MOTOR RACING ROUNDUP : Brakes Put on Gant’s Bid for Fifth in a Row

The shouts of “one more time” for Harry Gant died out with nine laps remaining Sunday as Dale Earnhardt ended Gant’s September magic.

A broken brake lining ended Gant’s run at a modern-record five consecutive NASCAR Winston Cup victories, consigning him to second place and cutting short a dominating show in the Tyson Holly Farms 400 that had the partisan crowd of more than 40,000 rooting him on at North Wilkesboro, N.C.

It was the first time that Gant, from nearby Taylorsville, N.C., has lost in September--including five Winston Cup events and two Busch Grand National races. But his quiet demeanor was unruffled by Sunday’s turn of luck.

“I didn’t have any brakes from the last pit stop on,” Gant said. “I thought maybe I could make it to the end, but Dale got by me and there was nothing I could do. I had trouble just making the last few laps.

“We can’t complain, though, as good as we’ve been going. I thought we had it in the bag when we came out of that last pit stop with the lead, but that’s the way things happen in this business.”

Earnhardt, who improved his season point lead over Ricky Rudd (who finished 12th) from 59 points to 112--3,750-3,638--with four races remaining, said, “(Gant) looked unstoppable. I thought I would just try to stay in range of him and save the tires and see if I could get him there at the end. And that’s pretty much what happened.”

“If Harry hadn’t had a problem, I think he’d of won it hands down.”

Gant, 51, led 350 of the 400 laps around the five-eighths-mile North Wilkesboro Speedway oval.

Earnhardt’s Chevrolet Lumina beat Gant’s Oldsmobile Cutlass across the finish line by 1.5 seconds. Earnhardt averaged 94.112 m.p.h. and earned $69,350.

Morgan Shepherd finished third, followed by Davey Allison, Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, Brett Bodine, Ken Schrader, Dale Jarrett and Alan Kulwicki, the last driver on the lead lap.

During his September run, Gant led 1,081 of a possible 2,167 laps and won $414,775.

Nigel Mansell of Great Britain retained his slim chance for the Formula One drivers championship with a victory on a rain-slickened track in the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona.

Mansell, driving a Williams-Renault, needed a victory to prevent Ayrton Senna from clinching the title.

Mansell led for the final 44 laps and finished more than 11 seconds ahead of Alain Prost of France in a Ferrari. Riccardo Patrese of Italy was third in a Williams-Renault.

Senna, in a McLaren-Honda, finished fifth, behind Jean Alesi of France in a Ferrari.

Senna has 85 points to Mansell’s 69 in the drivers standings, with only the Japanese and Australian Grand Prix remaining. Victories count for 10 points and seconds six.

Mansell, desperate for a victory, reportedly became angry at the driver’s briefing before the race. Reportedly, he yelled at FISA president Jean-Marie Balestre and Senna when Balestre mentioned the start of last week’s Portuguese Grand Prix.

Mansell made a daring move at the beginning of that race but was subsequently disqualified after a pit stop violation.

This time, he started from the second row and dropped to fourth after the first lap. He moved to second after five laps, behind pole-sitter Gerhard Berger of Austria in a McLaren-Honda.

Mansell averaged 116.541 m.p.h. for 191.727 miles.

Pat Austin became the first driver to win two National Hot Rod Assn. categories in one day, earning titles in top fuel and top alcohol funny car at the Heartland Nationals at Topeka, Kan.

Mark Oswald of Cincinnati won in Funny Car and Darrell Alderman of Lexington, Ky., in Pro Stock.

Austin, 26, of Tacoma, Wash., won 42 events in top alcohol funny car before Sunday. He defeated Chuck Cheeseman of Columbus, Ohio, in the final in 5.246 seconds at 278.03 m.p.h. Moments later Austin won his first top-fuel title, beating defending Winston Series champion Joe Amato of Old Forge, Pa., in 4.979 seconds at 276.65 m.p.h.

Bobby Schwartz of Costa Mesa defeated Mike Faria and Phil Collins in a four-lap runoff Saturday night to win the 24th California State Speedway motorcycle championship at Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino.