Al our junior

Al Our Jr., 2007

Penske PC-23, driven by Al Unser Jr. 1994

Training for the Indianapolis 500 2007

Alfred our jr. (Born April 19 , 1962 in Albuquerque , New Mexico ), nicknamed Little Al or Al junior, is a retired American automobile racer and two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 . He is the son of racing legend Al Unser and the nephew of Bobby Unser .

Career

Beginnings

Al our jr. was born into a racing family. His father Al and his uncle Bobby both also won the traditional Indianapolis 500. At the age of eleven, our jr. Sprint race. After high school, he was already active in the World of Outlaws series. He soon switched to road racing, where he won the Super Vee title in 1981 and the Can Am series title in 1982.

First years in the IndyCar series

In 1982, our jr. made his debut in the IndyCar series . A year later he took part in the Indianapolis 500 for the first time , which he finished in tenth. Ours became a rising star on the series. He finished second in the 1985 championship and lost it by just one point to his father. He began to take part in the IROC championship from 1986 , which he won with two wins in four races. At the age of 24 our jr. the youngest master ever in this series. He also won the IROC championships in 1986 and 1988. Also at the age of 24, he won the Daytona 24 Hours .

Ours finished the IndyCar championship in 1986 fourth in the overall standings, 1987 third, 1988 second and won it for the first time in 1990. In 1989, Unser was close to winning the Indianapolis 500 for the first time, but his and Emerson Fittipaldi's cars touched during the battle for leadership , with Unser, Jr. lost control of his car and drove into the gang. In 1992 he finally took his first victory at the Indianapolis 500, beating Scott Goodyear by 0.043 seconds, which was the narrowest win in the history of the race to date. After the end of the season he drove the Daytona 500 for Hendrick Motorsports in 1993 , which he finished in 36th and which should also be his only start in the Winston Cup .

Years with Penske

In 1994 our jr. again in Indianapolis, this time for the Penske Racing team . His team-mate was Emerson Fittipaldi, the man with whom he'd fought for victory five years earlier. Our jr. dominated the season, winning eight of 16 races, winning the IndyCar Championship for the second time in his career. That year he was named Athlete of the Year by ABC ’s Wide World of Sports . From then on, however, he was no longer able to build on his earlier results. Although he was still able to finish the championship in 1995 in second behind Jacques Villeneuve , from then on his results went downhill. He was fourth in 1996, 13th in 1997, 11th in 1998 and only 21st in 1999, so that in 2000 he moved to the competitive Indy Racing League . In his 17 years in the IndyCar series, he was able to win a total of 31 races.

Indy Racing League

In his first season in the IRL, he won the race in Las Vegas . He won a total of three races in this series by 2003, but after an injury in an accident in an off-road vehicle, he retired from active racing after finishing 22nd in the Richmond race on June 30, 2004. He then worked as a consultant for Patrick Racing and as a mentor for his son Alfred Unser, who is also aiming for a racing career.

After retirement

In 2006, Unser announced a comeback to the Indianapolis 500 of the 2006 season in the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing team. Just a few days before, Michael Andretti had also announced his start for the race. Our qualified as 27th of 33 drivers and consistently drove in the upper half of the field until an accident ended the race for him. In August, Unser took part in a test for the A1GP series at Silverstone.

He developed drinking problems in the 2010s and was jailed four times for being drunk and driving.

statistics

IndyCar / Champ Car results

year	team	Victories	Points	Championship placement
1982	Forsythe Racing	0	30th	21st
1983	Galles Racing	0	89 (new system)	7th
1984	Galles Racing	1	103	6th
1985	Shierson Racing	2	150	2.
1986	Shierson Racing	1	137	4th
1987	Shierson Racing	0	107	3.
1988	Galles Racing	4th	149	2.
1989	Galles Racing	1	136	5.
1990	Galles / Kraco Racing	6th	210	1.
1991	Galles / Kraco Racing	2	197	3.
1992	Galles / Kraco Racing	1	169	3.
1993	Galles Racing	1	100	7th
1994	Penske Racing	8th	225	1.
1995	Penske Racing	4th	161	2.
1996	Penske Racing	0	125	4th
1997	Penske Racing	0	67	13.
1998	Penske Racing	0	72	11.
1999	Penske Racing	0	26th	21st

2 championships, 31 wins

Indy Racing League results

year	team	Victories	Points	Championship placement
2000	Galles Racing	1	188	9.
2001	Galles Racing	1	287	7th
2002	Kelley Racing	0	311	7th
2003	Kelley Racing	1	374	6th
2004	Patrick Racing	0	44	24.
2006	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	0	12	30th
2007	AJ Foyt Enterprises	0	10	32.

3 wins, best placement: 6th

Indianapolis 500 results

year	chassis	engine	Launch site	placement	annotation
1983	eagle	Cosworth	5.	10.	empty tank
1984	March	Cosworth	15th	21st	defective water pump
1985	Lola	Cosworth	11.	25th	Engine failure
1986	Lola	Cosworth	9.	5.
1987	March	Cosworth	22nd	4th
1988	March	Chevrolet	5.	13.
1989	Lola	Chevrolet	8th.	2.	accident
1990	Lola	Chevrolet	7th	4th
1991	Lola	Chevrolet	6th	4th
1992	Galmer	Chevrolet	12.	1.
1993	Lola	Chevrolet	5.	8th.
1994	Penske	Ilmor - Mercedes	1.	1.
1995	Lola	Ilmor - Mercedes			Not qualified
2000	G-Force	Oldsmobile	18th	29	Cooler defective
2001	G-Force	Oldsmobile	19th	30th	accident
2002	Dallara	Chevrolet	12.	12.
2003	Dallara	Toyota	17th	9.
2004	Dallara	Chevrolet	17th	17th
2006	Dallara	Honda	27.	24.	accident
2007	Dallara	Honda	25th	26th

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1985	Holbert Racing	Porsche 962	Derek Bell	Al Holbert	Rank 2
1986	Holbert Racing	Porsche 962	Derek Bell	Al Holbert	Rank 3

Web links

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

• Al our junior at Racing Sports Cars
• Al our junior at Racing Reference

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Al Unser has been arrested several times for being drunk driving