Auto Racing

After rains through the night and much of the morning made for a slower track, the top six positions on the 26-car grid for today’s Cleveland Grand Prix Indy-car race remained unchanged Saturday.

Emerson Fittipaldi will be in the pole position, with Michael Andretti starting second.

For today’s Indy Lights race, defending champion Mark Smith had his second pole position of the season taken away when race officials upheld a protest over the legality of his race car.

Smith, who got his first Indy Lights victory at Cleveland in 1991, drove one lap at 122.684 m.p.h. But the Landford Racing Team protested the use of a titanium flywheel and aluminum radiators in Smith’s car. Solid steel flywheels and copper radiators are the specified equipment in Indy Lights.

With Smith’s disqualification, championship points leader Robbie Buhl was awarded the pole.

In a morning Indy Lights practice session, Robbie Groff, 26, of Los Angeles was involved in a crash when his car went out of control and struck a barrier. He was flown from the track to a downtown hospital and held overnight for observation. Groff was diagnosed with a minor head injury.