Motor Racing Roundup : Mears Rallies to Win at Milwaukee

After falling nearly two laps behind, Rick Mears made a late rally Sunday to win the Miller High Life 200 Indy-car race at Milwaukee’s State Fair Park.

Mears, the pole winner, drove a Penske-Chevy to beat Michael Andretti and his Lola-Chevy by 10.836 seconds.

Mears averaged a record 130.160 m.p.h., breaking Mario Andretti’s 1985 track record of 124.162 m.p.h.

Sunday’s victory was Mears’ 25th and his 19th during the 1980s. That made him the winningest Indy-car driver of the decade, snapping a tie of 18 with Mario Andretti and Bobby Rahal.

Teo Fabi of Italy was third Sunday, followed by Raul Boesel of Brazil and Scott Pruett.

Mears led by as much as nine seconds during the first 102 laps on the mile oval.

“At the start, the car was excellent,” Mears said. “It had good balance, good grip. We could drive wherever we wanted to.”

“But about halfway through, something changed on the car. It went way loose and I couldn’t make enough on-board adjustments to make it even close again. It may have been just the changing track conditions, I don’t know.”

On lap 178, Emerson Fittipaldi, last week’s Indianapolis 500 winner, suddenly slowed and pulled aside with a broken suspension after fighting for the lead up to that point.

Dale Earnhardt held off Mark Martin to win the Budweiser 500 NASCAR stock car race at the Dover Downs International Speedway at Dover, Del. and closed in on Darrell Waltrip in the overall NASCAR standings.

It was the second victory this year for Earnhardt, who earned $59,350. He led on 454 of the 500 laps, edging Martin by 0.5 second and recording an average speed of 121.712 m.p.h. on the high-banked, one-mile oval.

Ken Schrader finished third, Terry Labonte fourth and Rusty Wallace fifth.

Waltrip holds a two-point lead over Earnhardt in the standings.

U.S. riders finished one, two, three in the 500cc class race at the World Motorcycle Championship event at Salzburg, Austria, with Kevin Schwantz on a Suzuki winning in 38 minutes 39.05 seconds at Salzburgring.

Eddie Lawson, the defending world champion, was second, finishing the 29-lap course in 38:41.18 on a Honda. Wayne Rainey, who has posted two victories this year and heads the standings with 106 points, came in third at 38:58.95 on a Yamaha.

Geoff Brabham teamed with Chip Robinson in a Nissan ZXT to win the International Motor Sports Assn. 500-kilometer GT Prototype race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.