Riverside Hails Uncle Bobby

Bobby Unser was inducted as a Legend of Riverside at the 4th annual celebration of the same name at California’s Riverside international Automotive Museum on the last weekend of March. As the event’s featured guest, Unser sat down for the traditional post-banquet interview with Ed Justice Jr., and happily told a number of entertaining stories about various aspects of his life in the sport. One of the questions concerned his multiple marriages, to which Bobby, gesturing toward his wife Lisa, provided the perfect rejoinder: “It took me a while to find the right one, but I have her now.”

A handful of significant cars from Unser’s career were on display in the museum, including the Norton Spirit Penske PC9B-Cosworth with which he won his third Indianapolis 500 in 1981, a replica of the 1968 Rislone Eagle-Offy he drove to his first Indy 500 victory, the groundbreaking 1972 Olsonite Eagle-Offy he used to obliterate the track records at Indianapolis and elsewhere, the Olsonite Eagle-Offy with which he won two races, took six poles and set four track records in 1971, and a Jorgenson Eagle 755-Chevrolet that he raced in Formula 5000.