It Was the Engine, Not the Start : Camel Grand Prix: Fangio starts the race ninth, but an overnight engine switch by Toyota team makes him a winner.

Chip Robinson needed a miracle Sunday in the Camel Grand Prix of Greater San Diego to win the GT Championship Series title. He didn’t get it.

Jay Cochran needed to keep his Chevrolet Spice out of trouble long enough to let Al Unser Jr. get in the cockpit. It didn’t happen.

And Juan Manuel Fangio II needed to replace the engine on his Toyota Eagle after a sluggish Saturday qualifying session. Voila.

Fangio, namesake nephew of the five-time world champion, took his new engine and drove it to victory on the 1.62-mile course on the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

Even Saturday afternoon, as he relaxed in the Toyota tent, Fangio was confident in his team.

“I’m not worried,” he said after learning he would start the race ninth. “We’ll take the car apart and find what’s wrong; if they don’t find anything wrong, then I’ll be worried.”

As it turned out, there was no need for Fangio to worry. Dan Gurney’s team changed engines, and Fangio ended Jaguar’s two-year winning streak at the International Motor Sports Assn. event that attracted a crowd of 37,000.

Fangio averaged 78.836 m.p.h. over the 87 laps and defeated Porsche’s Davy Jones by 1 minute 1.29 seconds. The 139.200 miles covered was a course record.

It wasn’t the only record that fell. Martin Brundle set a single lap mark, averaging 90.784 m.p.h. on the 10-turn course.

“Although I started so far back, I was not worried about how I would finish,” Fangio said of his fourth victory of the season that was worth $50,000. “I was concentrating on every lap.”

Fangio’s task was made easier when Unser was taken out of the race before ever getting in the car. Cochran, Unser’s co-driver, starting on the pole that Unser won in qualifying with a record 94.828 m.p.h., was run into the wall on Lap 19 by Camel Light driver Ruggero Melgrati of Milan, Italy.

Fangio, the last of six leaders in the 12-car field, overtook John Paul Jr., on Lap 77 after taking a 9.2-second pit stop to get fuel. On Lap 79, he increased his lead 12.9 seconds. By Lap 85--when Paul and Jones collided--the lead had stretched to 35 seconds.

Jones, who won $20,300 for second place, also had his problems before the race.

He lost a turbo two hours before the race in practice and his Jaguar XJR-10 was still being assembled during the national anthem. The pace car had started the field toward the green flag when Jones finally roared out of the pits. He eventually took the lead on Lap 39 and held it until Lap 61.

“The crew did an incredible job getting the new motor in the car before the race,” Jones said.

Robinson failed to unseat Nissan teammate and two-time defending GT champion Geoff Brabham for the $150,000 series title. Robinson needed to win, but he finished fifth, passed by Brabham on Lap 85. Brabham, who needed only to finish in the top 10, was fourth.

Auto Racing Notes

James Weaver was disqualified by IMSA officials and fined $5,000 for improper driver conduct. IMSA officials concluded that Weaver deliberately ran over sound-control equipment after being told to correct a noise problem on his Dyson Racing Porsche 962C. Dyson racing manager Rob Dyson plans to appeal. . . . Pole-sitter Rob Wilson (81.202 m.p.h.) won the Barber-Saab Pro Series Pep Boys Challenge. It was his final Barber-Saab race; he is expected to join the Aussie Roo Camel GTP racing team next year. In three racing seasons, he set records for career victories (11) and poles (10). “It’s been one of the most positive arenas of my career,” Wilson said. “When I went across the finish line, I went very slowly because I wanted to savor the moment. I wanted to picture it, because the day will probably come when I’ll give anything for five minutes of this.” . . . Robert Amren finished second and Nick Kunewalder of Encinitas finished a career-best third. He started on the front row for the first time in his career. . . . Parker Johnstone/Doug Peterson, in a Pontiac Spice, won the Camel Lights race and earned $16,000. David Tennyson, in a Ferrari Spice, took second. . . . Phil Mahre won the Sisapa Pro Series 2,000.