Al our

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Al Unser 2015 with wife Karen Sue Unser
Al Unser in the Lola T500 2014 in Goodwood

Alfred "Al" Unser (born May 29, 1939 in Albuquerque , New Mexico ; † December 9, 2021 in Chama , New Mexico) was an American racing car driver .

Career

Together with AJ Foyt , Rick Mears and Hélio Castroneves , he is one of the four racing drivers who have won the Indianapolis 500 four times. He comes from a racing family, because his uncles Louis Unser and Joe Unser , as well as his brothers Bobby Unser and Jerry Unser , were racing drivers. He is also the father of Al Unser Jr. and the grandfather of Al Unser III , who are also racing drivers.

In 1957, at the age of 18, Al Unser began racing on oval courses in Albuquerque. He started in modified roadsters , sprint or midget cars . In 1960 he started the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb for the first time and came in second behind his brother Bobby.

Its first start at the Indianapolis 500 took place in 1965. He finished ninth after starting the race from the back row. That year he also celebrated his first win in an Indy Car on Pikes Peak . In 1967 he finished second behind AJ Foyt in Indianapolis and took his first pole position in Langhorne . In 1968 he was able to win five races in a row in Nazareth , the two runs at Indianapolis Raceway Park and the two runs in Langhorne. He also started from pole position five times this season and finished the season third overall in the USAC National Championship. In 1969 he broke his leg in a motorcycle accident and was unable to start in Indianapolis. In the course of the season he still won five races and finished second in the championship.

In 1970 he won the first time in Indianapolis, two years after his brother Bobby got his first win there. Al Unser dominated the race. He took pole position with a record speed of 170.221 miles per hour (273.944 km / h). In the race he led a total of 190 of the 200 laps. He won by a margin of 31.8 seconds over runner-up Mark Donohue . This victory and that of his brother in 1968 made them the only brother pair to win the Indy 500. He was also able to win the championship for the first time this year . With 10 wins and 8 pole positions from 18 races, he took the title ahead of his brother Bobby.

In 1971 he was able to repeat his Indy 500 victory from the previous year. He was only the fourth after Wilbur Shaw , Mauri Rose and Bill Vukovich to do this. By finishing second behind Mark Donohue in 1972, he missed the record of three Indy 500 wins in a row.

In 1978 he started fifth in the Indy 500. On lap 75 he took the lead for the first time and was able to pull out a lead of 23 seconds over Danny Ongais by halfway through the race . With less than a third of the race ahead of him, his lead had shrunk to 5.8 seconds. But after 362.5 miles Ongais' engine died and Al Unser was able to celebrate his third victory in Indy.

In the 1979 season he was able to win a race and finished fifth overall in the new CART Indian Car Championship. He won no races in the following three seasons. It was only after switching to Penske Racing in 1983 that he found his way back to the winning track and won the championship. He repeated this in 1985 when he became champion one point ahead of his son Al Unser Jr.

In 1987 he won Indy for the fourth time five days before his 48th birthday. He started as twentieth. On lap 183 he took the lead and won by 4.5 seconds ahead of Roberto Guerrero . This made him the oldest winner of the 500-mile race. He took this record from his brother Bobby.

On May 17, 1994, Al Unser announced his resignation. To date, he holds the record with the most leadership laps in Indianapolis.

Al Unser died on December 9, 2021 after a long illness at the age of 82.

statistics

Sebring results

year team vehicle Teammate placement Failure reason
1968 United StatesUnited States Samadco Ltd. Chevrolet Camaro United StatesUnited States Lloyd Ruby failure Engine failure

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season team race car 1 2 3 4th 5 6th 7th 8th 9 10
1968 Samadco Ltd. Chevrolet Camaro United StatesUnited States DAY United StatesUnited States SEB United KingdomUnited Kingdom BRH ItalyItaly MON ItalyItaly TAR GermanyGermany ONLY BelgiumBelgium SPA United StatesUnited States WAT AustriaAustria ZEL FranceFrance LEM
DNF

Web links

Commons : Al Unser  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Al Unser, a four-time winner of Indianapolis 500, dies at 82 . Retrieved December 10, 2011.