MOTOR RACING ROUNDUP : Unser Gets Record 4th Consecutive Win

Al Unser Jr.’s visions of a fourth Indy-car victory in a row seemed to be gliding away along with race leader Michael Andretti.

Then Unser heard a sound that brought a smile to his face and added points to his lead in the CART-PPG Cup standings with a victory in Sunday’s inaugural Molson Indy-Vancouver in British Columbia.

“Michael had us,” Unser said. “He got around us and was getting away. He was outhandling us, working better than us.

“I was just trying to stay as close as I could, and then I heard his engine going away and I started to back up a little. I knew it was only a matter of time.”

Andretti’s exhaust header broke on lap 54, giving the lead to Unser, who went on to win for the sixth time this season.

Unser’s victory, the 15th of his career, made him the first driver in CART’s 12-year history to win more than three in a row.

He beat Danny Sullivan to the finish line by 10 seconds in an event that was marred by an accident in which several course workers were injured, one seriously, when they were struck by the car driven by Willy T. Ribbs on lap 17 after push-starting a car driven by Canadian Ross Bentley.

He led 58 laps and averaged 77.350 m.p.h., winning $138,628.

Dale Earnhardt won his second consecutive Southern 500 victory and his third race in a row at Darlington, S.C.

Earnhardt has won six of the last 10 at Darlington, the oldest and, many feel, toughest superspeedway on the NASCAR circuit.

It is tough, Earnhardt said, pointing out that he hit the wall in turn two on lap 133 as he tried to compensate for a bad set of tires.

“Seen the old girl slap me when I got a little fresh with her, didn’t you?” Earnhardt said. “I was trying to make up for the car and forgot where I was at. Got myself in the wall.”

Earnhardt took the lead for good on lap 314 following pit stops under green by the leaders.

He averaged 123.141 m.p.h. and won $205,350, including a $100,000 bonus for adding the Darlington victory to that in the Winston 500 at Talladega, Ala., another of the four major Winston Cup events (which include the Daytona 500 and World 600 in Charlotte).

Only a blown a tire while leading on the final lap at Daytona kept Earnhardt from winning a $1 million bonus Sunday.

His margin of victory was 4.08 seconds over Ernie Irvan.

John Force, 41, of Yorba Linda, drove his Castrol GTX Olds Cutlass to a $50,000 victory in the Big Bud Shootout, a bonus race for Funny Car competitors contested in conjunction with the 36th annual NHRA U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Force defeated Bruce Larson for his second Big Bud Shootout title.

Force covered the quarter-mile in 5.361 seconds at 271.82 m.p.h. to edge Larson who had a 5.495 at 272.06.

Vinicio Salmi of Monaco inherited the lead with five laps remaining and won the Vancouver round of the American Racing Series by 15.91 seconds over Mark Smith.

Salmi was the second first-time ARS winner in as many weeks, joining Mark Rodrigues, who won a week ago at Denver.

Salmi averaged 89.130 m.p.h. on the 1.704-mile, nine-turn circuit.

Speedway motorcyclist Shawn Moran’s attempt to become the first American to win a world championship in eight years came up short Saturday night in the 45th World Final at Odssal Stadium in Bradford, England.

Moran tied Per Jonsson of Sweden for first place with 13 points after five heat races but lost a four-lap runoff for the title. Bruce Penhall was the last American to win a world title, in 1982 at the Coliseum.