Motor Racing Roundup : Fittipaldi Collides With Sullivan, but Still Wins

Emerson Fittipaldi was coasting toward a second straight victory when he got snarled in rush-hour traffic.

Fittipaldi, slowed by two cars that were out of the running, survived a collision with charging Danny Sullivan Sunday to win the Molson Indy-car race at Toronto.

“I think it was the fault of the traffic,” Fittipaldi said after beating Sullivan by 8.35 seconds. The two collided two turns from the end of the 183-mile race on the circuit winding through Toronto’s Exhibition Place fairgrounds and along Lakeshore Boulevard.

“They wouldn’t let me by,” Fittipaldi said of Scott Goodyear, a rookie from Canada, and Michael Andretti. “They should have let me by a lap earlier.”

Fittipaldi, from Brazil, had a comfortable lead in his Chevrolet-powered March entering the final lap before being slowed by Goodyear and Andretti, allowing Sullivan’s March to get back into contention.

When the leaders got past the slower cars, Sullivan tried to get by on the inside at the ninth turn but Fittipaldi pinched him right into the concrete barrier.

“He shut the door on me,” said Sullivan. “He knows I had to take a shot at him. He did what he had to do. There are no hard feelings.”

Fittipaldi, who averaged 95.99 m.p.h., earned $73,410.

Bobby Rahal, the defending champion in the race and the CART-PPG Indy-car series season point leader, finished third.

Roberto Guerrero of Colombia was fourth, two laps behind, followed another lap back by Andretti, who trails Rahal, 105-88, in the season point standings. Guerrero is third with 65, followed by Mario Andretti at 62 and Fittipaldi at 61 after 8 of 15 Indy-car events.

Dale Earnhardt earned his seventh NASCAR victory of the year, edging Alan Kulwicki by a car length in the Summer 500 at Long Pond, Pa.

Earnhardt, driving a Chevrolet, led much of the second half of the 200-lap race. He was passed by Kulwicki on the 198th lap but regained the lead for good on the next lap.

Tim Richmond, the winner of the last three NASCAR races at Long Pond, left the race on the 122nd lap after experiencing valve and engine problems.

Buddy Baker, who led on two different occasions in the race, finished third. Benny Parsons was fourth.

Earnhardt has won 7 of 16 NASCAR races this year.

Elliott Forbes-Robinson passed Pete Halsmer on the final lap and won the Pepsi Grand Prix Trans-Am at Brainerd, Minn., while actor-racer Paul Newman lost an early lead and placed fifth.

Forbes-Robinson, driving a Porsche, went past Halsmer, of Anaheim, one lap after Halsmer took the lead from Scott Pruett in the 99-mile, 33-lap race. Halsmer finished second while Jim Derhaag was third.

Newman led the first eight laps before mechanical problems forced him into the pits.

American motorcycle racer Randy Mamola won the French 500cc Motorcycling Grand Prix, virtually leading from start to finish on a wet track at Le Mans, France. Mamola, of Santa Clara, Calif., drove his Yamaha to the finish in 58 minutes 43.5 seconds.

Pier Francesco Chili of Italy was second, 34 seconds behind, with Christian Sarron of France third and Australian Wayne Gardner fourth.

World champion Eddie Lawson of Ontario fell on the slippery track during the second lap and pulled out of the race.