MOTOR RACING ROUNDUP : Prost, in Second Race for Team, Earns Victory

Defending Formula One champion Alain Prost hopes his victory Sunday in the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo will help his Ferrari team become more competitive.

Prost, a newcomer to the team, beat the favored McLaren-Honda team for his first victory in only two races since switching to Ferrari. The Frenchman, starting sixth, left McLaren-Honda at the end of last year after a season of acrimony involving Brazilian teammate Ayrton Senna.

Gerhard Berger of Austria, who replaced Prost at McLaren-Honda, started and finished second, just ahead of pole-sitter Senna.

“The race proved that the car is very good and very quick,” said Prost, the Formula One leader with 40 career victories. “I hope we will fight the whole year with the McLarens. They still have a small advantage with the engine, and we have the advantage with the chassis.”

The race, the second of the Formula One season, essentially was decided when Senna crashed on the 39th of 71 laps at the 2.7-mile Jose Carlos Pace race track. Senna tried to sneak inside Satoru Nakajima on a curve, but the Japanese driver blocked the way, knocking off Senna’s front spoiler.

Prost and Berger passed, while Senna went to the pits to change his spoiler.

“I went way out to avoid Nakajima and it looked like I had an open track, but he suddenly came back toward me,” Senna said. “I hit the brake, swerved right to move away from him, but his right rear tire took my nose off.”

Senna began a desperate attempt to recover, but the new front spoiler didn’t fit right and kept him from giving serious chase to Prost and Berger.

Berger, who set the track record with a lap of 1:19.899, said mechanical and physical problems prevented his catching Prost.

“I thought at one point I had a chance to catch him, but I had a big pain in my foot and noise from the clutch,” he said. “I also had a problem with smoke.”

Prost averaged 117.59 m.p.h. in a race that took 1 hour 37 minutes 21.258 seconds.

Nigel Mansell of England finished fourth in the second Ferrari. Belgium’s Thierry Boutsen was fifth, a lap down in a Williams-Renault, followed by Brazilian Nelson Piquet in a Benetton-Ford.

The victory gave Prost, a three-time Formula One champion, nine points after two races. Senna, who won the opening event at Phoenix, leads with 13.

McLaren-Honda has 19 points to 12 for Ferrari.

Wayne Rainey raced into the lead from pole position and held off all challengers to win the 500cc Japan motorcycling Grand Prix at Suzuka, Japan.

But his Yamaha teammate and four-time world champion, Eddie Lawson of Upland, retired after spilling on the fifth lap.

Rainey, 29, of Downey, second overall last year behind Lawson, completed the 22 laps of the 5.86-kilometer (3.66-mile) Suzuka circuit in 48 minutes 52.475 seconds in sunny but windy weather.

Rainey, second at Suzuka last year, won the first grand prix of the season at an average speed of 98.346 m.p.h.

Australian Wayne Gardner, the 1987 world champion, finished second in 48:55.712. American Kevin Schwantz, winner of the two previous 500cc grand prix at Suzuka, was third in 49:08.031.

Lawson, the 1989 world champion, fell victim to Michael Doohan of Australia, whose Honda skidded and slammed into Lawson from behind when Lawson, in fourth place, was jockeying for position in a tight pack of top riders.

He was thrown off and, despite a soft landing in the track-side sand, sustained a slight injury to his left leg.

Tommy Houston of Hickory, N.C., took the lead on lap 43 and kept it in the Mountain Dew 400 NASCAR Busch Grand National series race at Hickory Speedway in Hickory, N.C.

Houston, driving a Buick, started third in the 30-car field. But he quickly moved into second place and then around pole-sitter Chuck Bown about one-quarter of the way through the 200-lap event.

Houston won $10,205 for his second consecutive victory in the series. His average speed was 74.631 m.p.h.

Tommy Ellis of Richmond, Va., came from the 19th starting position to finish second, five seconds behind Houston. Bown, of Portland, Ore., was third, followed by Robert Pressley of Asheville, N.C., and Bobby Labonte of Corpus Christi, Tex.