Quick Start Sends Tracy on to Victory : Auto racing: He beats pole-sitter Fittipaldi off the starting line and hangs on to win.

For the last five years, the fastest qualifier has won the Indy car race at Laguna Seca Raceway.

It didn’t happen a sixth time Sunday in the Toyota Monterey Grand Prix, but only because Paul Tracy beat his pole-sitting teammate Emerson Fittipaldi off the starting line in a drag race to the first corner.

Tracy, the young Canadian tabbed by car owner Roger Penske to replace retired Rick Mears, led 83 of the 84 laps over the 2.214-mile, 11-turn hillside road course to finish 27.4 seconds ahead of Fittipaldi in a race of Chevrolet-powered Penske PC93s.

It was the last race for the Chevrolet engine. The manufacturer announced last month that it was abandoning its Indy car program. Chevrolet-powered cars won 10 of the 16 Indy car races this season.

No other driver among the 29 starters challenged the Penske cars during the 300-kilometer race, which started 40 minutes late because of a low fog on the Monterey Peninsula.

Once the race started, however, it moved along with a minimum of caution flags, enabling Tracy to finish with a track record speed of 106.303 m.p.h.

Arie Luyendyk, left without a ride next season when Michael Andretti decided to leave Formula One and return to Indy car racing as Chip Ganassi’s driver, made a strong bid for employment with a third-place finish in his final race for Ganassi.

Nigel Mansell, who clinched the PPG Indy car championship two weeks ago at Nazareth, Pa., sprained his wrist in a collision with rookie Mark Smith and finished 23rd.

“My wrist took a good twist and bang inside the car,” Mansell said after his car slid into the dirt off the first turn. “It’s a sorry situation when you are overtaking people who are much slower than you and this is what happens.”

It was the poorest finish of the season for the former Formula One champion, who won the Indy car title despite missing the Phoenix race in April because of back injuries sustained in a crash during practice.

“It’s a good thing that we clinched the championship two weeks ago,” said team manager Jim McGee. “If we had had problems at Nazareth and then today, we would not have the championship.”

Earlier in the race, Mansell also made contact with Scott Sharp while trying to pass in the 90-degree Turn 11. The bump knocked the rear wing off Sharp’s car, but he resumed racing and finished 22nd in the first Indy car start of his career.

Mansell will collect $1 million at tonight’s CART Indy car banquet in San Francisco. He finished with 191 points to 183 for Fittipaldi and 157 for Tracy.

Tracy led Fittipaldi by as much as 11 seconds in mid-race, but late in the race was caught in traffic and Fittipaldi moved up.

His chances of catching Tracy ended six laps from the end when Fittipaldi went off course in Turn 5 to avoid Hiro Matsushita.

“I saw Paul pass Hiro on the inside of the turn, but when I followed him, Hiro jumped back out and I had to jab the steering wheel,” Fittipaldi said. “It sent me out on a cross-country ride across the desert.”

Tracy grinned at the explanation, commenting: “I had my hands full passing Hiro myself, and when I looked back and saw Emmo (Fittipaldi) trying to pass, I thought this could be my break.”

Tracy’s only other problem was the loosening of his belts with about 25 laps remaining.

“I’m not sure how they came loose, but I found out what a difficult job it is to drive with loose belts on this course,” he said. “Coming down the corkscrew, I felt like I was falling out of the car. It was so bad I almost came in, but I decided to go as far as I could, and I made it.”

Bryan Herta, the newly crowned champion from Los Angeles, won his seventh race Firestone Indy Lights race of the season, with former world motorcycle road racing champion Eddie Lawson of Upland second and Robbie Groff of Los Angeles third.