Al Unser Jr.'s march to the 1994 PPG Indy Car World Series Championship started on the Streets of Long Beach, winning his first of eight races that season.
After a few days of eating Turkey sandwiches and watching old races, Classic Rewind is back with another vintage Indy car race. When last we left you, we asked you to choose among the runner-up finishers for our previous polls. Your choice this week is one of Al Unser Jr.'s first win with Team Penske, the 1994 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Long Beach was just Unser's third start with Team Penske, which he joined after several seasons with Galles Racing. He had finished 11th in Australia and second at Phoenix when the series returned to one of his favorite circuits.
With teammate and defending race winner Paul Tracy on the pole, Unser knew he had a strong car and when Tracy ran into trouble, Unser was ready to take control. He took a dominant win over reigning series champ Nigel Mansell and claimed his fifth win at "The Beach." It set the stage for Penske's dominant Month of May, but that's another story for another time.
Next week, we'll celebrate the five current drivers born in December - James Hinchcliffe (Dec. 5), Conor Daly (Dec. 15), Ryan Hunter-Reay (Dec. 17), Josef Newgarden (Dec. 22) and Tony Kanaan (Dec. 31) - by offering up their first race where they were on the podium.