Al Unser III knows the risks of the game. You get in a race car and at any moment your life can spin out of control. You can end up in a wheelchair. Or worse.
And here's the grizzliest truth, a truth Unser understands only too well: All those terrible things can find the sweetest people in the most innocent of circumstances.
On Feb. 5, 1999, Unser's sister Cody was at a Grade 6 basketball practice at home in Albuquerque.
Suddenly, she felt tired and out of breath. Cody developed a fierce headache. Her legs felt numb. She was taken to emergency but sent back home a few hours later.
The next morning, Cody was unable to walk. A paralysis took hold of her below her chest. It was that fast.
She was diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis, a relatively rare disease that causes the inflammation of the spinal column. It can be caused by viral infections, spinal cord injuries, immune reactions or insufficient blood to the spinal cord. Multiple sclerosis, smallpox and measles, even a complication from a chickenpox vaccination can bring it on as well.
Or, for no discernible reason, it can attack a Grade 6 kid with no health issues and put her in a wheelchair, maybe for life.
"A third of the people fully recover," the 22-year-old Unser said. "A third of the people recover and have a limp or something like that. A third of the people don't recover which is, sadly I believe, where my sister is at."
On the weekend, the cameras will be on hand to watch Cody, 18, and her brother Al, put a Cody Unser First Step Foundation sticker on the No. 10 car Unser will drive in the Toyota Atlantic event on Sunday at the Toronto Molson Indy.
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The Foundation is known as First Step, but there have been countless little steps since Cody's initial diagnosis. It has developed into a full-fledged organization with research, public information, fundraising and publicity arms. Just 18, Cody is quite a kid. She is headed for college this fall and has met the President of the United States.
That said, her illness came at a devastating time. Al Unser Jr, Little Al in the racing fraternity, was divorcing the kids' mother Shelley and and had left the house.
"It was a real depressing time for everybody," Unser said. "My parents were going through their divorce. Cody got sick and now was in a wheelchair."
Unser was just a kid of 16 himself.
"I didn't step up into the Dad position," said Unser, sounding every inch like a racer. "I think I just upped my brother position."
"A lot of times, he'd put my chair in the back of his car and take me out with his friends," Cody said. "He showed me that life really does go on."
Now Al Unser III comes with a pedigree. Al Unser Jr. won two CART tiles and two Indianapolis 500s. Al Unser, the original, won four Indy 500s.
But Al Unser III didn't take the usual career steps by cutting his teeth in go-carting carts and inculcating himself in the family's racing legacy.
"I felt the pressure of the name," he said. "When I was 10 years old, people were asking me if I was going to be as good a driver as my Dad. It scared me a bit. My Dad always said we could do whatever we wanted as long as we worked hard at it but people were pushing me (toward racing) and I pushed back."
Eventually, the sport drew him back.
After two years at college studying marine biology and sports psychology, Unser competed in a handful of Toyota Atlantic Championship events in 2004. He has upped that number to 10 this year and has a fourth place finish in Cleveland. His progress has been steady. There is a sense he is ready to break through.
And there is something else to race for.
Unser is heavily involved in his sister's organization and the higher and faster the climb through the development ladder, the more publicity and impetus he can generate for Cody's foundation (codysfirststep.org).
"I thought I'd better try this (racing) to make sure this wouldn't be something I would regret not doing," he said.
"Seeing Cody just gives me inspiration to do that, to go out and stand on the gas, to give it my best and try my hardest."
"He's a great race car driver, but he's the greatest big brother anywhere," Al Unser III's biggest fan said.
"I don't know where I'd be without him."
