Bobby Unser has died
 

Bobby Unser has died at the age of 87 from natural causes. https://sports.yahoo.com/bobby-unser...160440198.html or https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/03/s...nser-dead.html He won Indy three times, and Pikes Peak thirteen times - three times in a row in a Pontiac-powered Kurtis Champ car.

This is a video of him driving a Champ car (not the Pontiac powered one) at Pikes Peak in 1966: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NUH5_llTbg

Legend.

May Bobby Rest In Peace.

Bart

Remember him from a news article one time where he and a couple of friends were trapped in a snow storm and dug a snow cave to ride out the storm.
He had a great skill with driving vehicles but I admired the other skills he possessed, like being able to overcome ANY Challenge.

Rest in Peace Mr Unser. You were one of a kind.

Tom Vaught

Watch his sort of racing through the 1970s.

A true racing legend, along with his brothers. RIP

Does anyone have specifics on the Pontiac Powered rides?

It was an older Kurtis Champ car. There are bits and pieces about it out there on the Internet but I haven't found any in depth features. I recall from a picture in an old Hot Rod magazine that the Pontiac engine was fuel injected. There was also a Pontiac sedan raced in 1960 by Louis Unser.

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1620171899

Sad news, I met him a couple of times when he was running the Pike Peaks Hill Climb in the 1980's, very nice guy and talented driver. I even had the chance to sample his Wifes home made chile while watching him sprint up the mountain. Great memories. RIP Bobby

That 66 race in the first post. He had "Driftin'" All figured out long long ago!

Most likely one of the purpose built race engines crafted by Ray Nichels in 58 or 59. They used a modified Pontiac block and heads, then added custom rotating assy, dry sump oiling, Hunt Vertex magneto, and Hilborn fuel injection. Then they added custom made magnesium timing cover, tach and fuel pump drives, valve covers, sump pan, and water pump housing. Magnesium pieces were done by Halibrand. The finished product weighed in at 580 lbs. Don't know how many were built but they wanted to build Indy car and sports car versions for $5000. I have found a picture of the car Bobby ran in 60 and it is a early Curtis upright champ car, and the hood is flat, suggesting the fuel injection. It ran in 1960 with the Pontiac and then a Chevrolet engine in 1961 which Bobby said was much lighter and was faster. He won both years.

Rest In Peace.
 

A True racing legend. Rest In Peace. 🙏

There's a preview of Bobby Unser's book available on Google Books. If you click this link and then scroll down to pages 34-36, it says he bought the car from Jack Zink in Tulsa and the engine was built from spare parts provided by Dick Hall, brother of Jim Hall of Chaparral fame. Zink was an engineer who ran a big time company in the oil industry, and he also raced as well as sponsored a lot of race cars - Indy cars, stock cars and desert offroad.

https://www.google.com/books/edition...C?hl=en&gbpv=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Zink

My old friend, Bud Brown, had several humorous stories about the Unser brothers from his days at IMS. The one about Bobby and Al, Sr. racing up an unfinished I-465 from the airport to IMS is the most humorous.

I couldn't have said it any better Bart. :thumbup:

RIP Bobby. :usa2:

My mother who passed away just over 2 years ago at age 86 grew up in Lovington New Mexico and knew the Unser family. She told me she had briefly dated one of the Unser brothers. She couldn’t remember which one because so much time has passed but I suspect it was Bobby because they were close in age.

Small world. :)

My wife was a Docent at the Unser museum in Albq. New Mexico for some time. We spent many a weekend at the museum doing nothing but polishing all the awards in the museum. We had a wonderfull weekend with the Unsers at their home in Chama NM.