Auto Racing Roundup : Bill Elliott Earns a Record Victory

Bill Elliott won a record 11th superspeedway victory Sunday at Atlanta International Raceway and closed to within 20 points of Darrell Waltrip in the battle for NASCAR’s Grand National championship.

Elliott, driving a Ford, finished 4.28 seconds ahead of Cale Yarborough in the Atlanta Journal 500 to complete a sweep of this year’s races at the 1 1/2-mile track. His other victory came in March when he drove with a broken leg.

By winning Sunday, Elliott broke David Pearson’s record of 10 superspeedway victories in a single season set in 1973.

Elliott picked up 15 points on Waltrip for his first victory in two months. His 10th victory came at Darlington, S.C., on Sept. 1.

By winning 185 points--the most he could possibly claim--Elliott now has a total of 4,121 points. Waltrip, who finished third Sunday in a Chevrolet, has 4,141 points.

To win his third national championship, Waltrip must finish first or second in the season finale Nov. 17 at Riverside, or place third and lead the most laps. Elliott must win the race and lead the most laps to walk off with his first championship.

“Boy, I tell you what, it’s going to get interesting,” Elliott said after pushing his total season winnings to $2,034,468, a motor-sports record. “All I can do (at Riverside) is go run as hard as I can, which is what I did today.”

Said Waltrip: “We knew going into the race that we wanted to lose the least amount of points possible. I think we came out in great shape. Now, we’ll play cat and mouse with him at Riverside. Riverside is a fair place to decide the championship. The driver, to a degree, is more in control of his destiny there than anywhere else on the circuit.”

Keke Rosberg of Finland mastered the scorching, 86-degree weather, a new street circuit and a challenge from Brazil’s Ayrton Senna to win the inaugural Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Adelaide in his Honda-powered Williams.

He finished 46 seconds ahead of the French Ligier drivers Jacques Laffite and Philippe Streiff. The Frenchmen had a minor collision in the second to last lap in an incident-filled 82-lap, 192.45-mile race that brought the 1985 season to a close.

The victory boosted Rosberg’s point total for the season to 40 and earned him third place in the driver’s championship behind new World Champion Alain Prost of France and Michele Alboreto of Italy. Prost finished the season with 76 points and Alboreto with 53, but neither was among the finishers Sunday.

Lou Sell of Kealakekua, Hawaii, and Willy T. Ribbs of San Jose won the featured 100-mile races at the inaugural St. Petersburg Grand Prix at St. Petersburg. Fla.

Sell’s victory in the Can-Am race was harder to come by than Ribbs’ wire-to-wire Trans-Am victory. Sell had to rally from as far back as fifth place and did not lead until the 38th lap of the 50-lap race.

Ribbs, meanwhile, was seldom challenged in winning the 35-car Trans-Am race. His Mercury Capri qualified No. 1 at 84.606 m.p.h. and led all 50 laps. Ribbs averaged 79.910 m.p.h. and won by a margin of 45.186.