Big Al Is Still King of Road : Al Unser Jr. Third but Falls Point Shy

The patience gained from 25 years of driving race cars from Pikes Peak to Indianapolis, from Langhorne to Long Beach, paid off Saturday for Al Unser as he kept his 23-year-old son from winning his first national championship.

Big Al, driving cautiously and passing only when necessary, finished fourth in the Beatrice Indy Challenge at Tamiami Park, a few car-lengths behind Al Jr. But it was enough for father to finish the 15-race season with 151 points to 150 for his son.

The elder Unser will collect $300,000 at tonight’s CART/PPG Indy Car World Series banquet. Little Al will take $200,000 back to Albuquerque, N.M., home base of the legendary Unser clan.

Danny Sullivan, the Indianapolis 500 winner from Louisville, Ky., won the 200-mile race on a sunny South Florida afternoon before approximately 60,000 spectators. Pole-sitter Bobby Rahal of Dublin, Ohio, who led most of the way, finished second.

Nothing was close except the national championship points. Had Al Sr. not been able to pass Brazilian Roberto Moreno four laps from the finish and move from fifth to fourth, Al Jr. would have won the championship by a single point. The elder Unser started the race three points ahead.

“I have mixed emotions,” Al Unser said as his wife Karen wiped the tears from his eyes. “I’d like to have seen him (Al Jr.) win, but we’re both too much of competitors to ever make it easy for the other one. It would have been nice for Little Al to win because I’ve been here before, but he’s a very smart and talented driver, and I’m sure he’ll get his share of championships.”

Unser previously won the championship in 1970 and 1983. At 46, he is the oldest driver to win the crown.

“I’m disappointed for my crew and my team because they did such a great job for me,” Little Al said, “but I’m very happy for my father.

“Phoenix was the happiest race of my life for me, where dad and I ran 1-2. I never had a feeling like that before, when we stood on the victory stand together. Today I wasn’t quite so happy. It’s easier for me to accept losing the championship because my dad won, but we (Al Jr. and his crew) were a pretty sad group at the finish. We’d worked our butts off to come so close.”

The race turned out to be a daily double for car owner Roger Penske. One of his drivers, Sullivan, won the race in the red, white and gold Miller American March, while his other driver, Unser, won the national championship in the yellow Pennzoil Special.

It was the Penske team’s seventh national championship in nine years.

Only 10 of the 28 starters finished the 112-lap race, but after the way it started, that was quite a lot.

Two former Formula One world driving champions, Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi and Kraco teammates Kevin Cogan and Michael Andretti, Mario’s son, all crashed during the first two laps.

At the start, after Rahal and Geoff Brabham had raced through the first turn, Mario Andretti appeared to get into the turn a little out of control and crowded Fittipaldi and Roberto Guerrero into the wall.

“The way I saw it,” Guerrero said, “Mario didn’t get a very good jump at the start and I think he wanted to make it up in the first corner. He tried to go for the inside and hit Emerson and Emerson went into me. I would have have not expected that from Mario.”

Andretti: “There were too many of us going for the same hole. It became a bottleneck with all of us at the same place all of a sudden. There was no place to go.”

Fittipaldi: “I really don’t know what happened other than causing the car to turn left, hitting Roberto. What a disappointment.”

Halfway around the track, Raul Boesel, another Brazilian, spun in front of teammates Cogan and Michael Andretti and all three of them piled up when Boesel’s car darted backwards into the middle of the track.

“Boesel spun on the outside of the track just after the chicane,” Cogan explained. “I saw it coming and slowed as slow as I possibly could. It looked like Raul would be OK, but at the last second his car shot out into the middle of the track. I tried to duck down on the inside and he nailed my left rear. I could see Michael coming and he had absolutely no place to go. He hit Boesel dead center.”

Once the debris was cleared, Rahal took command and built up a formidable lead as second place became a jinx position.

Brabham was second until the pace car came out, but on the restart when he hit the accelerator, the engine let go.

“I don’t know what broke, but I knew it was over,” Brabham said.

Little Al was running seventh at the time and Big Al ninth.

After Brabham retired, Bruno Giacomelli of Italy moved into second place. After a brief fling at the lead while Rahal was pitting, Giacomelli hit an oil slick on lap 68 and slammed into the first-turn wall.

When the leaders began making their second pit stops, Rahal was leading with Sullivan second and Dutchman Jan Lammers third.

Al Jr. was fourth, Moreno fifth and Big Al sixth.

Remarkable pit work by the Penske crew on Sullivan’s car in changing all four tires and loading the tank with fuel in 15 seconds enabled the Indy winner to come out of the pits ahead of Rahal.

“It was the best pit stop of the entire season,” said Derrick Walker, team manager for the Penske cars.

For about 10 laps Rahal chased Sullivan nose to tail, but suddenly Rahal began dropping back and Sullivan extended his margin to 16 seconds by the end of the race.

“It was a simple case of our rear tires being blistered,” Rahal said. “I tried to stay with Danny and put some pressure on him but the tires went away in about 10 laps. There was no use chasing him so I felt it was better to finish second than putting it in the wall.”

The only drama left was between the Unsers.

When Lammers slid into the infield on lap 81, Al Jr. moved into third position, far ahead of Moreno and Big Al. If they had finished that way, the younger Unser would be the champion.

About that time Penske got on the radio to his driver and told him to “get it on.” Unser quickly closed the gap between himself and Moreno and set up a pass on the young Brazilian rookie.

“I had been nursing everything all day,” Unser said. “I knew I had to stay out of trouble, but I couldn’t get too far behind and lose sight of Little Al. It made for a tense day for me.

“Mr. Penske kept me informed where I was all day long. It seems when Roger’s on the radio it’s like he’s in the car with you.”

Unser almost caught Moreno too quickly as he came close to ramming his rear end coming into the first turn on lap 108.

“I was trying to set up for the pass and I almost hit him, “ Unser said. “I had been so careful all day and I almost lost it right there. I was fortunate to get by him in the second turn. I knew when I got around him I had to drive as hard as I could to keep him from pressuring me.”

After the cars crossed the finish line, Big Al moved up alongside his son and the two gave a nod of appreciation to one another.

Later, an emotional father tried to explain his mixed emotions:

“Growing up, Al kept telling me how he was going to grow up and out-run me. I used to laugh and tell him he’d never get the chance because I’d be sitting up in the stands watching him when that time came.

“But danged if he’s not here and I’m still running. I can’t describe the way I feel. I’m so proud of him and I’m so proud to win again myself. I know this season has been the most satisfying in my career. Going down to the final race with your own son for the national championship is more satisfying that even winning Indy.”