Indianapolis 500

1987

INDIANAPOLIS (AP)- A little more than a week ago, three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser Sr. was without a ride for this year's race or a garage he could call home for the month. But Sunday afternoon he became a four-time Indianapolis champion as he came from behind to win the biggest, richest and most prestigious race in the world (video).

The storybook charge started unexpectedly with 23 laps to go when Mario Andretti, totally dominating the race to that point over second-running Roberto Guerrero who was a lap behind, suddenly slowed.

Three laps later Unser, who'd been running a distant third, drove into the history books as he charged passed Guerrero, whose car stalled in the final pit stop.

"Anyone lucky enough to win this race is indeed fortunate," said an emotional Unser in the victory circle. "But with what happened to me the last few weeks makes this win very, very special. It is an empty feeling to come here without a ride and not even a garage you can go to to call home for the month. That's hard on you when all you want to do is race," he said.

Unser joined A.J. Foyt as the only four-time winners of the race.

"Being tied with a man like A.J. is a great honor. He should have 10 wins by now," Unser said.

Unser had come to Indy in May expecting to get a ride with a new team. But when the deal fell through, the 47-year-old veteran was left walking the garage area like so many other jobless drivers.

Then, when Danny Ongais wrecked one of Roger Penske's Ilmore-Chevrolet-powered cars during practice May 7, suffering a concussion that put him out of the 500, Penske called Unser to fill in.

On the second weekend of qualifying, Unser put one of Penske's year-old March cars powered by a Ford-Cosworth into 20th starting position, in the middle of the seventh row, at 207.4 mph.

At the start of Sunday's race, teammates Josele Garza and Pancho Carter touched wheels, with Garza spinning between turns one and two. Unser, following the pair, accelerated past the accident, narrowly missing Garza's car.

Andretti had turned the 71st Indianapolis 500 into a nearly boring spectacle from that point on, zooming his Newman/Haas/Hanna Car Wash Lola-Chevy into a commanding lead.

But it was he who also put excitement back into the race by falling out of it with his long awaited second victory seemingly in hand.

Time after time on restarts after caution periods, Andretti had stormed his car back into commanding leads by storming away at speeds over 200 mph.

But on lap 177, on the main straightaway, the engine in his car suddenly gave up the punishing pace and its song suddenly and audibly went off-key.

To the roar of the standing crowd, estimated at half a million fans, Andretti pulled to the inside of the straight.

“It's just raw, raw disappointment," said the 47-year-old former world champion of Grand Prix.

"It's not the jinx everybody keeps saying to me. It just wasn't my day."

Twice Andretti's crew tried to correct the problem, but it was to no avail. Finally, in bitter disappointment, he parked the car and climbed almost painfully out.

"There was no one who could challenge us today," Andretti said. "I truly felt I was in control of the situation. Everything humanly possible was done to prepare the car. I've never driven a car so perfect. We just got cheated."

Andretti noted that it wasn't the new Ilmore-Chevrolet engine that had failed, but the fuel system.

Andretti, the pole winner, led 170 laps of the 200-lap race. He gave up the lead only for a lap at a time to Guerrero when he pitted for fuel, taking over again when the latter also made his stop.

At the halfway point, only Andretti and Guerrero were on the leaders lap; Unser was racing fourth, behind teammate Danny Sullivan.

On the 160th lap, Sullivan, who earlier had spun without touching a wall, dropped out with engine failure.

Earlier, front row starter Rick Mears, in the third Penske entry, another March-Chevy, had to park his car when it suffered ignition failure.

Fabrizio Barbazza of Italy finished third, becoming the top rookie driver. He was two laps off the leader's pace.

Al Unser Jr. finished fourth with his Domino's Pizza March-Cosworth. The younger Unser hugged his dad in an emotion-filled embrace: the winner had trouble talking for a moment afterward.

Two years ago the pair battled to the final race of the season for the CART Indy car national championship. The senior Unser beat his son by a single point.

Davy Jones of Cortland County's McGraw started his first Indy 500 from the inside of the 10th row in 28th place.

On the start, he charged his Skoal/Gilmore/UNO March-Cosworth hard, advancing two rows on the front straight.

He was in 22nd place at the end of three laps and trying to pass other cars when his engine broke a connecting rod on lap 34.

Teammate George Snider didn't even make it in the starting line because of an engine fire in his Calumet Farms March turbo Chevy V-6. He was placed 33rd and last.

Foyt, bidding for his fifth 500 victory in his record 30th start, had his engine go sour on lap 116 and was black-flagged out of the race with an oil leak. He'd been running ninth.

The fourth Foyt car, driven by rookie Stan Fox, ran a smooth race to finish seventh. Gary Bettenhausen, driving the Buffalo-based Genesee Beer Wagon, finished fifth.

There were 10 caution periods, but none was for a serious accident on the track. Tom Sneva hit the wall for the third time this month, but his car suffered minor damage.

However, spectator Lyle Kurtenbach, 41, of Rothchild, Wisc., died when he was hit by a wheel off Tony Bettenhausen's car. The wheel was hit by another car and knocked over the third turn wall into grandstand K. It was the first spectator fatality at Indy since 1938.

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