it’s my turn.”

Uncle Bobby sees it so close that it could be decided by the crews.

“Many races are won in the pits and this could be one of them,” he said. “That’s where big Al has an edge. I’ve driven for Penske and his crews are absolutely the best.”

Big Al’s crew, headed by Peter Parrott, has been the best this year, winning the Dana pit crew contest for the car spending the least time in the pits during the 15-race season. Parrott and his crew collected $25,000, but little Al’s crew is battling for second money with those of Rahal and Danny Sullivan.

The Unsers have the same racing philosophy for Saturday. Said little Al: “Dad, Bobby, myself, everyone in the Unser family remembers what Granddad said: ‘You don’t show up to run second.’ ”

FATHER VS. SON IN 1985

How Al Unser, Al Unser Jr. have finished in CART Indy car races:

Race How They Finished Cumulative Points

Big Al Little Al Big Al Little Al Long Beach 5th 7th 10 4 Indy 500 4th 25th 22 4 Milwaukee DNS 24th 22 4 Portland 4th 2nd 34 21 Meadowlands 3rd 1st 48 42 Cleveland 3rd 1st 62 62 Michigan 500 2nd 15th 79 62 Elkhart Lake 7th 17th 85 63 Pocono 500 3rd 2nd 99* 80 Mid-Ohio 27th 4th 99 92 Sanair 13th 3th 100 106** Michigan 200 12th 23rd 101 106 Laguna Seca 2nd 3rd 117 120 Phoenix 1st 2nd 139*** 136

* Al Unser took points lead for first time

** Al Unser Jr. took points lead

*** Al Unser regained points lead