Al Unser, an Albuquerque native who was one of the few to win the Indianapolis 500 four times, died Thursday at his home in Chama, New Mexico, after a 17-year battle with cancer. He was 82.
Unser was the third member of his racing family to die this year. His oldest brother, Bobby, died in May, and Bobby Jr. died six weeks later.
According to the Associated Press’ obituary:
Known as “Big Al” once his own son made a name for himself in racing, Unser is part of an elite club of four-time winners of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” Unser won the Indy 500 in 1970, 1971, 1978 and 1987, and is the only driver in history to have both a sibling and a child also win one of the biggest races in the world.
His final victory at age 47 made him the oldest winner in Indy 500 history. He dominated in his first Indy win in 1970 by starting from the pole and leading all but 10 of the 200 laps. Unser beat runner-up Mark Donohue by 32 seconds that year. […]
Al Unser led over half the laps in three of his Indy 500 victories, and his 644 total laps led at Indianapolis is most in race history. He made 27 starts in the Indy 500, third-most in history, and qualified once on the pole and five times on the front row. […]
Unser won the Indy car “Triple Crown” by winning all three of the 500-mile races on the 1978 schedule, which included stops at Pocono Raceway and in Ontario, California. He’s the only driver in history to win all three of those races in the same season.
The other four-time Indy 500 winners are .J. Foyt, Rick Mears and Hélio Castroneves. He also won the Indy Car national championship in 1970, 1983, and 1985.
Racer.com wrote this about the contrasting personalities of Bobby and Al:
Al’s older brother Bobby had a mouth and love for the spotlight that covered the entire family, and as fans flocked to an A.J. Foyt or Mario Andretti, Al Unser smiled warmly from a distance, content to let the adoration and cameras focus on the larger-than-life personalities.
Rooted in humility, free of self-importance, Unser’s values resonated with Indy’s largely Midwestern audience. His understated, workmanlike sensibilities felt familiar; if there was an IndyCar driver who just might stop on a country road and help you change a flat tire, it was “Big Al.” All the other trappings that came with his achievements, the stardom and attention, were currencies that held little value in Unser’s world. In driving, he found purpose and fulfillment, and boy, he was something to behold.
Bobby Unser had this to say about his brother during a 2017 interview:
“Al — he didn’t make mistakes. He went through his whole career without hardly making any mistakes. If the car was right, he is going to be tough to beat. He couldn’t do well with a car that wasn’t right.”
The Unsers’ father, Jerry, started a garage in 1935 along Route 66 in Albuquerque. They got into racing on the weekends, and the rest was history.
Sports Illustrated wrote that Bobby and Al once flooded Route 66 in Albuquerque when a valve stuck open on a water truck they “borrowed” from the city. The boys had a habit of commandeering any sort of equipment if the keys were left in the ignition.
The Unser Racing Museum, devoted to all the racing Unsers, is based in Albuquerque, not far from the site of the original Unser garage on 66.
(Image of Rick Mears, Al Unser and A.J. Foyt in June 2021 by Zach Catanzareti Photo via Flickr)