LONG BEACH GRAND PRIX OTHER RACES : Tracy Starts and Stays Out Front in ARS Event

With a field of 25 cars, the largest for an American Racing Series event, Paul Tracy was glad he was starting in the front row.

“If you’re in the middle to the back, it’s tough to get through Turn 1,” said Tracy, who had no trouble with that turn or any of the other 10 Sunday in winning the ARS race by 27.3 seconds over Mark Smith of McMinnville, Ore., at the Long Beach Grand Prix.

It was the second consecutive victory for Tracy, who averaged 83.13 m.p.h. over 43 laps of the 1.67-mile street course.

“I got a good start and the car ran great all day,” said Tracy, a 21-year-old Canadian. He won $18,000.

Ted Prappas of Los Angeles stayed in second place until he stopped on the final lap.

“The car kept cutting in and out all through the race,” Prappas said. “When I saw the white flag, it quit completely. I kept flicking the toggle switch, but it didn’t start again.”

That enabled Smith to finish second. Tommy Byrne of Ireland was third.

“He drove a great race,” Byrne said of Tracy. “He didn’t make any mistakes.”

Driving ability usually determines who wins in ARS, a major Indy-car support series that uses cars with Buick V-6 engines that produce 420 horsepower.

On about the 16th lap, Tracy began to lap cars and extend a two- to three-second lead to six seconds over Prappas.

P.J. Jones of Rolling Hills, son of Indianapolis 500 champion Parnelli Jones, spun early in the race and finished 17th.

Mark Dismore led all the way to win the Toyota Atlantic Championship, the concluding event of the Grand Prix weekend.

Dismore, of Greenfield, Ind., won the 37-lap race with an average speed of 81.06 m.p.h.

Brian Till of Amlin, Ohio, was second, and Sandy Dells of Vista was third.

The race was for single-seat, open-wheeled cars powered by Toyota 1600cc engines that produce 225 horsepower.

Grand Prix Notes

Early Saturday morning, Los Angeles driver Robby Gordon won the HYDRA/SCORE San Felipe 250 off-road race in Mexico, then flew to Long Beach to compete in the Chevron GTO/GTU Challenge Saturday afternoon. But his chances of winning two races in a day were ruined by an accident in the GTO race, which was won by Dorsey Schroeder. “I really felt that I could have won,” Gordon said. “I was running easy, following the leaders, when I got caught up in lap traffic and someone spun me. It’s too bad. I was really looking forward to going two for two.”