Al Unser Jr. held off tenacious Emerson Fittipaldi in a tough street battle Sunday to win his third straight Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
The 28-year-old Unser led for all but four of the 95 laps on the 1.67-mile, 11-turn downtown circuit, beating Fittipaldi, the defending CART Indy-car series champion, to the finish line by 1.724 seconds.Unser, who now has 10 career victories - all on road courses or temporary street circuits like Long Beach - started from the pole for the second straight year and was in control most of the way.
He drove his Chevrolet-powered 1990 Lola to leads of up to 12.56 seconds - on lap 48 - over Fittipaldi, who started second and stayed there most of the way.
Unser averaged 84.227 mph and earned $143.908.
There were no serious accidents and no injuries were reported in the race run before a sun-drenched crowd estimated at 80,000.