microphone pict ©1999 SpeedCenter
Interview by Greg Spotts, Exclusive to SpeedCenter

Al Unser Jr.: We need to go out there and execute

gotta re-adjust the brace

Al Unser Jr. is heading to Nazareth on a bus filled with troubles. After sustaining a serious crash in the first lap of the 1999 CART season at Homestead on March 21st, the two-time champion has been rehabilitating his right ankle and watching from the sidelines for the first time in his eighteen-season career. Unser is second among active drivers with 31 CART victories, and yet he hasn't won a race since September 3rd 1995. Meanwhile his daughter Cody recently contracted a rare illness that has paralyzed her from the chest down, and there are reports that Al's long marriage to Shelly Unser may be on the rocks.

Speedcenter caught up with Little Al on Wednesday on his way to Nazareth, and found him to be the same relentlessly upbeat character that his fans have come to love over the years. As always, Al was consistently jovial and laughed at many points in the interview. He was bullish about his chances to win and refused to make excuses or criticize his equipment. Rather than a man under siege, Al sounded like a born racer who couldn't wait to get back to his favorite place, the cockpit.


 

Question: Where are you calling from right now?

    Al Unser Jr.: I'm somewhere in Ohio in my Newell motorhome, on the way to Nazareth.

Question: Do you have your foot up?

    Al Unser Jr.: I do. My driver's driving us there.

Question: How's the ankle feeling today?

    Al Unser Jr.: The ankle's feeling really good. I tested St. Louis Monday and Tuesday. The sad thing was that we got rained out both days. I only got about 30 laps in on Tuesday, and that's about what I got in on Monday too. Driving the car on Monday, definitely the ankle did better than even I thought it was going to, and so it's good.

Question: What did it feel like emotionally to be back in your car?

    Al Unser Jr.: It felt really good. What can I say, the best therapy for me was to get in my Marlboro car and drive it. The ankle was no problem, it was great.

Question: Can you tell me how the ankle brace works?

    Al Unser Jr.: Well, it's a carbon fiber brace that doesn't let my ankle twist. The only thing with the brace is the fact that if anything does happen we don't want the ankle to twist. I can move it up and down freely, but if I go twisting it at all, that's going to be bad.

Question: So you can point your toes, But the sides are very rigid?

    Al Unser Jr.: Right. I can point my toes up and down, but I'm not allowed to twist my ankle, go side to side with my ankle, or put any weight at all on my ankle. Those are the three things I can't do.

Question: The throttle is a tiny bit of weight I guess?

    Al Unser Jr.: The throttle is just up and down, I can go up and down with it.

Question: What does the brace force you to do with your feet that's different than how you'd normally drive the car?

    Al Unser Jr.: I got a little bit bigger pair of Nike shoes, and that's it. [laughs]

Question: You've always been a left foot braker?

    Al Unser Jr.: Yes I have.

Question: So if that wasn't the case, driving with the brace would be a lot harder.

    Al Unser Jr.: That's true, if all I did was heel and toe, then the right foot does most of the work and it would be hurting. Or, if I was to hurt my left ankle, then I'd be in trouble also.

Question: Baseball and basketball fans are used to seeing big star players sit out because of a pulled muscle. You can't walk, and your throttle foot is in a brace; Why are you so determined to get back in the car this weekend?

    Al Unser Jr.: I'm very lucky to be in a sport that I can do this. We can drive the car, we can drive it hard, and so we need to get in there and get some points in order to win this championship and put the #1 back on that Marlboro car. We're physically able to do it, so as long as we're physically able to do it at the at the level we need to then we're going to do it.

Question: What did Dr Trammel say about the risk of re-injury by doing this?

    Al Unser Jr.: Well, it's the same risk as any other driver out there. If we get in an accident that's strong enough to break bones, it's going to break bones. What makes me a little bit higher risk is that if I break my right ankle again, I've got a bunch of screws and plates in there, and that would not be good. [nervous laughter] That would be the only difference between me and Michael or Jimmy Vasser.

Question: Was your doctor supportive of your decision to go back in the car now?

    Al Unser Jr.: Oh definitely. That's why I went to Dr. Trammel. He know what racing is, he knows all about racing, and he knows the desires of all the drivers that he's worked on to get back in the car ASAP, and he's wonderful at it.

Question: Have you had a chance to test the new Speedway Wings at Nazareth?

    Al Unser Jr.: I tested there in late February or early March. What can I say, we're going to go give it a try this weekend. I think once everybody settles down and once they start having a setup on the car, the we're going to be fine. I think it's going to be a good competitive race. Hopefully there will be allowance for more passing. We're not going to find out until we get into the race, and then we'll know more about what these little wings are going to do on the short ovals.

