"THE ROBBY & BOBBY UNSER
SHOW HITS INDY STAGE"

Published in Johnson County, Ind., Daily Journal, May 20,1998 ©

         Looking at the two strikingly similar faces, one could easily have thought they had come unstuck in time, like Billy Pilgrim in "Slaughterhouse Five."

         Both narrow, sharply chiseled and unmistakably shaken from the racing Unsers' family tree, the faces sharing the spotlight for a while Saturday afternoon at the Indy 500 track could only be distinguished by the generation of time wedged between them.

         In one chair, Bobby Unser, his face familiar to anyone who ever took a good look at the Borg-Warner Trophy, leaned back in a posture not seen before at Indy, that of a proud father in a white polo shirt and blue jeans. Seated beside him, son Robby Unser, encased in the cream-colored driving suit with red trim that he had just worn to qualify for his first 500, leaned forward to answer questions about his 216-mph qualifying run.

         No one could look at the faces without feeling like Indiana author Kurt Vonnegut's classic unstuck-in-time pilgrim. They were the same faces -- one smooth, smiling and optimistic, the other, just to the younger's right, the same but older, craggier and more inclined to ramble toward retrospection.

         "Heck, I was 29 years old when I came here," father Bobby recollected in the direct, animated Western tone identified with the three-time Indy winner and, more recently, TV race commentator, regarding the belated Indy arrival of the 30-year-old rookie to his left.

         "I didn't think I could ever make it, but, by the same token, I did and ended up winning this thing two or three times.

         "So, if Robby is a little bit older -- nah, he's not too old, that's for sure."

         And, if what was supposed to be the Robby Unser show turned into "Father Knows Best," no one should have been surprised. Father Bobby was never known for putting mufflers on his race cars or his mouth.

         "We figured Robby would be here someday," the craggier of the two Unser faces went on, unmuffled. "Things happen the way they happen. He just had to come here on his own. Nobody sat back and let Daddy try to buy him a ride. Little Al (cousin Al Unser Jr.) didn't give him money for it.

         "He's had to go out and do a reasonable amount of hustling on his own."

         The Indy legend, now 64, kept the pedal down on his fatherly pride when asked if this week with his son at Indy had drawn them closer in the racing family portrait.

         "Well, I don't think there is any difference," the Mt. Rushmore of Racing candidate reckoned.

         "This isn't the first of these goat-ropin' contests we've been to, you know," he added with a laugh and lilt to his voice that would have been right at home back in New Mexico, where the Unser legacy first put down roots.

         "But it might be the biggest, no doubt about that. But it's not the first. I could reminisce back about puttin' Robby into a stock car when he was 15 years old and seein' him damn near win that first race.

         "I couldn't believe my eyes. I couldn't have been a more proud father than I was that night."

         Robby, when he finally could get a word into the talk show, echoed his father's sentiments.

         "I just know it's been a neat week," said the new-to-Indy driver who will start 21st on race day Sunday. "I think we've always been close. I just hope Dad is very proud and happy today."

         Dad clearly was -- and, of course, wasn't reluctant to tell everyone within listening range what it all meant to Indy-car racing's premier family, holders of nine victories in the May classic, to have its sixth member in the 500.

         "The only thing I can tell you is that it brings the whole family together," Bobby said. "Everybody just pulls in one direction. We all want to see Robby do good.

         "Isn't that nice for a family?"

         Young Robby had his father, his uncle (Al Sr.) and two cousins (Al Jr. and Johnny) in his corner this week. He also had veteran driver Eddie Cheever there, as the owner of the red-white-and-blue No. 52 Dallara-Aurora he qualified Saturday at 216.534 mph.

         "I think it's the best opportunity I've had in my life," Robby noted, his smile providing the only creases in his avocado-shaped Unser face. "This team has given me the most to be able to do what I'm trying to do, and it all came together here. So, I'm pretty happy."

         But the most permanently creased face of the two would have -- or seize -- the last words. Asked if it bothered him to watch his son race into the sport where danger never takes any time off, Bobby assured everyone in a tone as rock-solid as the Rockies: "Certainly it does. I've been hurt quite a few times.

         "I've got aching places all over me. You can't believe what it's like to get out of bed in the morning sometimes."

         "But, remember, young people don't see fear the way older people do," Bobby rambled on, a smile starting to sweep into one corner of his mouth like the second hand of a stopwatch. "Robby doesn't start a race thinking that he's going to get hurt.

         "You're kind of invincible and immune when you're young. That's the way it's supposed to be."

         "That's the reason the soldiers are all young and not old guys like us," he concluded, his smile coming completely unstuck in its pilgrimage across the most familiar Unser face, "because we get a lot smarter. Actually, it's so much safer than it used to be that a guy oughta be able to die of old age over here."

----------

 Copyright 1998 by Jerry Miller ©

 Return to Writings page