LONG BEACH GRAND PRIX : Little Al Writes a Flying Finish to Andretti Rule

All week long, Al Unser Jr. said all he wanted was to move up one position in the race through the streets of Long Beach.

Little Al had finished second two years in a row, to Michael Andretti in 1986 and Mario Andretti in 1987.

Sunday he got what he wanted.

Unser, who will be 26 on Tuesday, thoroughly dominated his opposition in winning the 14th annual Toyota Grand Prix to become the first non-Andretti to win the race since it switched from Formula One to Indy cars in 1984.

“One great family name has been on the top of that trophy long enough,” Al said. “Now there’s another great one at the top.”

Little Al’s father, Al Unser Sr., has won four Indianapolis 500s, and his Uncle Bobby won three before he retired.

“Watching your son out there is a lot tougher than driving yourself,” Big Al said as he stood along the pit wall. “It’ll put gray hairs on your head.”

A crowd estimated at 84,000, plus thousands more who were watching from balconies of high-rise buildings, or eavesdropping from a fleet of ships from the Queen Mary to the the marina, witnessed the colorful spectacle on a cloudy, chilly day.

Only a lengthy pit stop, caused when a wheel wouldn’t come off Unser’s March-Chevrolet during a tire change, prevented the race from being a boring runaway.

Unser, who won by one lap and 33.48 seconds, knew it was going to be his day when he jumped from fourth to first on the first lap, taking the lead with a daring pass of Mario Andretti on the hairpin turn that leads to Shoreline Drive--the last of the 11 turns.

“Mario timed the start perfect and got the jump and I followed him right through,” Unser said. “I sort of expected him to pull away a little once he got ahead, being Mario and everything, but when he didn’t, I decided I’d try and make a move on him in the hairpin. It was a bit chancy, but I really didn’t want to to spend the day following him. I did that all day last year.”

Once Unser got in front, he pulled 12 seconds ahead of Andretti before he came in for his first fuel and tire stop. When a nut cross-threaded, the left rear wheel refused to come off so Rick Galles’ crew finally sent him back with the tire unchanged.

By the time Unser got up to speed again, he was sixth, behind Raul Boesel, Danny Sullivan, Mario Andretti, Rick Mears and Emerson Fittipaldi.

“I knew how great the car was running, so I still wasn’t worried,” Unser said. “I knew I had my work cut out for me, that’s for sure, but I knew we had plenty of time.”

Three of the six made it easier for Unser when they took themselves out.

Boesel, while still in the lead, stalled in Turn 11, the last turn on the 1.67-mile street course, and dropped from contention. This moved Sullivan, the pole-sitter, into the lead, closely followed by defending champion Andretti.

Andretti’s hopes of a second straight Long Beach win vanished when his left front tire went flat and he had to pit, losing a lap in the process. Mears was next to fall out, pitting to have a fuel metering system replaced.

This left only Sullivan and Fittipaldi for Unser to catch.

‘Of course, the first guy I had to pass was Emmo (Fittipaldi) and it’s never easy to pass a guy who’s been world champion. The car was starting to get loose and the tires were wearing, so I decided I’d better get it over. Then I noticed he was slowing down so I took him.”

Sullivan was six seconds ahead at that moment, but Unser was making up about a second a lap. On lap 42, Unser slipped past Sullivan in a tight corner to gain the lead.

Unser’s domination was so complete that 16 laps later he had built up such a margin over Sullivan that he could pit again without relinquishing the lead.

“Slow down, you’ve got 20 seconds lead on Sullivan, you can slow down now,” Unser’s crew told him over the radio.

“I called them back and said, ‘I am slowing down.’ ” Unser said later. “When everything is right, everything is right, and that was us today.”

Sullivan, realizing that he had no chance of catching Unser, settled down to run for second place points and money--nearly a lap ahead of the third-place car--when his Penske PC-17 began to vibrate so violently that Sullivan stopped on the course.

This moved Bobby Rahal and Kevin Cogan, who had been waging a wild race between themselves, up to finish second and third. For both, it was the first time they had finished at Long Beach.

“Kevin and I were really going at it, having a great time worrying each other,” Rahal said. “It was great racing. When I finally got by him, I felt great and then he pitted and I thought to myself, ‘Damn, all that work for nothing.’ ”

Boesel, who finished fourth, emerged as the PPG Indy Car World Series points leader going to the Indianapolis 500. The young Brazilian, who was fifth in the season opener at Phoenix, has 22 points, followed by Unser and Mario Andretti with 21 each, Michael Andretti with 20 and Cogan with 19.

It was a bad day all around for the Andretti clan, who had won all four previous races here.

Mario and Michael, running second and third at the time, tangled in the first turn on lap 11 and the incident sent Michael to the pits for 3 1/2 minutes during which he lost nearly three laps.

“I tried to pass Dad and he chopped my nose off,” Michael said.

Michael raced evenly the remainder of the afternoon, but couldn’t make up any of the lost laps and he finished seventh, a lap back of Derek Daly in fifth and Rocky Moran in sixth.

Mario, after losing any chance of repeating last year’s win when he flatted his tire, dropped out for keeps on lap 70 with a broken clutch.

John Andretti, cousin and nephew to Michael and Mario, lasted 35 laps in his first Long Beach Indy car race before a smoking engine sent him to the garage.

The win, worth $91,160, was the fifth career Indy car win for Unser. Strangely, despite having prepared himself for a career primarily on oval courses, all of Little Al’s wins have been on road circuits. His last win was in the 1986 season finale at Miami.

“The great thing about winning today is that it came with Rick Galles,” said a jubilant Unser. “He and the . . . crew have worked so hard to get this win, it makes me really grateful.

It was Galles’ second win in six years as an Indy car owner. The other came on June 17, 1984, when Little Al won in Portland. That was Little Al’s first, too.

Unser left Galles four years ago to drive for Doug Shierson, but this year returned to the Galles fold.

“Rick was my car owner when we won the Super Vee and Can-Am championships and he was the guy who gave me my first chance in an Indy car. More than that, he and I have a special friendship that goes way back. We both live in Albuquerque and we’ve been family friends for as long as I can remember.

“I’ll tell you something, and it has nothing to do with Shierson, where I had a good relationship, but I’ve wanted for two years to get back with Galles. People say it’s like old times, me and Rick getting back together, but that’s not so. We both learned a lot while we were apart, so now it’s more like new times, good new times, than old times.

“I think we’ve got as good a chance at winning the national championship as anyone. If I can just get some wins on an oval. We might as well start with the next one.”

The next one is May 29, the Indianapolis 500.