Motor Racing Roundup : Earnhardt Wins the TranSouth 500 at Darlington by Three Lengths Over Waltrip

Dale Earnhardt shook off Harry Gant and then outran Darrell Waltrip to win the 30th TranSouth 500 Sunday at Darlington, S.C.

At the finish, only Earnhardt and Waltrip were on the same lap, and Waltrip was three lengths behind. Waltrip probably would have been farther back if Richard Petty had not crashed and brought out a caution flag five-laps earlier.

Earnhardt earned $52,250 of the $406,895 total purse.

Earnhardt led for 335 of the race’s 367 laps, but had Gant on his heels most of the race. Gant, however, was knocked out of contention when he bumped a slower car in the first turn of the 207th lap, slid sideways into the wall and then was hit broadside by Ricky Rudd.

The accident put Gant out of the race for several laps and took Rudd out for good. When Gant returned, he was minus his hood and left front fender.

Eleven caution flags for 64 laps slowed Earnhardt’s winning pace to 128.944 m.p.h.

By finishing second, Waltrip held on to his lead in the Winston Cup standings with 1,000 points, while Earnhardt is close behind with 952 points.

At Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, Ayrton Senna of Brazil won the Spanish Grand Prix by the tightest margin in modern Grand Prix racing, edging Britain’s Nigel Mansell in a dramatic wheel-to-wheel duel. The victory gave Senna the points’ lead in the 1986 world championship after two of 16 scheduled races.

Senna’s Lotus-Renault crossed the finish line 0.014 seconds ahead of Mansell’s Williams-Honda. About three feet separated the two cars.

At Silverstone, England, Pascal Fabre of France, driving a Lola T86-50, won the first round of the Formula 3000 international motor racing championship. Fabre covered the 24 laps over the 70.37-mile course in 35 minutes 33.97 seconds to beat Italy’s Emmanuele Pirro, driving a March 86B.

At Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Randy Mamola of Santa Clara, Calif., riding a Yamaha 500cc, won the Johor Grand Prix for Motorcycles. Mamola was timed in 38 minutes 29.3 seconds for the 30-lap race over the 1.9-mile Pasir Gudang track. He earned $770. American Mike Baldwin, also riding a Yamaha 500cc, finished second in 38:31.3.