Question: Tarso Marques tested well at Nazareth in late March.

    Al Unser Jr.: He did run good there. So I feel that the guys have a good setup on the car, so we'll find out.

Question: Some of your competitors are a little worried out loud which is kind of unusual?

    Al Unser Jr.: I don't know. Hopefully we've got a good setup and we'll attack this.

Question: Could you take us around the track at Nazareth and tell me what you're going to be doing in each turn?

    Al Unser Jr.: Turn one is going to be a wide open corner, it's a dogleg to the left. It is a real corner, but it'll be wide open. Turn two, you enter that one, you'll lift a little bit, you'll virtually use no brakes at all, hopefully you'll run that with a lot of throttle going through. Turn two's a very long corner, and by the time you're coming out of that you've been wide open for a ways. Going down the back stretch, it's kind of downhill, and we'll go into that corner. I believe most people will be downshifting one gear to go into turn three, and then you'll accelerate off, you'll use a little bit of brakes, but you'll be after the throttle right away again, bringing you out onto the start finish line again. It's a very short track, a lot of cornering, it's pretty narrow, and it's the fastest one-mile oval in the world.

Question: You have a pretty unique perspective of doing this for 18 seasons. Do you think that the risks of driving in CART have changed, or have your feelings about those risks changed as you've gotten older?

    Al Unser Jr.: Not at all, actually. [laughs] The only thing that's changed is the competitiveness of the series. With the tire war, and the engine manufacturer's war that's going on in CART, it's been super-competitive. It's only become harder to win in our series as the years have gone by. Competition breeds good things and that's what's happened here.

Question: Because it's so competitive, do you have to operate closer to the edge, to the limit in order to win?

    Al Unser Jr.: I don't know, I think we operated pretty close to the edge when I was a rookie. [laughs] Winning in my business is everything. Ever since I was a rookie, it's been very very tough to run the top five. The competitiveness of the tires and the engines makes it very hard to run the top fifteen. That's what's happened in our series- you've got eight different podium people in the first three races, three different winners.

Question: Were you impressed watching Montoya in Long Beach?

    Al Unser Jr.: Yeah, I was impressed watching him when we were testing this winter. He does a good job. The thing that was shown and proven in Long Beach is: that's the defending champion's car right there. They are the ones to beat. Chip and the whole team does a great job. What they've proven is just because Zanardi's gone doesn't mean they don't have a shot at this championship. They are the guys to beat, the ones to knock off the top.

Question: Have you become friends with any of the young drivers, have any of them looked to you as a mentor?

    Al Unser Jr.: A little bit. I'm president of the Championship Drivers Association, I've been the president for a couple years now. I tell all the rookies that come into our series and all the young drivers they can come ask me anything at any time, and we'll give them the straight shoot.

Question: What's your relationship like with Michael Andretti?

    Al Unser Jr.: Michael and I are good friends. We've been competing against each other for a long time. Sometimes he wins some and sometimes I win some. It's been really a great relationship over the years and it's just gets better.

Question: Let me ask you a couple of equipment questions. I talked to your crew chief Rick Rinaman the other day, he said that "We're the only one with the car, so the only information we get is from one driver, unlike a Reynard or Swift that has input from every team that is running it." Do you think that not having data from other people driving this chassis, and your own loss of seat time due to injury puts you at a competitive disadvantage?

    Al Unser Jr.: Not at all. I've got a great team of engineers behind this race car. I've got a great bunch of mechanics that make it reliable. This car is developed to go out there and be better than the Reynard, and I feel that it is. So we need to go out there and execute and have reliability. If we can do these things and have some luck on our side that we really haven't had in the last few years, if we can get that luck turned around a little bit then we'll be right there.

Question: Do you think you and Gil de Ferran have an edge by being the only top-level drivers with Goodyear? Are you guys getting special attention and the chance to give a lot of input?

    Al Unser Jr.: We are. We're working very hard with Goodyear, and Goodyear's working very hard with us. I think it's pretty evident so far that Goodyear's very competitive by looking at what's happened with Michael going from Goodyear to Firestone. As the season goes on we'll know a lot more about what's going to happen this year within the tire war. Right now I feel that Goodyear's super-competitive. If we can give them the same quality of effort and development that they're giving us, we can win some races and win this championship.

Question: Some of your competitors have publicly expressed fears about the new speedway wings.

    Al Unser Jr.: Driveability with the engine is always an issue [laughs] and you can always make it better. That is definitely one of the things that we'll be working with Mercedes and they'll be working with us on as the weekend progresses.

Question: I hear that you're a big music fan. If you could meet one person from the rock world, who would it be?

    Al Unser Jr.: Who would it be, who would it be? I wouldn't mind meeting Eddie Van Halen. That would be great. We need to invite him to a race.