Motor Racing Roundup : Gant Wins 500-Miler; Waltrip Gains Points

Harry Gant ran off to an easy victory Sunday in the Delaware 500 Grand National stock car race at Dover, Del., while Darrell Waltrip hung on for a second-place finish and closed in on Bill Elliott’s season-point lead.

Gant, who won the 500-lap race on the one-mile, high-banked oval at Dover Downs International Raceway for the second straight year, pulled steadily away following his last pit stop of the day, 101 laps from the end.

“I feel perfect,” said Gant, who fought off the flu throughout the weekend. “I’m surprised that things went so well because I was so weak this morning. I’ve been taking medicine and I thought I might get sick.

“But everything just went great. We got the car absolutely perfect about halfway through the race.”

Meanwhile, Waltrip, who coasted across the finish line 28.8 seconds behind Gant when his car ran out of gas halfway through the last lap, drew within 86 points of Elliott with just six events left in the Winston Cup championship series.

Elliott, who dominated the early part of the race after starting from the pole, wound up 20th after a broken hub cost him 31 minutes in the garage area as his team replaced the Ford’s rear end.

Waltrip, who chopped 53 points from the lead when he won while Elliott was finishing 12th at Richmond, Va., a week earlier, this time sliced 68 points from the lead.

“We’ve got them (Elliott’s team) in our sights now,” Waltrip said. “We just have to take advantage of the situation.”

Waltrip, who ran out of gas halfway through the final lap, coasted across the finish line.

Brazil’s Ayrton Senna, driving a Lotus-Renault, mastered a rain-slicked track and won the Belgian Grand Prix, his second victory of the season, at Francorchamps, Belgium.

Britain’s Nigel Mansell in a Williams-Honda was second and France’s Alain Prost in a McLaren-TAG-Porsche finished third. The Frenchman increased his lead in the 1985 world championship to 16 points with three races to go.

Jack Ingram edged Larry Pearson by two feet to win the Late Model Sportsman feature of a 300-mile NASCAR stock car tripleheader at North Wilkesboro, N.C.

Ingram, of Asheville, N.C., drove his Pontiac into the lead in the 39th lap of the 150-lap event and led the rest of the way for his first North Wilkesboro victory. Pearson, of Spartanburg, S.C., collided with Ingram as they came off the fourth turn and headed for the finish. Their fenders were clashing as they crossed the line.