Johnny Unser

Infobox racing driver
name = John William Unser


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nationality = USA
date of birth = Birth date and age|1958|10|22
place of birth = Long Beach, California
date of death =
retired = 2001
related to = Jerry Unser (father)
Al Unser (uncle)
Bobby Unser (uncle)
Al Unser, Jr. (cousin)
Robby Unser (cousin)
last series = Indy Racing League IndyCar Series
years active = 1996-2000
teams = Project Indy
Byrd-Cunningham Racing
Hemelgarn Racing
starts = 15
wins = 0
poles = 0
fastest laps = 0
best finish = 24th
year = 1996-1997
prev series = CART
prev series years = 1993-1994
titles =
title years =
awards =
award years =

Johnny Unser (born October 22, 1958 in Long Beach, California) is a former race car driver. He is the son of open wheel driver Jerry Unser, cousin of Al Unser, Jr. and Robby Unser, nephew of Al Unser and Bobby Unser, and first cousin once removed of Alfred Unser. He made 5 starts in CART in 1993 and 1994 with a best result of 15th. He joined the Indy Racing League in its inaugural 1996 season but had a transmission failure during the pace lap of what would've been his first Indianapolis 500 and was not credited with a race start. In 1997 he made his first start in the Indy 500 starting in the 35th position after league and speedway owner Tony George added his and Lyn St. James' car to the field because slower cars than theirs were guaranteed starting positions because of prior races. He went on to finish 18th, his best "500" result in 5 starts. Unser drove the majority of his IRL races for Hemelgarn Racing and in his 14 career IRL starts he had a best finish of 9th in his very first series start in 1996 at Phoenix International Raceway. His last major open wheel race was the 2000 Indy 500.

On January 14th, 2008 Johnny Unser was named as the race director for the 2008 Champ Car Atlantic Championship. [ [http://www.tsn.ca/auto_racing/news_story/?ID=227283&hubname=auto_racing Johnny Unser named Atlantic Race Director] , TSN.ca, January 14, 2008]

Indy 500 results

References

External links

* [http://www.champcarstats.com/drivers/UnserJohnny.htm Johnny Unser at ChampCarStats.com]