LONG BEACH GRAND PRIX : FAMILY TIES : Little Al (Unser) Steals Spotlight From the Andrettis

Because Katie Guerrero is due to have a baby next Saturday, they wouldn’t let her watch from the pits as her man Roberto drove in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Sunday.

“I can’t move fast enough in case there’s a fire,” she said.

So she watched from the press grandstand immediately above Guerrero’s pit.

“If I get through today, I’ll be fine,” she said.

That’s what Roberto should have said. His car gave up before the race was half over, and he bundled up his family and went home to San Juan Capistrano, swallowing his disappointment.

Meanwhile, down pit row about a hundred yards, another man seemed more the expectant father: Al Unser Sr.

Over nearly two hours, Big Al paced and fidgeted and watched Al Unser Jr.--Little Al--go by 95 times en route to victory.

“I’d rather be racing him than watching him,” Big Al said. “This is too tough.”

As always, the Long Beach race was a family affair, only this time nobody named Andretti reached the winner’s circle. This time it was more like “Family Feud,” while the day belonged to one of the endless line of Unsers from Albuquerque.

Mario Andretti had won three of the previous four CART races at Long Beach, and son Michael had won the other in 1986. The fact that neither would win this one became evident when they tangled on the first turn of the 11th lap while running second and third, respectively, behind Unser.

The incident sent Michael to the pits to replace a broken steering arm. The job took 3 minutes 28 seconds, as the field circled the track three times.

“I never could have caught Junior, but I could have had an easy second today,” Michael said. “He was in a class by himself today.

“I had problems all day with my brakes. That’s what happened when I mixed it with dad. I had him set up to pass at the end of the long straightaway. I was alongside him and I put my feet on the brakes and they went all the way to the floor.

“I thought he saw me and would give me room, but I guess he didn’t see me. He chopped my nose off.”

Later, on Lap 26, the elder Andretti had to make an unscheduled stop to replace his left front wheel, only seven laps after refueling on a yellow flag brought out when Scott Brayton crashed.

“I nipped a wall and broke the wheel,” Mario said.

That knocked him back to 12th, so for a while, with nephew John struggling with his cranky Lola all day, there wasn’t even an Andretti in the top 10.

Mario toiled back through the pack to third place, giving rise to hopes of a remarkable comeback at his lucky track. But then his clutch broke--”The vibration was terrible,” he said--and he parked his white Lola as Michael continued his futile pursuit of the leaders in his blue and yellow car.

As Katie Guerrero had said earlier when her husband’s car was rolled back to the garage area, it was “the end of our day” for the Andrettis, as well.

Mario wound up 15th, and Michael was in 7th, those same three laps down.

Two years ago when Michael Andretti won the race, Al Jr. was alongside him on the victory stand as the runner-up and said, “The torch has passed”--meaning their famous fathers had better make way for their offspring.

But last year Al Jr. was in the same position to Mario Andretti, and a few weeks later Al Sr. won the Indianapolis 500, with Al Jr. fourth.

What torch?

“I don’t know,” Al Jr. said from the dais where the first three finishers met the press. “But I don’t see the old guys sitting up here right now.”

“Thanks,” said runner-up Bobby Rahal. “That makes me feel good. I’m 35.”

Al Jr. will turn 26 Tuesday, and his father will turn 49 on May 29, the day he defends his Indy 500 championship for team owner Roger Penske.

Al Sr. watched the race not from the Rick Galles pit, where his son is now employed, but three pits down at the Penske camp, where the bright hopes of Rick Mears and Danny Sullivan went sour.

Al Sr. admitted to mixed emotions, but stayed away from his son until long after the race was over.

“Those are his people down there,” he said.

As the race wound down, he said, “I’d rather not talk right now,” and as Al Jr. dashed past to take the white flag--one lap to go--his father walked to the pit wall and put one foot up, anxious but expressionless.

A minute later, as his son took the checkered flag, the father allowed himself a smile and pumped his fists. He self-consciously accepted a flurry of handshakes and backslaps from the Penske people.

Only once before had he endured one of his son’s five Indy car victories as a spectator.

“That was at Portland (on Father’s Day in ‘84),” he said. “I went out after one lap. Then I was a spectator. It’s not any fun. I’d rather be out there dealing with my own problems than watching him.”

As for that torch, what does Al Jr. now say to Al Sr. when they meet as rivals at Indianapolis?

“Good luck,” Al Jr. said Sunday, smiling.

And does that torch move from Nazareth, Pa., to Albuquerque, then one day to the Guerreros of San Juan Capistrano?

“They’re a great family,” Al Jr. said of the Andrettis. “They’re tough and they’re gonna be tough. But it was time for us to knock ‘em off, I guess.”