LONG BEACH GRAND PRIX NOTES : Mansell Sets Record in Getting Edge for Pole

Nigel Mansell and his aching back won the provisional pole Friday for Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

The 1992 Formula One champion who won his first Indy Car race last month in Australia, then crashed two weeks ago in practice for the Phoenix race, needed help into and out of his Lola-Ford, and extra padding while he was in it, but there was nothing wrong with his throttle foot.

Working in the second qualifying group, normally the slower one, he posted a fast lap of 107.659 m.p.h. over the 1.59-mile, eight-turn course through the streets of Long Beach.

That was a record, beating the mark of 106.251 set last year by Michael Andretti, who this year, in a switch with Mansell, has turned his talents to Forumla One. But it barely was fast enough, since the first nine qualifiers beat the old record and the first 12 were less than a second apart. Canadian Scott Goodyear was second-fastest in another Lola-Ford at 107.284, and Emerson Fittipaldi was third in a Penske-Chevrolet at 107.268.

And, with another qualifying session today, things could get even faster.

“I hope nobody goes quicker tomorrow,” Mansell said, smiling through his pain, brought on by his Phoenix crash. He planned to go treat his lower back with hot baths and ice packs.

“The main problem is trying to be comfortable in the car,” the Englishman said. “I’m just delighted to be as competitive as we are.”

Goodyear, who missed winning last year’s Indy 500 by half a car length and sat on the pole at Phoenix, was fastest in the first group, but his effort was cut short when his car quit immediately after a pit stop.

“I lost the drive-line power down the back straight,” he said. “They don’t know exactly what it is, but we have a problem there. We fell out of Phoenix with a drive-line problem.”

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Jimmy Vasser’s day left something to be desired. After brushing the wall in Turn 1 during the morning practice session, he slammed into it in Turn 5 during afternoon qualifying and damaged the front of his Lola-Chevy. He was checked by track medical personnel and released.

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Mexican driver Adrian Fernandez is the newest driver on the Indy car circuit, having signed on with Rick Galles’ outfit as a teammate of Al Unser Jr. and Danny Sullivan.

Fernandez, 27, was the surprise of the Indy Lights tour last year, winning the first series race he drove, then going on to three more victories and third place in the series standings.

Fernandez signed a three-yeardevelopment contract with Galles but is committed to only two races so far, Sunday’s at Long Beach and the first race after the Indianapolis 500 on June 6 in Milwaukee.

“The car is a little wider and I bumped the walls a little,” Fernandez said of his practice session. “I was hitting the curbs.”

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Eddie Lawson, four-time world motorcycle champion, and Rick Kirkham of “Inside Edition” were the fastest qualifiers, pro and celebrity, for the pro-celebrity race, to be run in identically prepared Toyota sedans.

“It’s completely different from what I normally do,” Lawson said. “I’m just out there sliding around and having a lot of fun.”

Said Kirkham, “It’s very frightening out there.”