Motor Racing Roundup : Sullivan Runs Fastest Indy-Car 500-Mile Race

Danny Sullivan fought off a flu bug and drove a flawless race Sunday on the way to a record-setting victory in the Marlboro 500 Indy-car race at Brooklyn, Mich.

Sullivan also gave team-owner Roger Penske his first 500-mile victory at his own Michigan International Speedway.

“It was just one of those races where we stayed out of trouble,” Sullivan said.

“I had a flu going into it,” he said. “We had actually talked about a substitute driver, but it never bothered me in the race. We had a 200 mile-per-hour breeze.”

His average speed of 180.654 m.p.h. was the fastest ever in a 500-mile Indy-car race, breaking the mark of 171.493 set at the same track last year by Michael Andretti.

Sullivan’s crew had unofficial timings of several laps more than 221 m.p.h.

Sullivan, who became the eighth different winner in the eight years that this race has gone 500 miles, finished more than a lap ahead of second-place Bobby Rahal on the 2-mile, high-banked oval.

The victory moved Sullivan into the CART-PPG Indy-car point lead with 104 after 9 of 15 races. Rahal, the two-time defending series champion, is second with 87.

Neither of Sullivan’s Penske Racing teammates, Rick Mears and Al Unser, were running at the end, although Mears dominated the race in the early going and Unser also led several times.

Only 8 of the 28 starters were running at the end of the race.

Behind Rahal, defending race champion Andretti was third, three laps behind the leader. Tony Bettenhausen was fourth, 10 laps behind Sullivan in a year-old car, followed another lap back by Phil Krueger and two more laps back by two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Gordon Johncock, 52.

Penske has a record 16 500-mile victories, but this was his first in Michigan.

Al Unser Jr., who came into the race having won two straight races and leading the season standings by two points over Sullivan, was running third when he slowed and pitted on Lap 3. It was a long stop to replace a battery and, although Unser got going again, he was far off the pace before eventually succumbing to a broken water hose. He is third in the standings, one point behind Rahal.

Brazilian Ayrton Senna and teammate Alain Prost of France finished 1-2 in the Hungarian Grand Prix at Budapest, stretching the McLaren Honda’s unbeaten streak to 10 for the season.

The two share the lead in the world drivers’ championship standings at 66 points each.

Senna, starting in the pole position, won his sixth race this season by covering the 76 laps in 1 hour 57 minutes 47.081 seconds. He finished 0.529 seconds ahead of Prost.

Thierry Boutsen of Belgium was third in a Benetton Ford, 31.410 seconds behind the leader.

Wayne Rainey of Norwalk riding a Yamaha, led from the first corner in winning the British 500cc motorcycle Grand Prix at Donington, England.

Rainey, 27, completed the 75-mile, 30-lap course in a time of 48 minutes 33.67 seconds at an average speed of 92.66 m.p.h.

Racing in his debut Grand Prix season, Rainey finished almost seven seconds ahead of reigning champion Wayne Gardner of Australia, who came in second.

It was Rainey’s first 500cc victory of his career and continued a year during which he never has been out of the top 7 in 12 rounds.

The 20 points earned from his victory kept him in contention in the race for the world championship. Rainey, a former Daytona and U.S. Superbike champion, is currently third behind leader Eddie Lawson of Upland and Gardner.

Roy Smith of Canada came from a lap behind to win the American National Bank 200 stock-car race at Bakersfield Saturday night and wrap up his fourth NASCAR Winston West Series championship.

It was Smith’s third victory of the season and his second in Bakersfield.

Smith averaged 64.343 m.p.h. and won $4,875 from a purse of $38,000.