Motor Racing Roundup : Co-Drivers Rahal, Mass Spring Past the Leaders After Suspension Breaks

Bobby Rahal and West Germany’s Jochen Mass, co-driving a Porsche 962, inherited the lead 18 laps from the finish and went on to win the Champion Spark Plug Grand Prix Sunday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course at Lexington, Ohio.

Rahal, of Dublin, Ohio, who won the International Race of Champions at Mid-Ohio on Saturday, and Mass never led until Chip Robinson suddenly pulled his Porsche into the pits on the 112th lap in the 500-kilometer IMSA Camel GT sports car event.

Robinson, sharing the cockpit with defending IMSA champion Al Holbert, appeared to have victory in hand before a part of the left-rear suspension broke.

Rahal was driving when the final break came, and easily held off the second-place Porsche 962 of Darin Brassfield and Bob Wollek of France, who finished 28.415 seconds behind.

Porsche has won 6 of 8 IMSA races this season and 15 overall at Mid-Ohio.

Sarel van der Merwe of South Africa and Doc Bundy, in a Chevrolet Corvette GTP, finished third, four laps behind. Robinson and Holbert, the series point leaders, came back after a seven-minute pit stop to finish fourth, just ahead of the Jim Adams and John Hotchkis in a Porsche 962.

Rahal and Mass won $26,500 and had a speed average of 101.518 m.p.h, a race record. The previous record of 98.855 was set last year by Holbert and Englishman Derek Bell.

Bob Gordon of Orange, driving a Porsche, won the SCORE Baja International off-road race, his third victory in five races this year.

Gordon averaged 55.34 m.p.h. as he completed the 461.7-mile circuit through the northern Baja California peninsula in 8 hours 20 minutes 33.3 seconds.

Only two motorcycle teams finished the race faster than Gordon’s car. Dan Ashcraft of Huntington Beach and Randy Morales of Burbank won the motorcycle division on a Honda in 8:08:15.1, averaging 56.74 m.p.h.. They finished 50 seconds faster than Larry Roeseler of Bloomington, Calif., and Ted Hunnicutt Jr. of Thousand Oaks. Roeseler and Hunnicutt, on a Kawasaki, finished in 8:09:05 with an average speed of 56.64 m.p.h.

Frank Vessels of Bonsall won the truck class, driving a highly-modified Chevrolet pickup in 8:33:16.4 at an average speed of 53.97 m.p.h.

The mini-truck race was won by Roger Mears of Bakersfield in a Nissan. Mears broke away from Manny Esquerra of Parker, Ariz., a few miles from the finish line when Esquerra broke a wheel on his Ford while leading by two seconds. Mears finished in 9:32:27.2 at 48.39 m.p.h.

John Borden, 18, of Tucson, Ariz., was taken to Mercy Hospital in San Diego for treatment of a possible spinal injury after falling off his three-wheel ATV five miles south of Ensenada.

At Salzburg, Austria, Wayne Gardner of Australia, on a Honda, won the 500cc event at the Grand Prix of Austria motorcycling competition at the Salzburg ring circuit before a crowd of 65,000.

Gardner, in his third win this season, was timed in 39:57.89 at 115 m.p.h.

Randy Mamola of the United States, on a Yamaha, was second in 40:00.26, and Niall McKenzie of Britain, on a Honda, was third in 40:11.10.