Victory Falls in Vasser’s Lap

The record books will show that Jimmy Vasser won three of the first four races in this year’s PPG Indy Car World Series, but there should be an asterisk beside the third one.

“They say sometimes you’d rather be lucky than good, and today it seemed that we were lucky,” Vasser said after winning the 22nd Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach before a record 88,000 on a picture-perfect Sunday.

For 101 laps the race belonged to Gil de Ferran, the Brazilian pole-sitter who was cruising along in Jim Hall’s Reynard-Honda, easily staying ahead of a destruction derby behind him.

But the race was 105 laps.

As de Ferran raced through the twisting turns at the west end of the 1.59-mile street circuit on lap 102, the dominating yellow Pennzoil car began to slow. Vasser, who had been seven seconds behind a lap earlier, caught the leader coming out of Turn 5 as he entered the Seaside Way straightaway.

“There was no way I could have caught him unless he had a problem,” Vasser said. “Unfortunately for him, that’s what happened.”

The culprit was a loose hose clamp on de Ferran’s turbocharger.

“It was a sudden problem, I had no indication ahead of time,” a disappointed de Ferran explained after managing to keep the car going fast enough to finish fifth behind Vasser, Parker Johnstone, Al Unser Jr. and Paul Tracy.

Vasser’s victory was also a tribute to patience. When he realized he was no match for the Brazilian, he steadied the course and concentrated on holding off other pursuers. His one scary moment came when the race was barely underway.

On the third lap, Vasser and Tracy swapped tire marks in an incident that could easily have knocked one or both out of the race. Tracy was third when Vasser challenged him on the outside.

“I felt like I could pull [a pass] off, but we locked wheels,” Vasser said. “We ended up with his tire marks on my sidepod and mine on his sidepod. We hit pretty hard. Luckily, both of us kept going. It was one of those things, no one was to blame.”

Alex Zanardi, Vasser’s Target teammate, led one lap when de Ferran made his first pit stop and appeared capable of racing with the Brazilian only to be knocked into the tire wall while trying to lap Bobby Rahal in the first turn of lap 39.

Tracy might have challenged Vasser had he not been penalized for passing him for second position under a yellow caution flag on lap 76.

“Unfortunately, there was a yellow in the hairpin, which I didn’t see, and by the time I saw it, I felt I was in a position to run into the back of Vasser,” Tracy said. “As soon as I realized that I passed under the yellow, I radioed in that I would get back behind him, but I had already been assessed a black flag.”

The stop-and-go penalty dropped Tracy to sixth place, but he quickly passed Adrian Fernandez and two laps from the end passed the slowing de Ferran to finish fourth.

Vasser, who earlier had won at Homestead, Fla., and Surfers Paradise, Australia, averaged 96.281 mph and finished 3.4 seconds ahead of the surprising Johnstone.

“What can I say? It was the thrill of a lifetime on the closing laps that I had the Emperor of the Beach [six-time Long Beach winner Unser] behind me, and a Honda in front of me that I wasn’t going to catch,” said Johnstone, a Honda test driver who had never finished higher than 11th in an Indy car race.

There were fender-bending incidents too numerous to mention, but one involving Christian Fittipaldi and rookie Greg Moore went beyond racing. After their cars collided, Fittipaldi jumped out of his cockpit, rushed over to Moore and grabbed the young Canadian by the helmet, then gave him a stiff push.

CART officials fined Fittipaldi $5,000 for the post-crash confrontation.

“I had the best seat in the house for it,” Unser said. “The way they were going at it, I knew three laps ahead of time Christian and Greg would end up that way. I just sat back and waited for it.”

Fittipaldi, surprise second-place finisher last year in the Indianapolis 500, claimed Moore got overanxious and hit him from behind, but said his reaction was “just something that happens in the heat of the moment.”

Vasser’s three victories in four races is the fastest start in Indy car racing since Mario Andretti opened the season with a win at Long Beach in 1985 and won two of the next three events.

“We were running to protect second place because we knew we couldn’t catch de Ferran,” Vasser said. “The championship was obviously a goal of ours at the start of the season, but we’ve got to take it one race at a time.

“The Honda engine and Firestone tires are definitely the combination of choice, but there are still 12 races left. A lot can happen.”

It did in 1985. Mario Andretti won three of four, but Al Unser Sr. won the championship.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Long Beach Results

Results of Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Indy-car race, with starting position in parentheses, residence or home country, type of car, laps completed, reason out, if any, and winner’s average speed in mph:

1. Jimmy Vasser, Discovery Bay, Calif., Reynard-Honda, 105.

2. Parker Johnstone, Redmond, Ore., Reynard-Honda, 105.

3. Al Unser Jr., Albuquerque, Penske-Mercedes, 105.

4. Paul Tracy, Canada, Penske-Mercedes, 105.

5. Gil de Ferran, Brazil, Reynard-Honda, 105.

6. Adrian Fernandez, Mexico, Lola-Honda, 105.

7. Michael Andretti, Nazareth, Pa., Lola-Ford, 104.

8. Roberto Moreno, Brazil, Lola-Ford, 104.

9. Eddie Lawson, Lake Havasu, Ariz., Lola-Mercedes, 104.

10. Richie Hearn, Canyon Country, 1995 Reynard-Ford, 103.

11. Scott Pruett, Crystal Bay, Nev., Lola-Ford, 103.

12. Bryan Herta, Valencia, Reynard-Mercedes, 100.

13. Robby Gordon, Orange, Reynard-Ford, 98.

14. Bobby Rahal, Dublin, Ohio, Reynard-Mercedes, 98.

15. Mauricio Gugelmin, Brazil, Reynard Ford, 97.

16. Raul Boesel, Brazil, Reynard-Ford, 90.

17. Dennis Vitolo, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., 1995 Reynard-Ford, 87, electrical.

18. Teo Fabi, Italy, Reynard-Ford, 86, clutch.

19. Stefan Johansson, Sweden, Reynard-Mercedes, 50, engine failure.

20. Emerson Fittipaldi, Brazil, Penske-Mercedes, 48, crash.

21. Christian Fittipaldi, Brazil, Lola-Ford, 47, crash.

22. Greg Moore, Canada, Reynard-Mercedes, 47, crash.

23. Michel Jourdain Jr., Mexico, Lola-Ford, 46, radiator.

24. Alex Zanardi, Italy, Reynard-Honda, 39, crash.

25. Juan Fangio II, Argentina, Eagle-Toyota, 29, oil leak.

26. Jeff Krosnoff, La Canada Flintridge, Reynard-Toyota, 23, engine failure.

27. Andre Ribeiro, Brazil, Reynard-Honda, 4, crash.

28. Hiro Matsushita, Japan, Lola-Ford, 1, electrical.

*

* Winner’s speed: 96.281 mph; time of race: 1:44:2.363.

* Margin of victory: 3.447-seconds.

* Lap leaders: De Ferran 1-38; Zanardi 39; de Ferran 40-101; Vasser 102-105.

* Series point leaders: Vasser 67; Pruett 44; Unser 39; de Ferran 33; C. Fittipaldi 28; Ribeiro 25; Moore 20; Rahal 18; Johnstone 16; (tie) Tracy, Zanardi and Gordon 14.