It’s All in the Family as Michael Andretti Wins : Mario’s 23-Year-Old Son Takes Grand Prix of Long Beach to Follow Father’s Example

Andretti continued to dominate the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, but Sunday the mantle of victory passed from father to son.

Michael Andretti, 23, the youngest driver on the Indy-car circuit, won his first CART race in three seasons by edging his lifelong friend, Al Unser Jr., by .38 seconds. Yet another second-generation racer, Geoff Brabham, son of three-time world champion Jack Brabham, finished third.

Michael’s father, Mario, who won both previous Long Beach Indy-car races, finished fifth after losing both his clutch and brakes. At one point in mid-race, the Andrettis were running one-two with Mario chasing his son.

“I enjoyed running with Dad, but I knew he was having troubles,” Michael said. “It’s going to be a long flight home for Dad.”

Mario was one of the first to reach Michael after the race to congratulate his son before Michael took off on a victory lap around the 1.67-mile circuit.

“This is the second best result I could have had today,” Mario said. “Michael’s victory made up for my problems. We still get the trophy at Long Beach, and that’s important for us. I’m disappointed for our own team, but I cannot hide the joy I have for Michael.”

A record Indy-car crowd of 77,500, plus many thousands more watching from high-rise buildings around the course, witnessed the most competitive and exciting day in Long Beach street racing history.

Michael, who seemingly had last week’s Phoenix 200 won before his engine gave way late in the race, moved from seventh to third in the first five laps and seemed in control of Sunday’s race from the moment he strategically pitted under a yellow caution flag on lap 16.

Danny Sullivan, the Indy 500 winner and fastest qualifier, was leading Emerson Fittipaldi at the time and neither pitted when the younger Andretti did. As the lead changed six times among five drivers during the 158-mile race, that stop loomed more and more significant.

“We had planned to pit early if a yellow flag came out, and it came out as if we had planned it,” Andretti said. “Credit Barry Green for my coming in. He told me on the radio it was a full-course yellow, so I came right in. His strategy worked better than the other guys. From then on, I felt like I was in command. I want to thank Randy Lanier for that.”

It was Lanier’s accident, caused when he spun in turn 11 and stalled on the track, that brought out the caution flag while a tow truck picked up his car.

Toward the end, after Sullivan and Fittipaldi had dropped out with mechanical problems and left the day’s duel to Michael and Little Al, another pit-stop drama worked in Andretti’s favor.

Because he had pitted earlier the first time, Andretti’s last pit stop came some time before Unser’s. So, when Unser came in for fuel and fresh tires, he returned to the track just ahead of Andretti--but he had cold tires and Andretti’s were heated up.

“I came out in the lead, but I almost lost it (crashed) trying to stay in front of him with cold tires under me,” Unser said. “Finally, I had no choice but to let him by.”

That was lap 72, twenty-three from the finish. From that point on, the yellow and blue Lean Machine March of Andretti and the red, white and blue Lola of Unser ran nose-to-tail until Andretti took the checkered flag.

“Our two cars were so equal that I couldn’t do anything but sit and hope Michael would make a mistake in traffic,” Unser said. “He didn’t, he drove a perfect race and deserved to win.

“I had the boost as high as it would go, but I couldn’t keep up with Michael on the straightaways. If there had been pedals in my car, I’d have been pedaling.”

Unser actually pulled alongside Andretti at turn 9 five laps from the end, but Andretti held him off.

“Yeah, I knew he was there. It was so close, I felt if I sneezed, he would go right by me, but I knew I could trust him not to make any wrong move. Little Al and I have raced together a lot, since we were in snowmobiles when we were 7 or 8 years old, and we know how each other reacts.”

Andretti averaged 80.965 m.p.h. for the 1-hour 57-minute 34.18-second race.

The win was worth $94,546 and moved the younger Andretti up to second place in points after two of 17 races toward the CART/PPG driving championship. Tom Sneva, who finished fourth, leads with 28 points. Michael has 22, followed by Kevin Cogan, winner of the Phoenix 200, with 20.

