Tracy Loses Shot at $1 Million

Al Unser Jr. cost Penske teammate Paul Tracy a shot at a $1-million bonus, beating the Canadian by 0.11 seconds for the pole for today’s Budweiser Cleveland Grand Prix.

Unser, driving an Ilmor-powered Penske racer, clinched his third pole of the year Saturday, matching his career total before this year. He has won four races this year, including the Indianapolis 500 and the most recent race in the Indy car series at Portland.

Tracy, the defending Cleveland champion, had won the provisional pole Friday and needed to stay on top for a chance at the $1 million bonus offered by the race promoter.

The bonus was offered to a driver fulfilling four criteria: victory at Detroit--which Tracy won last month; victory at Cleveland; a race record in either race--Tracy set a record at Detroit; a pole at either race--Nigel Mansell won the pole at Detroit.

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Damon Hill won one of the closest qualifying sessions in Formula One history when he edged Michael Schumacher of Germany by .003 seconds for the pole position for today’s British Grand Prix.

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Bill Elliott set a track record in leading second-day qualifying for today’s Slick 50 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway with a lap of 128.005 m.p.h. to break the mark of 127.197 set Friday by pole-winner Ernie Irvan.

Cycling

Johan Museeuw of Belgium, gaining bonus seconds in intermediate sprints, regained the lead in the Tour de France after the seventh stage, won by Jan Svorada of Slovakia.

Juliana Furtado of Durango, Colo., won the women’s Grundig/UCI World Cup cross-country race at Mammoth Mountain. Gary Foord of Great Britain won the men’s race.

Tennis

Guy Forget of France upset sixth-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, 7-5, 6-3, to reach the final of the Swiss Open tennis tournament. Forget will face top-seeded Sergi Bruguera of Spain, who defeated Andrea Gaudenzi of Italy, 6-4, 6-1.

Sixth-seeded Byron Black of Zimbabwe, the only seeded player remaining in the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships at Newport, R.I., lost in the semifinals to Australian Todd Woodbridge, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-1). Woodbridge will face David Wheaton, a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 winner over Britain’s Mark Petchey, in today’s final. . . . Hana Mandlikova, a four-time champion in Grand Slam singles events, and Bud Collins, the dean of American tennis broadcast journalists, were inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Miscellany

Mike Enright, spokesman for Notre Dame, said he knew of no plans for the Fighting Irish to become a member of the Big East, though he said the school still was interested in joining a conference. A Knight-Ridder story published Saturday quoted unidentified sources as saying Notre Dame would announce Monday that it was joining the Big East in the summer of 1995 and would compete in all sports except football.

Negotiations for sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves to a group headed by Minnesota businessman Bill Sexton have ended because parties couldn’t agree on a purchase price.

Names in the News

The New Jersey Devils officially matched the $17.1-million over four years offered by the St. Louis Blues for all-star defenseman Scott Stevens. . . . Hockey Hall of Famer Bill Mosienko, who holds the record for the fastest three goals in NHL history (21 seconds), died of cancer at 72. . . . Cuban super-heavyweight boxing champion Roberto Balado, 25, was killed when his car collided with a train in Havana, the Cuban state news agency reported.