Al Unser Jr. Keeps Flame Burning

If his family’s investment in the race were limited to time, energy and money, the initial reaction of Al Unser Jr. to his first victory at the Indianapolis 500 might have been a broad smile. After all, the event represents the pinnacle of national achievement in his sport. “It’s every race driver’s dream (to win Indy),” he said.

But to the man who pushed his Galmer-Chevy A to the finish line a split second ahead of longshot Scott Goodyear on Sunday, the triumph was so rich in emotion that he took his cool-down lap with tears in his eyes. To the youngest Unser lured to a starting grid, it was the continuation of a proud family tradition. And it was another repayment to the clan for all that it had endured for the sake of Indy.

“The Indy 500,” he said Wednesday during a pit stop in Manhattan, “means life itself to me.”

Such a statement would have sounded a false note had it been spoken by someone unacquainted with death. The family’s conquests at the Brickyard -- four by Al Sr. and three by uncle Bobby -- are a matter of public record. But the Unsers appear to be driven as much by a sense of mortality as the fame and fortune that their skills have earned them.

“We’ve had the greatest sacrifices and the greatest rewards (at Indy),” the newest champion said in a promotional appearance for the initial Marlboro Grand Prix of New York, scheduled for July, 1993. “That’s why it means so much to us.”

Indeed, two generations of Unsers have perished in pursuit of that Indy dream, starting with his father’s uncle. “My grandpa, Jerry, had two younger brothers, Joe and Louis,” Al Jr. recalled. “They each had a car and were going to race at Indy. It was sometime during the 1930s.

“Joe got killed testing his car, a Duesenberg. He was just going down a highway in Colorado Springs, putting on the final touches before they all went off to Indy, when something went wrong and he crashed. That ended Jerry and Louis going to the 500.”

Jerry Unser had three sons. The oldest, Jerry Jr., fulfilled the father’s dream by making it to Indy. He died at the Brickyard after a crash in 1958. “He was caught in an accident and killed during practice,” Al Jr. said. “Then my uncle, Bobby, came along and the Good Lord rewarded us.”

Two deaths in the family yielded a victory in 1968. The championships have continued at the pace of one every three years for the Unsers, an unprecedented accomplishment that will not be equaled in the forseeable future. By the time Bobby won his second 500 in 1975, Al Sr. had the first two of his Indy titles. It was altogether fitting that when Al Jr., 30, roared home first on Sunday, his father was only two cars back and Bobby was in the television booth, offering commentary on the family business.

The history of the Unsers, including the deaths of two men he never met, was responsible for the tears that streamed down his face as he coasted around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the final time on Sunday. According to the winner, it was not an unusual display. “Every year that I qualify for the race,” he said, “I have tears.”

Nor does he expect the emotion to subside just because he has followed his uncle and father to Victory Lane, just because his likeness will be added to theirs on the Borg-Warner trophy, just because he has made his family proud. The bond between the Unsers and the race is so strong. Blood, Al Jr. would have you believe, is thicker than the highest viscosity motor oil.

His freckled face, so open and friendly as to suggest he grew up alongside Opie in Mayberry, reflected none of the family pain. Wearing a leather jacket, jeans and the cowboy boots he favors back home in Albuquerque, he looked like a man who had zipped through life unscathed. And it’s true he has enjoyed a relatively safe career, discounting a 1985 crash on the road course at Elkhart Lake, Wis., which “about took my foot off.”

Still, that’s a price a race driver expects to pay. “It’s exciting,” he said, “it’s a great show, it defies death and it rewards in a memorable way.” For Unser, the thrill is as great as it was 21 years ago when he climbed into the go-kart purchased by his father.

“I started racing at 9,” Al Jr. recalled. “My dad told me as long as I did the work on it, I could race it. I had to make sure the shop was clean, the kart was clean, the tools were clean. Whatever my dad did to the kart, I had to clean up the mess. I did very little to improve the kart but I had to maintain it after he got through with it.”

It was at 16 that the youngster drove in his “first real race.” He had to sit on two telephone books to steer his sprint car. “That’s when I stopped going to my father’s races,” he said. “I remember one evening my dad told me he didn’t care what I did for a living, whether I wanted to be a doctor, a lawyer or a race driver. All he asked me to do was to put my best effort into whatever I did. From that moment on, I felt no (outside) pressure to match him. The pressure came from within.”

A similar conversation between Al Jr. and his son may not be too far off. Alfred Richard Unser is 9 and just watched, via television, his father become a celebrity.

“I was 8 the day I discovered my dad raced cars and that it was a big deal, the day he won Indy for the first time,” the man noted. “I think that’s happened to little Al. He’s kind of shied away (from racing) until now. I think that will change.”

If a fourth generation of Unsers expresses a desire to race automobiles, Al Jr. said he will insist on the same regimen provided by his father. As long as he does the work, he can race. And he will relate chapters of the family history, the one that causes tears to form each year at Indianapolis.