GT Points Race Goes Down to the Wire

Calculators ready, loosen up those fingers. Gentlemen, start your computations.

Today’s Camel Grand Prix of Greater San Diego, the final IMSA Camel GT points contest of the season, is the closest in race history, with a computerized analysis revealing 30,624 possible endings.

Basically, Chip Robinson leads the standings with 166 points, followed by Geoff Brabham with 163 and Davy Jones with 156.

Each driver can win up to 25 points, which are awarded to the top 10 finishers. The winner gets 20, second-place finisher 15, third 12, fourth 10 and fifth eight. There are also bonus points for winning the pole position, recording the fastest lap and leading the most laps. If a driver sweeps all three, he gets two extra points as well.

The computer says in 17,728 possibilities Robinson wins the International Motor Sports Assn. Camel GTP title. In 8,906 cases Brabham wins. In 3,990 scenarios, Jones wins.

At stake is a $150,000 prize for winning the points title. Robinson and Brabham--who has won the past three GTP championships--drive for Nissan, which already has wrapped up the manufacturer’s title for the fourth year in a row. Jones drives for Jaguar.

None of the three grabbed any points Saturday. Englishman Wayne Taylor won the pole with a course-record qualifying run of 59.405 seconds, an average speed of nearly 97 m.p.h., in a Chevrolet Intrepid. The Nissan team had a better day than Jaguar, with Brabham placing second and Robinson fourth. Jones was seventh and teammate Martin Brundle eighth.

History favors Robinson: The leader going into the final race has failed to win the title only twice in 20 years. Also in Robinson’s corner are recent events: Brabham suffered a serious accident on a practice run Aug. 25 from which he’s still recovering, and Jones cracked up his Jaguar in practice Friday and might have to use a backup.

However, in 1989 Robinson was the points leader entering the season’s final race, and he lost the championship to Brabham.

Taylor, who held the pole here in 1989 and has won four poles in Camel GT races this year, said the race is important to the Intrepid team even if he can’t win the individual title. He’s assured of finishing fourth.

The Intrepid, because it is lighter than the turbocharged competition, is considered well-suited to the tricky Del Mar course.

“The track is very demanding,” Taylor said. “We want to show we have the best car, the best engine, the best sponsors--and the best driver. The turbo cars get off the line much quicker than I can so I’m gonna try and control the start . . . control (the race) from the front.”

Brabham found it ironic that “you have the three guys dicing for the championship driving the three least-suited cars for the track. If one of us was driving an Intrepid he’d have an advantage.”

Brabham wasn’t sure how much of a disadvantage he’ll have today because of his injuries, which include broken ribs, compression fractures in his back and bruised lungs. His car has been installed with a special seat. He said he wasn’t especially uncomfortable Saturday, but he pulled out of practice in Phoenix last weekend.

“I’m a little sore, a little tired but it doesn’t seem to get any worse in these short little stints,” he said after Saturday’s qualifying, in which each driver took four solo laps. He had the second best qualifying time of 1:00.191.

“There was a lot of pressure because there was a point at stake. What it’s gonna be like for an hour and 45 minutes (today) I can’t say. Last week I flew off the track after 30 laps. But it’s a lot cooler here than Phoenix. I’ll play it by ear. I’m three points behind so I’ve got to finish ahead of Chip. All our races have been flat out this year. We both want to win badly.”

Robinson said, “My strategy is for me to go for the win all the way. To be starting with Geoff in front of me . . . I’ve got him right where I can see him. As far as Davy starting a ways back, I really haven’t figured out how that will affect my position. In a way it would be good to have him up there with us.”