Motor Racing Roundup : Rahal Holds Off Sullivan at Laguna Seca

Bobby Rahal held off Danny Sullivan Sunday to win the Champion Spark Plug 300-kilometer Indy-car race, his third straight victory at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, Calif.

The Indianapolis 500 winner picked up his sixth victory of the season, the fourth in his last five starts, and gave himself a bit of breathing room at the top of the CART-PPG season standings with two races remaining.

Rahal led 86 of 98 laps and beat Sullivan to the finish line by 1.41 seconds.

Michael Andretti, who came into the race trailing Rahal in the title chase by just two points, ran a solid third, followed by his father, Mario, and Roberto Guerrero of Colombia.

The finish improved Rahal’s points lead to 159-150 over the younger Andretti, with Sullivan third at 131.

Rahal, who last month became the first Indy-car driver to top $1 million in race earnings in a single season, won $56,660 as he averaged 119.693 m.p.h.. That broke Rahal’s own race record of 116.619 m.p.h. set in 1984.

Also at Laguna Seca Sunday, Fabrizio Barbazza of Italy outdueled Steve Millen of New Zealand to win the American Racing Series race.

Barbazza beat Millen to the finish line by just .574 seconds as he averaged 110.442 m.p.h. in the 40-lap event.

Steve Bren won the Bosch-Volkswagen Super Vee race, which also boosted him into the series point lead. Bren beat second-place Didier Theys of Belgium by 1.193 seconds. He averaged 101.675 m.p.h.

Austrian driver Gerhard Berger won the Mexican Grand Prix, preventing Britain’s Nigel Mansell from clinching the world driver’s championship.

Mansell finished fifth but, under the best-nine-results scoring formula, failed to add to his season-leading total of 70 points.

Alain Prost of France, who finished second, jumped into second place with 64 points, while Mansell’s Williams-Honda teammate, Nelson Piquet of Brazil, slipped to third with 63 points after finishing fourth.

The 27-year-old Berger, driving a Benneton BMW, completed the 69-lap, 190.677-mile race with an average speed of 120.816 m.p.h.