Racing Dynasties

Due to the peccadilloes and vag­aries of the publishing world, I sit here writing this column in the beginning of May (don’t ask!). In fact, just a few days ago the Indianapolis Motor Speedway officially opened its gates for the month-long high-holiday that is the Indianapolis 500. This year, the month’s festivities were kicked off with a landmark that, to my knowledge, has never before occurred in the history of motorsport. On opening day, three generations of professional drivers from one racing family took to the track at the same time for a few ceremonial laps. This historic family, of course, being the Andrettis with grandfather(!) Mario, son Michael and grandson Marco all whizzing around the track in formation. While it may seem trivial, and a bit of a publicity stunt, it really is something of a milestone that, by my count, only three racing families can lay claim to.

Of course, if you’re talking about racing dynasties like the Andrettis, you have to also talk about the Unsers. Here is a family with top-flight racers not only up and down the family tree, but also laterally across the branches. Like the Andrettis, the Unsers have three generations of professional drivers consisting of Big Al (Sr.), Little Al (Jr.) and now Mini-Al (III). Undoubtedly, it won’t be long before we’ll be hearing about Micro-Al, Pico-Al and Femto-Al. While the Unsers may be a phenomenal racing family, they do seem to lack a certain imagination when it comes to family nomenclature.