Al Unser Jr is a legendary name associated with the IndyCar and Champ Car series, with two championship and Indy 500 victories to his name.
While Charles Leclerc is ridiculed for his poor pole position-to-win ratio in Formula 1, such statistics didn’t affect Unser during his career.
In fact, he had 31 victories to just seven poles, across a near 25-year single-seater career at the top level of North American racing.
His last race came at the 2007 Indy 500, some 13 years after he had earned his second accolade, and now he has revealed where it all started.
Al Unser Jr started racing in sprint cars instead of karts
Most drivers in the current age start their careers in go-karts, learning the basics of car control and how to hone their craft.
From there it’s a big step to single-seaters and the junior categories before the big leagues arrive if they can perform to a high enough standard.
Speaking on The Details Podcast, he revealed how his career started unusually by today’s standards, with a foray into dirt racing on a little quarter mile track.
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“I went to sprint cars at a local track that my dad and uncle bought me,” he said. “Now that track doesn’t exist anymore, but it was called Speedway Park in Albuquerque.
“It was a little quarter-mile dirt track and so I did that for the next three years.”
How Unser Jr followed in the footsteps of his father
Al Unser Jr managed to follow in the footsteps of his father just five years after he won the Indy 500 for the last time.
His maiden triumph in 1992 went down in history as the closest finish ever – winning by a margin of just 0.043 seconds from Scott Goodyear.
In 1994 he won in dominant style, easing to victory after taking pole position – a complete contrast to two years prior.
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He would also go on to win his second and final championship that year, etching his name into the history books forever.
One forgotten bit of his past was his entry into the 1993 Daytona 500, which didn’t quite go as planned when he finished in 81st place.