Signing Name in Green a Bad Sign for Unser

Al Unser Jr. will be back in Long Beach next week, seeking an unprecedented seventh victory in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. As defending champion in the annual Indy car race through the seaside community, Unser will be in great demand for autographs.

Just don’t hand him a green pen.

“I do some things the same when I win a race, like always staying in the same room in the Hyatt when I come to Long Beach, or not changing my socks until I lose a race, but I wouldn’t say I’m too superstitious,” Unser said while en route home to Albuquerque, N.M., after racing last weekend in Australia.

“The one constant, though, is my dread of a green pen,” he said. “If I can get around it, I won’t touch it. I’ll take a pen from someone else and sign. I got in a position in Australia where this guy was the only one around and I took the green pen and signed my name.

“When the ink turned out to be blue, I thought I would be OK, but bad luck followed me around that day.”

Unser qualified poorly in his Penske-Mercedes, 16th on the grid, but quickly moved up to third through some clever pit strategy worked out by team owner Roger Penske.

“The crew passed more cars during pit stops than I could dream of on the track,” Unser said. “I was running fourth, behind [Gil] de Ferran, when I got overanxious and made a mistake. The crew told me de Ferran had to make a pit stop, but I tried to pass anyway and ended up spinning both of us.

“I just didn’t execute well. Maybe it was that green pen.”

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Scott Pruett hasn’t won a race yet this season but the way the trend is going he can’t wait to get to Long Beach.

Pruett finished fourth in the CART season opener at Miami, third in Brazil and second last Sunday in Australia.

“Nothing left but first, is there?” he said with a grin.

Pruett does take pride in the victories by Jimmy Vasser at Miami and Australia, and Andre Ribeiro in Brazil, and even the Indy Racing League triumphs of Buzz Calkins at Disney World and Arie Luyendyk in Phoenix.

All were running on Firestone tires, and it was Pruett who took a year off from Indy car racing in 1994 to help Pat Patrick develop racing tires for the company, now owned by Bridgestone of Japan, after having been away from the sport for 21 years.

“We did 10,000 miles getting the compounds ready for Firestone’s comeback in 1995, but three days after the last race last year at Laguna Seca, we were back at Portland testing for 1996,” Pruett said. “We worked hard all winter. It’s nice to see our efforts paying off, but I’d rather we had one of the wins.”

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The opening of Perris Auto Speedway last Saturday night was an indication of how starved for racing Southern California fans have become since the closing of Riverside, Ontario, Ascot Park and Saugus speedways.

Nearly 10,000 fans jammed the 8,000-seat facility in Riverside County and its infield and watched J.J. Yeley win a Sprint Car Racing Assn. main event on the half-mile clay oval. Roads leading to the Lake Perris Fairgrounds were closed nearly an hour before racing started.

“There must have been a couple of thousand people milling around after the races,” said track official Doug Stokes. “They didn’t seem to want to leave. We finally had to cut the lights down well after midnight. It was all we had hoped for and more.”

The track’s quarter-mile oval will be dedicated Saturday night with a program of mini-sprints, dwarf cars and I-4 modifieds.

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Motor Racing Notes

MIDGETS--The U.S. Auto Club’s western regional drivers and cars will race at Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale Saturday night.

STOCK CARS--Winston Racing Series sportsman cars and Grand American modifieds will run Saturday night at Cajon Speedway.