U.S. Grand Prix at Phoenix : Prost Wins in a Formula One That Fails

Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One experiment for Phoenix failed Sunday when a crowd of 31,441--which must have included course workers, concessionaires and crews--showed up for what turned out to be a disappointing race in the Iceberg U.S. Grand Prix.

Pole-sitter Ayrton Senna, the odds-on favorite from Brazil, led in his McLaren-Honda until an electrical problem forced him to the pits on the 35th lap. His teammate, Alain Prost of France, took over and led to the finish.

The race was so slow that it had to be stopped six laps short of its advertised 81 laps because of a Formula One two-hour time limit.

Ecclestone, the president of Formula One Constructors Assn. who brought the race here after Phoenix city officials offered to spend $8 million in building and maintaining the 12-turn, 2.36-mile downtown course, said he needed 60,000 spectators to break even.

Despite a massive promotion campaign by hometown newspapers, it wasn’t close. Most grandstands had fewer than half capacity and some were almost empty.

Factors that contributed to the small turnout were the 100-degree temperatures, ticket prices that included $50 for standing room only general admission, grandstand seats that offered only a fleeting glimpse of the cars, and live TV in Phoenix.

Ecclestone announced that he planned to move the date of the 1990 race to either April or November, which would put it in conflict with either the spring Indy car race or the fall Winston Cup stock car race at Phoenix International Raceway.

Only nine of the 26 starters were running at the finish, and two of them were more than five laps behind Prost.

The fourth- and fifth-place finishers, Christian Danner of West Germany and Johnny Herbert of England, started from the last row as the race’s two slowest cars. Danner’s Rial-Ford was one of the first cars lapped by Senna, but his position kept improving as one after another ahead of him dropped out.

Prost, who slowed dramatically in the final laps and even allowed himself to be passed by Jonathan Palmer, six laps behind, finished 39 seconds ahead of Riccardo Patrese of Italy, in a Williams Renault.

“I was well ahead, but it was very hard concentrating because you have to be very close to the cement walls to stay on the line,” Prost said. “If you get out of the line, you are in the dust and asking for a spin.

“The track was breaking up a little towards the end, making life still more difficult. At one point, I had to back off as the car began to overheat slightly, but the temperature came down and all was well.”

Patrese was 42 seconds ahead of Eddie Cheever, the so-called hometown Phoenix driver who moved away at age 3 and has lived in Rome most of his life. Cheever, in an Arrows, started 17th and extended his streak of winless efforts to 123. His best finish came in another U.S. Grand Prix, in 1982 at Detroit, when he was second.

“As a native Phoenician, I am glad to have finished so well,” Cheever said, “and I’m proud to race in such a well-organized Grand Prix, particularly when it’s the first time that the race has been here in what was my hometown.

“To be honest, I’ve had a terrible season so far, and this is the first time that I’ve raced hard from start to finish. I was preparing to pass Patrese, but then the (brake) pedal went to the floor and one brake started working before the other. I decided it would be better to finish safely in third than wasting an hour and 55 minutes of work in an accident.”

Prost’s victory moved him into the lead for a possible third world championship after five of 16 rounds with 29 points to 27 for Senna, who won the last three races. Prost, however, said it would have no effect on the career decision he expects to make within the next two weeks. Prost has been outspoken in criticism of what he considers favoritism to Senna, the current world champion, and has been threatening to either retire or switch teams.

It was Prost’s 36th victory and extended his margin of career checkered flags to eight over runner-up Jackie Stewart.

He averaged 87.370 m.p.h. for 75 laps. Drivers said the slower than expected speed was because all 12 turns were 90 degrees, which prevented them from getting in a rhythm.

Senna, who beat Prost to the first turn, a right-hander off Jefferson St. across from Patriots Square, pulled as much as eight seconds ahead before his engine began to sputter. Prost passed him as Senna slowed to enter the pits.

Honda mechanics swarmed over the engine and diagnosed the problem as a faulty black box, the electronic nerve center of the V-10 engine. Senna, a lap down, returned to the course and three laps later ran the fastest lap of the day, 90.413 m.p.h.

Shortly thereafter, the Brazilian world champion pitted again with fouled spark plugs, and this time he called it a day.

“Everything was perfect from the start,” Senna said. “I was leading quite comfortably, keeping a cushion over Alain, when the engine began to misfire slightly.

“At first I could drive around the problem but eventually it got bad enough for me to come into the pits. Initially, it was rectified, and when I returned (to the race) I was pressing quite hard and running much quicker than I had been in the early stages. But then the misfire returned and I came back in for good.”

When Prost took the lead, England’s Nigel Mansell, whose Ferrari won the season opener in Brazil, moved into second place, but not for long. Mansell coasted to a stop in front of the Washington Street police station.

This moved Gerhard Berger, the other Ferrari driver from Austria, to second although he was nearly two-thirds of a lap behind. Berger, whose hands were severely burned in a crash in the San Marino Grand Prix, could not keep up and after dropping behind Patrese and Cheever, he pulled into the pits and climbed out of his car.