Already Winners, They Are Still Driven : Auto racing: Mansell and Herta have won season championships, but say they won’t be at a loss for motivation today.

Nigel Mansell and Bryan Herta, two drivers who have already won season championships, will go out today at Laguna Seca Raceway with nothing on their minds but having some fun and winning a race.

“Naturally, we’re always aiming to win, but late in the season sometimes the (championship) points become more important than winning,” Mansell said of the Toyota Grand Prix, the final event of the Indy car season. “(Today) the motivation will be the same, but we can be a bit more aggressive about winning.”

Mansell, 40, last year’s Formula One world champion from England and Clearwater, Fla., clinched the PPG Indy car championship two weeks ago when he won the fifth race of his rookie season at Nazareth, Pa.

“It’s win or nothing for me,” Herta said. “I don’t have to even think about points.”

Herta, 23, the Firestone Indy Lights champion from Los Angeles, clinched his title even earlier than Mansell. Herta has won six races this season, including the last three.

Mansell will start from the third spot on the grid today in the 186-mile race. It concludes a 16-race season that has centered around the Brit who turned his back on defending his world championship to drive in the American open-wheel series.

Emerson Fittipaldi, another former Formula One champion, captured the pole position Saturday with a track-record run of 112.296 m.p.h. around the 11-turn, 2.214-mile road circuit winding through the hills of Laguna Seca. Paul Tracy, Fittipaldi’s Penske Marlboro teammate, is second at 112.232, followed by Mansell at 111.730.

The previous record was 111.967, set by Michael Andretti last year. It was Andretti’s place on the Newman-Haas team that Mansell took after Andretti left the team for the Formula One circuit.

Herta, who will switch to Indy cars next year, won a record eighth Indy Lights pole, two more than the record set in 1990 by Tracy.

“There’s a freedom about a race like this where your motivation comes from loving the job you do,” Mansell said. “It’s hard to explain, but when you win a championship, you want to win one more, and then another. It’s the same with the races. We won at Nazareth, so we want to win this one.

“We are here to perform at a professional level. It’s my job to deliver for the crew, the engineers, the owners, the sponsors and the fans. What more motivation is needed?”

Mansell will also be taking a close look at the 75-mile Indy Lights race, at Herta, his youthful protege.

“We have tested with Bryan and he is an impressive young talent,” Mansell said. “I enjoy helping someone who has the interest and desire he has shown.”

The two met while testing last June at the Mid-Ohio track.

“It has been a big thrill for me, talking the finer points of racing with him,” Herta said. “I couldn’t get advice from a better person. I’ve been a big fan of his, obviously, so it was great to know he took an interest in me.”

Indy Car Notes

Robby Gordon of Orange announced that he is leaving A.J. Foyt’s team to drive the next two years for the Valvoline-sponsored Derrick Walker racing team. Gordon replaces Scott Goodyear on Walker’s team, which also includes Willy T. Ribbs. . . . The Firestone Tire Co., which is returning to Indy car racing next year after an absence of 19 years, announced that Scott Pruett will drive during its test program next year with a team headed by Pat Patrick, whose cars have won three Indy 500s and two Indy car championships.