Motor Racing Roundup : Kropfeld Gains in Points Race

Jim Kropfeld raced Miss Budweiser to within 169 points Sunday of the defending unlimited hydroplane champion, Miller American. But high winds forced a one-day postponement of the $150,000 Budweiser Las Vegas Silver Cup competition on Lake Mead.

Kropfeld, 45, picked up 400 championship points by winning his heat at 101.7 m.p.h. In the other heat, Chip Hanauer drove Miller American to second place behind 7-Eleven, driven by Steve Reynolds. Reynolds averaged 114.24 m.p.h. Hanauer’s runner-up finish was worth 300 points.

Only Hanauer and Kropfeld remain in contention for the national title. Going into the final race in the unlimited 1986 series, Hanauer had amassed 7,569 points to Kropfeld’s 7,300.

At North Wilkesboro, N.C., Darrell Waltrip grabbed the lead from Geoff Bodine with 11 laps left in the Holly Farms 400 and won his first NASCAR race at North Wilkesboro Speedway since 1984.

Waltrip’s victory allowed the Franklin, Tenn., driver to move back into second in the Winston Cup standings, just 122 points behind leader Dale Earnhardt. Waltrip has 3,651 and Earnhardt 3,773. Tim Richmond is third with 3,629.

With 11 laps remaining, Waltrip pulled alongside Bodine on the outside, then took the lead as they raced down the front stretch.

Waltrip collected $38,100 for the victory before a record crowd of 30,500. There were 14 lead changes among nine drivers. Bodine led the most laps, holding the advantage three times for 218.

Richard Petty finished third and Rusty Wallace took fourth, both in Pontiacs. Fifth went to Harry Gant in a Chevrolet.

D.K. Ulrich was suspended from NASCAR competition after officials ruled he used an oversized engine. Ulrich was suspended as a car owner and as a driver for 12 weeks.

At Brooklyn, Mich., Bobby Rahal won his third straight race, outrunning Michael Andretti to win the Pepsi-Cola 250 at Michigan International Speedway.

Rahal beat Andretti to the finish line by 3.25 seconds, earning his 13th career victory and fifth of the season.

Andretti held a lead of about five seconds over Rahal late in the race, but had to make an extra pit stop because of a blistered tire.

The victory gives Rahal a nine-point lead, 128-119, over Andretti in the CART-PPG season standings with four races remaining.

Emerson Fittipaldi wound up third, finishing the 125-lap race on the two-mile oval with a blistered tire on his March racer. Kevin Cogan was fourth and Tom Sneva fifth, the last driver on the lead lap.

Rahal averaged 181.701 m.p.h., just shy of the all-time Indy car mark of 182.325 set at the Michigan International Speedway by Rick Mears in September of 1983.

Clark Drake, 22, of Harbor City, is in intensive care at UCLA Harbor General Hospital in Carson with head injuries sustained in an auto race Saturday night at Ascot. He was hurt in a trophy dash for California Racing Assn. sprint cars.