1980s The team first competed in a partial CART season in 1980, then was away from CART until 1983 when it fielded a car for rookie
Al Unser Jr. Unser left the team after the 1984 season. For 1985, Galles fielded the
Buick V-6 engine at the
Indy 500, with driver
Pancho Carter winning the pole position. Carter, however, dropped out early and finished last. In 1986-1987, Galles Racing became the primary support team for the new
Brabham-Honda engine (later known as the Judd AV).
Geoff Brabham and
Jeff MacPherson fielded the engine at Indy in 1987, with MacPherson finishing a respectable 8th. Later in the season, Brabham scored second-place finishes at the
Pocono 500 and at
Road America. In 1988,
Al Unser Jr. returned to the team, and the entry was granted a lease for the Ilmor Chevrolet Indy-V-8 engine. In 1989, Unser Jr. then driving his familiar
Valvoline-sponsored Chevy machine, nearly won the
Indy 500, finishing second after crashing out with just over a lap to go in a famous duel with
Emerson Fittipaldi. car at
Laguna Seca Raceway in 1991
Championship years After the 1989 season, Galles merged teams with Maurice Kranes (who had fielded
Kraco-sponsored cars for
Michael Andretti and then
Bobby Rahal). Kranes brought Rahal and Kraco with him, while Unser Jr. remained in the Valvoline-sponsored machine. The team competed as
Galles-Kraco Racing from 1990 to 1992 and Unser won the
1990 CART Championship with five wins. The Galles-Kraco duo of Unser and
Bobby Rahal was one of the top teams in CART during that period. Unser and Rahal teamed up for three 1-2 finishes, including the 1990
Michigan 500. The two drivers finished on the podium in the same race six times. Rahal himself earned an impressive, yet frustrating, eleven second-place finishes for the team in 1990-1991. Rahal finished fourth in the championship in 1990 and second in the championship in 1991, winning one race in 1991. Al Unser Jr. finished third in points in both 1991 and 1992. Rahal was replaced in 1992 by veteran
Danny Sullivan as the team introduced their new proprietary
Galmer chassis. Unser won the
1992 Indianapolis 500 in a Galmer in what would be the closest finish in race history. Despite winning, the Galmer chassis was scrapped after only one season. Sullivan won the race at Long Beach, after being involved in a controversial incident with less than four laps to go. Unser Jr. was leading the race, and Sullivan was running second. The two cars tangled, and Unser was sent spinning into a tire barrier, while Sullivan went on to win. The incident created friction inside the team. Unser and Sullivan retained their seats in 1993, and were joined by
Kevin Cogan and Mexican rookie
Adrián Fernández, who would share a third car for selected races throughout the season. At the 1993 Indy 500, Sullivan was the first to retire from the race after a crash, but Unser finished in 8th place and Cogan finished 14th. After a lackluster season that saw only three podium finishes, Unser would leave for
Penske Racing, and Sullivan moved into semi-retirement (he raced stock cars in 1994, and raced for
PacWest in 1995). The final two wins of Sullivan's Indy car career came with the team, but it was later revealed that behind-the-scenes, there was a toxic atmosphere and internal friction inside the team that got worse when Sullivan tangled with Unser; it led to Sullivan being fired before the season concluded, right when Sullivan was not in a position to easily find himself a new job. For 1994, Fernández was the team's lone entry, as the team reverted to its Galles Racing name. Fernández was joined by Brazilian journeyman
Marco Greco for 1995, with a 3rd place for Fernández at the Michigan 500 being their best finish for the season.
Transition to IRL 1996 saw several drivers in Galles cars as the team was one of the few CART teams to cross over and compete in the rival Indy Racing League's first
Indianapolis 500 with driver
Davy Jones who finished second. Jones also drove a partial schedule in CART while rookie and former Motorcycle champion
Eddie Lawson drove Galles' full-time CART entry. In
1997 the team moved full-time to the IRL with rookie
Kenny Bräck. Bräck switched to
A. J. Foyt Enterprises for
1998 and the team again ceased operations. Galles returned in
1999 with veteran
Davey Hamilton. Hamilton was replaced in
2000 by a returning Al Unser Jr., who was switching over from CART after being released from Penske Racing. Unser was one of the first CART stars to switch full-time to the IRL. The team's final year was
2001 where Unser was joined by rookies
Didier André and
Casey Mears.
Summary Throughout the team's 22-year history, their drivers captured 21 wins - 18 by Al Unser Jr. (6 in 1990, 4 in 1988, 2 in 1991 and 1 each in 1984, 1989, 1992, 1993, 2000, and 2001), two by Danny Sullivan (1 each in 1992 and 1993), and one by Bobby Rahal in 1991 in addition to capturing the 1990 CART championship and 1992 Indianapolis 500 with Unser. ==Former drivers==