De Ferran and Castroneves Put Penske on Front Row

Brazilians Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves of Marlboro Team Penske swept the front row Saturday for the Freightliner/G.I. Joe’s 200 at Portland, Ore.

It’s the first time Penske has taken both front-row spots since Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy did it in 1994 in Nazareth.

Castroneves won the pole with a lap of 122.768 mph on the 1.969-mile, 12-turn Portland International Raceway road course.

He was the fastest of seven drivers who surpassed the previous qualifying record of 121.808, set last June by Juan Montoya.

De Ferran, who led Friday’s opening round of time trials, fell to second despite improving his fast lap to 122.594.

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Greg Biffle became the third driver in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series history to win three consecutive races, leading a 1-2 Roush Racing sweep of the Bully Hill Vineyards 150 at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

Biffle, who started from the pole, passed Marty Houston on the 49th of 62 laps around the 2.45-mile road course, then drew away from teammate Kurt Busch to win by 1.498 seconds.

The victory, Biffle’s fourth in five races, was worth $44,590 and enabled the third-year competitor to pad his series lead to 54 points over 1999 champion Jack Sprague, who finished fifth.

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Gary Scelzi raced to his fifth top fuel victory of the season, beating Kenny Bernstein in the final of the Sears Craftsman Nationals at Madison, Ill.

Despite losing traction, Scelzi won his third consecutive event at Gateway International Raceway with a quarter-mile run of 5.892 seconds at a top speed of 284.99 mph. Bernstein, who also lost traction, had a pass of 6.010 seconds at 307.09 mph.

Jerry Toliver won the funny car division and Ron Krisher the pro stock division.

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Rookie Townsend Bell of Costa Mesa won his first Dayton Indy Lights Championship pole in final qualifying for today’s 38-lap race at Portland, Ore. Bell completed the 1.969-mile road course at an average speed of 108.593 mph to break the track record of 107.978 mph set by Jonny Kane in Friday’s first round of qualifying.

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Canadian road-racing specialist Ron Fellows led qualifying for the NASCAR Busch Series’ Lysol 200 for the second consecutive year at Watkins Glen.

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Alex Barros of Brazil, taking advantage of an accident by American Kenny Roberts, won the Dutch Grand Prix 500cc motorcycle race at Assen, Netherlands. The race was interrupted after four laps by one of many rain showers.

Points leader Roberts lost control of his Suzuki on a partially wet surface on the first lap and was propelled over the handlebars. He was not seriously injured.

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Scott Baker of Holland, Mich., was killed Friday night after his Chevrolet lost control and struck an inner tire barrier near the finish line just after he had completed the 146th lap of the Japser Engines & Transmissions 150 at Toledo. Ohio. He was 43.

Emergency crews had to cut Baker out of the car. He was pronounced dead at St. Vincent Medical Center at 10:56 p.m.

Boxing

Hospitalized fighter Johnny Tapia vowed that he’ll win his latest bout with depression, but whether he’ll return to the ring is uncertain.

“I’d be misleading you if I said yes or no,” Teresa Tapia, the WBO champion’s wife and manager, told the Albuquerque Journal on Friday. “The doctor has said he can fight again if he wants to. Johnny does love fighting, but his health is more important. We won’t do anything to jeopardize his health.”

Tapia, 33, remained in a Las Vegas hospital Friday night. He issued a statement through the Showtime cable network, with whom he’s under contract.

“There have been a lot of rumors out there about me. I am not back on drugs and I have not been arrested,” Tapia said in the statement. “I am suffering from depression, which has plagued me throughout my life because of mi vida loca [my crazy life].”

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police went to Tapia’s house in Las Vegas on Wednesday in what police spokesman Steve Meriwether initially said was in response to an attempted suicide. Meriwether said Friday that he misspoke.

Tapia, a four-time world champion with a record of 48-1-2, has a history of drug problems. He was banned from boxing for 3 1/2 years because of his addiction to cocaine and this year said it remains a daily battle.

King Ipitan of Los Angeles survived a first-round knockdown and stopped 7-foot-1 Marselles Brown of Las Vegas by technical knockout in the third round of their heavyweight bout Friday night at Las Vegas.

Names in the News

Dara Torres, trying to become the oldest female swimmer ever to make the U.S. Olympic team, won her third event in the Santa Clara International. The three-time Olympian won the 200-meter freestyle in a career-best 2 minutes 0.54 seconds. On Friday, the 33-year-old swimmer won the 100 freestyle and 100 butterfly. . . . Former Los Angeles Ram defensive lineman Dennis Harrison has been placed on pretrial diversion in Nashville as a result of charges he beat his wife. Harrison, 43, now an assistant coach at Vanderbilt, will participate in a 24-week domestic violence counseling program with other family members under terms of an agreement reached Friday by prosecutors and his attorneys. . . . The San Jose Sharks hired Rich Preston and Cap Raeder, a former King assistant, as assistant coaches.