Apparently the Unser racing family’s deep roots in Albuquerque weren’t deep enough to keep its museum in the Duke City.
The Unser Racing Museum announced Friday it would close and move its massive collection to the Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed in Lincoln, Nebraska. The move is occurring despite the city offering $4 million to keep the museum in Albuquerque.
The museum’s final day in Albuquerque will be May 29.
The Albuquerque Journal had more details on the city’s efforts to get the museum to stay in town:
From 2003-06, the Journal reported, the New Mexico Legislature allocated some $4.3 million to help get the Unser Museum up and running at its current location on Montaño Bouelvard in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque. The Unser family essentially matched that figure.
In March of this year, Albuquerque City Councilor Klarissa Peña proposed that $4 million in infrastructure funds be allocated to relocate the museum from its original site to Unser and Central SW – in part in an effort to prevent the collection from being moved to Nebraska, as was rumored. The council voted to include $4 million for the Unser Museum in the general obligation bond package that will go to voters this fall.
A museum spokesman said the move to Nebraska was partly prompted by the reduced presence of Unsers in Albuquerque. Al Unser Sr., the museum’s founder with his wife, died in December 2021. His older brother Bobby died that year, as well. Al Unser Jr. lives in Indianapolis.
Before Al Sr.’s death, the family also had discussed moving the collection to a larger space with more traffic.
The Unsers’ father, Jerry, started a garage in 1935 along Route 66 in Albuquerque. They got into racing on the weekends, and the rest was history.
Sports Illustrated wrote that Bobby and Al once flooded Route 66 in Albuquerque when a valve stuck open on a water truck they “borrowed” from the city. The boys had a habit of commandeering any sort of equipment if the keys were left in the ignition.
The museum at 1776 Montano Road NW is not far from the site of the original Unser garage on 66, but you have less than a week to visit it before it closes.
(Image from inside the Unser Racing Museum in Albuquerque by Dick Thompson via Flickr)