AL UNSER, 2-TIME USAC CHAMP, PASSES AWAY AT 82
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Indianapolis, Indiana (December 10, 2021)………Al Unser, one of four drivers to have captured four Indianapolis 500 wins and was also twice a USAC National champion, passed away on December 9. He was 82 years old.
The Albuquerque, New Mexico native captivated multiple generations of race fans throughout his stellar and lengthy career, winning 50 times in USAC national competition between 1964 and 1987.
Unser first made waves on the hills of Pikes Peak where he raced to consecutive class victories in 1964 and 1965, the same year in which made the first of his 27 Indianapolis 500 starts, finishing 9th.
The year of 1968 is when Unser began making his way into burgeoning star status, winning the first five races of his “IndyCar” career in succession during a sizzling summer stretch in July, scoring on the dirt at Nazareth, Pa., on the road course in a twin bill at Indianapolis Raceway Park, and at the paved circle of Langhorne, Pa.
If it was 1968 that made him a star, it was 1970 that made Al Unser a household name, a season in which he won his first Indianapolis 500-mile race aboard Vel’s Parnelli Jones’ iconic Johnny Lightning Special. Throughout the 1970 season, the last IndyCar season featuring both paved and dirt tracks, he won a staggering 10 times in just 19 races.
Unser won Indy again for Vel’s Parnelli in 1971, once more for Roger Penske in 1978 and for the final time in 1987 as the oldest race winner in a last-minute ride for Penske, which had most recently been used as a display car in a hotel lobby, all of which were part of his 37 career IndyCar victories under USAC sanction.
He owns the record for most laps led of any driver in the history of the Indianapolis 500 with 644. Furthermore, his age of 47 years old during the 1987 race made him the oldest driver to ever win the 500.
As adept as Unser was on paved tracks, he was equally proficient on the dirt, scoring wins at the Hoosier Hundred in four consecutive tries between 1970-73 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, and also notched six Championship Dirt (Silver Crown) feature wins and the 1973 series title for Vel’s Parnelli’s Viceroy sponsored machine.
Unser was a powerhouse in a variety of USAC series. He captured four USAC Stock Car wins between 1968 and 1972 at the road course of Mosport in 1968, Milwaukee Mile in 1971, and at both the Illinois State Fairgrounds and Indiana State Fairgrounds in 1972.
While he never enjoyed a victory behind the wheel of a USAC National Sprint Car, he did experience one as a car owner for fellow New Mexico wheelman Johnny Capels, who was the author of his only series win at New York’s Erie County Fairgrounds in 1968.
Unser added a Formula 5000 score at Road Atlanta in 1975 to his lengthy resume which, with all accolades added in, earned him induction into the USAC Hall of Fame in 2013.