Andretti Wins 200-Mile Race; Sneva Second

Mario Andretti led all but four laps Sunday and won a 200-mile championship car race at the Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway near Milwaukee.

Andretti beat Tom Sneva across the finish line by 12.72 seconds to win the Miller American, a race he dominated from start to finish.

Rick Mears finished third. Indy 500 winner Danny Sullivan was fourth.

Andretti, who won the pole with a track-record lap of 147.608 m.p.h., averaged 124.162 m.p.h. to break the track record for a 200-mile event. The old record was 121.907, set by Al Unser in August, 1976.

It was Andretti’s 44th championship car career victory and his second straight this year. His son, Jeff, won a Super-Vee race preceding the championship car race to give the Andrettis a sweep.

Another son, Michael, finished 19th in the 200-mile race as he had to quit after 177 laps because of engine problems.

Driver Stuart Lyndon of Asheville, N.C., who has raced at Ascot Park in Gardena, was killed in a one-car crash during the running of the Georgia ARCA 500-kilometer stock-car race at the Atlanta International Raceway.

Lyndon crashed coming out of the second turn on the 32nd lap.

Lyndon, 35, is a native of New Zealand who had been living in Asheville for the last eight years.

Names of major league baseball players could still surface in the Pittsburgh grand jury investigation of drug trafficking, possibly as soon as Friday.

That is when at least six of the seven men indicted on 165 drug counts are to be arraigned and enter pleas before a U.S. magistrate in Pittsburgh.

“I’ll bet there are a lot of players who hope these fellows will plead guilty,” a man familiar with the two-year investigation was quoted as telling the New York Times. “If they don’t, that’s the only way the names are going to surface.”

If any of the seven pleads guilty or is offered and chooses to plea bargain, he will not stand trial. If anyone pleads innocent, there will be a trial and names of witnesses or others implicated as buyers could be divulged.

The New York Times said Sunday that sources familiar with the investigation say the alleged dealers sold drugs to players. Dealers, not players, are said to be the targets of the 14-month investigation directed by U.S. Attorney J. Alan Johnson.

Southern Methodist University, reportedly informed it will be penalized for major football recruiting violations, will sue the NCAA and challenge the entire enforcement procedure, the Dallas Times Herald reported.

The suit will claim SMU, facing its fourth set of sanctions by the NCAA in 11 years, is the victim of discrimination and the whole NCAA enforcement procedure is unfair, an unidentified source told the Times Herald.

The Dallas Morning News, meanwhile, reported the school boosters have pledged to pay for the suit.

SMU was informed of the results of the NCAA’s 26-month investigation Thursday but has not commented publicly on what was concluded. The NCAA also has refused to reveal its findings.

Donald Fehr, acting executive director of the baseball players’ association, said he expects the union’s executive board to decide on a strike date 10 days either side of July 1, a decision which could jeopardize the All-Star Game.

Fehr said he hoped a strike around the date of the July 16 All-Star game in Minneapolis could be avoided.

“I hope it’s going to end up to be very unlikely. I would like nothing better than to have an agreement wrapped up ahead of time,” Fehr told NBC-TV. “Obviously a strike is a last resort and obviously nobody wants it.”

The last collective bargaining agreement, reached after a 50-day mid-season strike in 1981, expired Dec. 31.

The College Football Assn.’s coaches’ committee recommended giving players $600 a year for incidental expenses and funding the allowance by making them pay for their “complimentary” tickets.

Under the plan disclosed by Vince Dooley of Georgia, chariman of the committee and president of the American Football Coaches Assn., the $600 stipend would be distributed over a 10-month period.

At one time, schools could give their athletes $15 a month for incidentals. Proposals to restore some sort of allowance have been turned down at NCAA conventions for a number of years.