Motor Racing Roundup : Andretti Benefits From Dad’s Misfortune

Michael Andretti took advantage of his father’s continuing bad luck Sunday to win the Marlboro 500 before an estimated crowd of 80,000 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich.

The younger Andretti took the lead when Mario Andretti dropped out of the race, the fastest 500-mile event in Indy car history, with engine failure after building a two-lap lead over his son just past the halfway point.

The victory from the pole by the younger Andretti equalled the feat of his father here in 1984 and made Michael the seventh winner in as many 500-mile races on Michigan’s fast two-mile oval.

Michael, 24, easily held off Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser and Bobby Rahal over the last 94 laps to pick up his second victory of the season, the fifth of his blossoming Indy-car career and his first over 500 miles.

The winner, who still trails CART-PPG series driving leader and defending champion Rahal 119 points to 110, averaged 171.490 m.p.h. in a race slowed by only two caution periods.

That was faster than the 170.722 m.p.h. run by Rahal in winning the 1986 Indy 500, the fastest previous 500-mile Indy-car race.

Andretti crossed the finish line 9.11 seconds ahead of Unser, who outraced Rahal for second place. Danny Sullivan was fourth, two laps behind the leader, followed another lap behind by Arie Luyendyk of The Netherlands.

The unusually fast pace was slowed on lap 184 when Ed Pimm and Danny Ongais tangled and hit the wall between turns three and four. Ongais was not injured, but Pimm suffered several small cuts and was transported by ambulance to a hospital at Jackson, Mich., for X-rays of his right arm. Race officials said Pimm was conscious and alert.

Jochen Mass of Monaco waited patiently before moving his Prosche 962 into the lead with seven laps remaining and won the IMSA Ford California Grand Prix at Sears Point International Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

Chip Robinson of Oldwick, N.J., had the lead for 16 laps before dropping out when his Porsche 962 lost its turbocharger.

Bob Wollack of Strasbourg, France, took over the lead until lap 32 when his Porsche 962 blew a tire and spun in turn one, flew through the air and crashed on a grass hillside. Wollack suffered a broken rib and abrasions and the race was stalled under a yellow flag for 10 laps.

Morgan Shepherd outdueled Patty Moise to take the lead just five laps from the finish and coasted to the finish under a yellow caution flag to win the $100,000 Amoco 300 NASCAR Busch Grand National Series race at Road Atlanta in Flowery Branch, Ga.

Shepherd, of Conover, N.C., passed Moise, of Jacksonville, Fla., on the first turn of the 12-turn road course on the 69th lap. The final three laps of the 74-lap race on the 2.52-mile track were run under caution as a thunderstorm struck.

Shepherd had started the race 30th in the 33-car field after losing two engines in Saturday’s practice and missing time trials. However, he moved into the top five after only 13 laps.

Shepherd won $7,525 and averaged 78.271 m.p.h. over the 300-kilometer distance in a Buick Apollo.

Moise, who was trying to become the first woman to win a major NASCAR race, started second and took the lead on lap 38 after leader Rusty Wallace experienced brake problems. She led the race twice, for 18 laps.

Miss Budweiser, driven by Jim Kropfeld of Cincinnati, Ohio, won the Seafair Budweiser Cup unlimited hydroplane race Sunday on Lake Washington, near Seattle.

Kropfeld took a commanding lead driving at the start of the winner-take-all final heat and won with an average speed of 124.517 m.p.h.