Motor Racing Roundup : Rudd Holds Off Wallace for Win

Ricky Rudd stopped a late challenge from Rusty Wallace to win the Banquet Foods 300-kilometer race Sunday at Sears Point International Speedway in Sonoma, Calif.

Rudd got his 10th victory in his NASCAR Winston Cup career and first since fending off Wallace last August at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

Wallace pressured Rudd late in Sunday’s 74-lap race.

He tried to squeeze past him on the outside four laps from the finish. But Rudd moved to the outside, forcing Wallace onto the grass and keeping him from passing.

Rudd’s Buick Regal crossed the finish line 1.1 seconds ahead of Wallace’s Pontiac Grand Prix.

The winner led twice for a total of 61 laps.

It was a finish reminiscent of the Watkins Glen race in which the cars bumped hard coming off the final turn as Wallace attempted unsuccessfully to take the lead.

Rudd won $62,350, averaging 76.08 m.p.h. in the nearly 2 1/2-hour race.

Bill Elliott, defending Winston Cup champion, finished third, followed by three-time series champion Dale Earnhardt and Lake Speed.

Rudd, who started third in the 42-car field, moved past second-place Mark Martin on the fifth lap, then passed Wallace to take the lead on lap 11.

Joe Amato, defending NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series Top Fuel champion, got his first victory of the 1989 season at Kirkersville, Ohio in the Budweiser Springnationals at National Trail Raceway.

Also winning were Bruce Larson in Funny Car and Bob Glidden in Pro Stock.

Amato, of Old Forge, Pa., drove his dragster to a quarter-mile clocking of 5.125 seconds at 280.72 m.p.h. to defeat Hank Endres, of Pennsville, N.J.

Kevin Schwantz led a 1-2-3 sweep for the United States in the 500cc class event at the Yugoslav Motorcycle Grand Prix at Rijeka, Yugoslavia.

Schwantz rode his Suzuki to victory as Wayne Rainey, on a Yamaha, and Eddie Lawson, riding a Honda, took second and third place, respectively.

Chip Hanauer’s Circus Circus took first place in the Budweiser Thunder in the Sun hydroplane race at Detroit with an average speed of 124.928 m.p.h.

Larry Lauterbach came in second on Winston Eagle with an average speed of 117.868 m.p.h.