The win came in Michael’s 36th Indy-car start, all for car owner Maurice Kraines. It was the first win for the Compton-based Kraco team since it entered Indy-car racing in 1981 with Larry Cannon as its driver. Other Kraco drivers have included Dick Ferguson, Billy Vukovich, Vern Schuppan, the late Mike Mosley, Brabham and Cogan.

“After five years of running in the middle, it’s great to be walking to victory lane,” Kraines said. “Michael was terrific. The team was terrific. It was just amazing.”

At the start, as Gov. George Deukmejian waved the green flag, Unser got the jump on pole-sitter Sullivan and led the field of 23 cars through the first twisting turns at the end of sweeping Shoreline Drive. The original field was 24, but the engine blew on Roberto Guerrero’s March during the parade lap.

“I wasn’t even under power yet and the motor went away,” the irate Colombian driver said.

Sullivan and Fittipaldi passed Unser on the third lap, but moving up quickly from the fourth row was Michael Andretti. He passed the two Brazilians, Roberto Moreno and Raul Boesel, on the first lap, got by his father on the third time around and moved by Little Al into third place on the fifth lap.

“I knew from the way Danny (Sullivan), Emo (Fittipaldi) and Michael went by me, that I couldn’t outrun them,” Little Al said. “I moved up when Danny had some troubles in traffic and ran over a wheel and Emo had mechanical problems, but Michael had a good, strong engine.”

Sullivan led for 32 laps before he pitted and Michael Andretti took the lead. When Sullivan took out after Andretti, he came up on Josele Garza sitting on the track after spinning in turn 11. Sullivan couldn’t avoid hitting him, bending his left front wing on Sullivan’s car.

“I tried to go underneath him but there just wasn’t enough room and I hit him,” Sullivan explained later. “The wing was torn up pretty good, but the car still handled reasonably well. Later on it vibrated so badly that the master switch broke and that put us out. It completely broke in two from the shaking.”

On the same lap, 39, Fittipaldi appeared to lose his engine as he raced past pit row. He continued for a few more laps before dropping out with waste gate problems.

Rick Mears, in the yellow No. 1 Chevrolet-powered Penske, ran impressively for 22 laps in the new car’s road racing debut before it lost its oil pressure.

“It was running just fine,” Mears said. “Almost in race trim. We could have gained a little with a change or two when it was time to make a stop but, all in all, I was happy with the car.”

Sneva, cruising along almost unnoticed in the Gurney-Curb March, inherited the lead on lap 69 when Unser pitted. Sneva would have finished third but his car ran out of fuel on the last go-round and he was passed by Brabham.

“The car wasn’t perfect handling-wise when we started, but we just kept making changes throughout the race and it got better,” Sneva said. “We had to make our fuel a little richer than we wanted to help counteract a turbo lag and that cost us fuel. We finally ran out at the end.”

When the cars were sorted out after everyone had made their final pit stops, Michael and Little Al ran off and hid.

Brabham, who won a Formula Atlantic race on the Long Beach street course in 1981, ran a remarkable race to be in position to pass Sneva for third place.

Brabham had crashed the car in Saturday’s practice and Rick Galles’ crew had worked through the night getting it ready for the race.

“I was pleased to do as well as we did after the crash,” Brabham said. “To come from 14th to third we had to run as hard as we could all day. I have to thank the crew because the crash was my fault. I was just pushing a little too hard.

“I clipped the inside wall and it threw me into the outside wall. It took the right corner off and damaged the side pods.”

Earlier in the week, Brabham’s team had to switch from an experimental Honda engine, which they used in Phoenix, for a conventional Cosworth because the Honda lacked sufficient power.

“Everything went wrong for us until today,” Brabham said.

“It was nice for the three (second-generation drivers) of us to be up here together. We’re just in wrong order, that’s all.”