Motor Racing Roundup : Dyson, Cobb Survive Heat at Sears Point

Rob Dyson overcame exhausting 90-degree temperatures and teamed with Price Cobb to win the Ford California Grand Prix IMSA Camel GT sports car race Sunday at Sears Point International Raceway in Sonoma.

Dyson, 39, of Pleasant Valley, N.Y., won the 300-kilometer race by 41.180 seconds over the Porsche 962 team of Al Holbert of Warrington, Pa., and Derek Bell of England.

Dyson and Cobb averaged a record 98.70 m.p.h. in their Porsche 962 in completing the 75 laps around the 2.523-mile road course in 1 hour 55 minutes 1.830 seconds.

Meanwhile, at a race earlier in the day on the same track, Willy T. Ribbs won the 100-kilometer IMSA Camel GTO-GTU race for production-based sports cars.

Joey Dunlop of Ireland earned his fifth straight world championship in the Formula One Class for motorcycles by winning the Finnish Grand Prix in Imatra.

He now has an unbeatable total of 81 points in the standings, with two Grand Prix events remaining.

Oscar Larrauri of Argentina and Jesus Pareja of Spain won the World Sports Prototype Championship Sprint race in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.

Larrauri and Pareja, driving a Porsche 962, covered 85 laps around the 2.6-mile circuit in 2 hours, 27 minutes and 47 seconds, an average speed of 91 m.p.h.

Wayne Gardner of Australia mastered a treacherously wet course at Silverstone, England, to win the British 500cc motorcycle Grand Prix. Gardner drove his Honda around the 28-lap, 82-mile circuit in 51 minutes 21.03 seconds at an average 99.66 m.p.h.

Chip Hanauer in the Miller American won all three of his heats convincingly to take the $110,000 Emerald Cup unlimited hydroplane race in Seattle.

A showdown had been anticipated after the Miller and the Miss Budweiser each won their two preliminary heats. But the Bud went dead in the water in the final heat.

Eddie Hill of Wichita Falls, Texas posted the fourth-fastest quarter-mile in drag racing history in the rain-dampened finals of the grand opening Winston Series races at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Tex.

In beating former NFL quarterback Dan Pastorini of Richmond, Tex., for the Top Fuel championship, Hill was timed in 5.395 seconds at 250.41 m.p.h. Pastorini, who recorded a career-best 5.432 seconds at 262.52 m.p.h. on Saturday, was timed at 9.258 at 82.30 m.p.h. after his car lost traction at the starting line.