Only One Andretti Finishes : Grand Prix: Family’s streak of bad luck continues as three of the four are forced out.

If Al Unser Jr. ever starts getting overly comfortable with his success in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, he can tweak himself back to reality in a hurry. All he has to do is think of the Andrettis.

There was magic, once, in the Andretti name when it came to racing at Long Beach. If it wasn’t papa Mario winning on the oceanside street course, it was older son Michael.

For four consecutive years, from 1984 through 1987, the annual Indy car scrap wasn’t so much a showdown as it was an Andretti show. Mario won in ’84 and ‘85, gave way to Michael in ‘86, then came back and claimed the prize again in ’87.

And that streak didn’t even include the victory by Mario back in 1977, when the race was a Formula One event and he was driving a Lotus.

Then, in 1988, Little Al found out how to win here and he hasn’t quit winning. He nailed No. 4 in succession Sunday.

And the magic Andrettis? Their vines bear bitter grapes here these days. These years, in fact.

Two years ago, Unser drove into Mario’s leading car, knocking Mario out of the race, then winning it himself.

Last year, Michael killed his engine early in the race, trying to avoid Danny Sullivan’s stalling car, then spent the rest of the race getting back to second place.

Sunday’s race, though, came off as the worst run of racing luck the Andrettis have had to endure here in a long time. Four of them started. One of them finished--ninth. And if all his relatives hadn’t fallen out, Jeff, Mario’s younger son, wouldn’t have been in the top 10.

Mario was the first to bite the dust, the victim of an electrical problem while running an unremarkable fifth on the 49th lap of the 95-lap race. It was the culmination of what basically had been a frustrating weekend all around.

Thanks to a similar electrical problem Friday and an accident Saturday, he went from primary car to backup, then back to primary again and never really had things working right.

“Every day gets harder,” he said. “Life gets tougher every day, and this is a tough business.”

John Andretti was next. He is Mario’s nephew, Michael and Jeff’s cousin. He won the first race of the Indy car season a few weeks ago in Australia.

Sunday, though, as he was running sixth, a cut and deflating tire threw him into a spin at the end of the main straightaway and he hit the wall.

“I was driving easy, flat out, when I picked up a bad vibration,” he said. “I went to de-clutch and he car just went around.”

And then it was Michael’s turn. Running second, 10 seconds behind Unser, he chose to visit his pit, taking advantage of the yellow flag for John’s misadventure. Unfortunately for him, Emerson Fittipaldi was using that moment to leave the pits. Michael and Fittipaldi collided.

Nobody was hurt, but the accident ended the race for both.

“Maybe Little Al would have been in trouble on fuel and we could have got him,” he said. “Who knows?”

And that left Jeff, celebrating his 27th birthday. And even his day was not without incident. He tapped the wall early in the race.

“If I didn’t bump the wall, I think we could have finished as high as third,” he said. “I got a little sideways and just hit the wall hard enough to knock the tire off the rim on the left rear wheel.”

And so it went for the Andretti clan.

Meanwhile, there was Unser, smiling his boyish smile, looking as though he had done nothing at all strenuous, remarking about his impressive victory.

“I had a great start and everything just worked beautifully,” he said. “It’s a great race track. It’s got all there is to offer in street courses.”

Funny, that’s the kind of thing the Andrettis used to say.

Eric Bachelart of Belgium and Jim Vasser of San Francisco won supporting races Sunday. Bachelart led all the way in the 45-lap event for Indy Lights, Buick-powered cars designed to build skill in a developmental series for aspiring Indy car drivers.

Starting on the pole, Bachelart put his car in front of teammate P.J. Jones’ and held off Jones’ challenge until a clutch problem took Parnelli’s older son out of the running late in the race.

Bachelart then won easily, finishing more than 46 seconds ahead of runner-up Robbie Buhl of Grosse Pointe, Mich., who inherited second when Tommy Byrne of Ireland ran over debris on the track and cut his car’s left front tire in the last few laps. Bachelart averaged 82.570 m.p.h.

Vasser led for all 38 laps of the Toyota Atlantic race for open-wheel cars powered by Toyota engines. Driving a Swift, he averaged 76.552 m.p.h. in beating New Zealander Paul Radisich’s Reynard by more than 13 seconds.