Gordon Takes the Flag in Rain-Shortened Race

It was probably the easiest race Jeff Gordon ever won.

The defending Winston Cup champion was visiting NASCAR’s truck, chatting and watching the radar screen, when Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol (Tenn.) International Raceway was called off after a 67-minute rain delay.

“I hated to see it end like that,” Gordon said. “The car was at it’s best right when the rain started to come down. We were about to lap some pretty strong cars.

“It’s crazy really. I’ve never won a race like this before,” he added. “To be in victory lane without a soul in the grandstand and pouring down rain was really weird. Then to be interviewed about winning up in the NASCAR truck, that was really strange.”

Gordon took the lead from Rusty Wallace on lap 295 and was still out front when NASCAR officials finally gave up their attempts to finish the 500-lap race after 342 laps on the .533-mile banked oval.

Terry Labonte finished second, followed by Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt, Wallace and series point leader Dale Jarrett, the only other competitors on the lead lap.

The start was delayed 42 minutes by a shower. Once the race began, in typical Bristol fashion it was slowed by three caution flags in the first 58 laps. But, after the green flag waved for the start of lap 64, the race stayed caution-free until the rain came on lap 318.

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Damon Hill, unfazed by a surprise rainstorm and teammate Jacques Villeneuve, drove to his second consecutive Formula One victory in the Brazilian Grand Prix at Sao Paulo.

Hill, in a Williams Renault, was flawless in wet and dry conditions, completing the 71 laps around the 2.687-mile Jose Carlos Pace Circuit in 1 hour, 49 minutes and 52.976 seconds. He finished nearly 18 seconds ahead of Jean Alesi.

Hill trailed his teammate most of that race, inheriting the lead when Villeneuve spun out during a duel with Alesi on the 26th lap.

Italian Luca Cadalora won the rain-interrupted 500cc event by 5.721 seconds in the Malaysian Grand Prix Motorcycle Championship at Kuala Lumpur. World champion Michael Doohan of Australia lost the lead because of mechanical problems after the 26th of 33 laps.

Miscellany

Tom Weiskopf, his game jump-started with a birdie on the ninth hole, shot a 3-under-par 69 to win the $650,000 SBC Dominion Seniors by two strokes at San Antonio. Weiskopf finished with a total of 9-under 207. Gary Player, Bob Dickson and Graham Marsh finished two strokes back at 209.

Fourth-seeded Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes won their third beach volleyball tournament in five outings with a 15-13 victory over Dain Blanton and Canyon Ceman at the Miller Lite Open at Fort Meyers, Fla.

Unseeded Tomas Carbonell of Spain upset defending champion Gilbert Schaller of Austria, 7-5, 1-6, 6-2, for the title in the King Hassan II Casablanca (Morocco) Open tennis tournament. . . . A Lubbock, Texas bank provided Pittsburgh Steeler running back Byron “Bam” Morris with an unsecured $1,000 loan after Morris’ freshman year at Texas Tech, the Houston Chronicle reported. Morris failed to repay the loan promptly, causing a collection suit against him in late 1992, the paper said. The report comes as the NCAA conducts a preliminary inquiry into Texas Tech men’s basketball and football programs dating to 1991. . . . Arizona recruit Stephen Jackson missed only two shots while scoring 21 points and the East beat the West, 120-105, in the McDonald’s All-America high school basketball game at Pittsburgh. Corey Benjamin, of Fontana, scored 17 points. . . . Kenya’s Lazarus Nyakeraka took the lead in the final mile to win the 24th annual Cherry Blossom 10-Mile run at Washington in 46 minutes, 37 seconds. Kenyan Joseph Kariuki was second in 46:49. Joan Nesbit of Carrboro, N.C., outdistanced Belgium’s Lieve Slegers to capture the women’s competition in 53:25. . . . Mexico’s Armando Quintanilla and Canada’s Angela Chalmers won the three-mile invitational event at the 11th Carlsbad (Calif.) 5,000 road race. Quintanilla finished in 13:18, Chalmers in 15:20.