Castroneves Dominates Race, De Ferran Takes Points Lead

Helio Castroneves dominated the race and Gil de Ferran took over the series points lead Sunday as the teammates started and finished 1-2 in the Honda Grand Prix of Monterey’s featured Shell 300.

Castroneves, who hadn’t won a CART FedEx Series event prior to this season, now has three victories, all on road or street courses.

The winner dedicated this one to Gonzalo Rodriguez, who was killed last year in a crash during practice at Laguna Seca Raceway while racing for Marlboro Team Penske, the team for which Castroneves and fellow Brazilian de Ferran now drive.

The excited Castroneves scrambled out of his Reynard-Honda and leaped onto a nearby fence, thrusting his arms in the air as the crowd cheered around the victory stand.

“My team gave me a great car,” Castroneves said. “I told them we were going to win, and we did.”

The last half of the 83-lap race on the hilly 2.238-mile, 11-turn circuit in the picturesque Monterey Peninsula was a fuel conservation effort by all of the drivers.

When the 25-year-old Castroneves was asked if he was concerned about making it to the end, he grinned and replied: “A lot. But I trust my guys. They told me I could make it and I did.”

Castroneves led all but two laps--giving up the top spot to Juan Montoya during the first round of pit stops by the leaders--and, at times, built margins over more than four seconds over either Montoya or de Ferran.

Montoya lost any chance at the victory on lap 48 when his airjack collapsed under the car during his second stop and kept him on pit road for about 10 seconds too long. That gave the runner-up spot back to de Ferran.

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A tearful Michael Schumacher found little reason to celebrate following his victory in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Schumacher’s win was tempered by the death of a track worker.

Paolo Ghislimberti, 33, a track crew member, was killed by flying debris after a first-lap chain collision.

Schumacher’s Ferrari finished 3.81 seconds ahead of his McLaren rival Mika Hakkinen. The victory was Schumacher’s third in five years in the Formula One race and his sixth this season.

The crash that killed Ghislimberti came on the second curve on the course.

The victory revived Schumacher’s Formula One title hopes and touched off wild celebrations by the capacity crowd, unaware of the worker’s death.

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Points leader Scott Dixon grabbed the early lead and picked up his fifth Indy Lights victory of the season at Monterey.

Dixon, of New Zealand, passed pole-sitter Casey Mears on the third of 34 laps at Laguna Seca Raceway and crossed the finish line 2.885 seconds ahead of Mears. Rookie Jeff Simmons finished third.

Dixon has a season-high 42-point lead in the standings with three races remaining. Dixon has 134 points and Townsend Bell, who did not finish Sunday’s race, is second with 92.

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Co-Drivers Allan McNish of Scotland and Rinaldo Capello or Italy overcame body damage from an early crash to win the Rose City Grand Prix, an American Le Mans Series race at Portland, Ore.,

The victory at Portland International Raceway was the third of the season for McNish and Capello, and the fourth consecutive and fifth overall in the ALMS for the Audi R8 prototype.

The car was damaged 10 minutes into the race, but after pitting for repairs it dominated the race and recorded a 57.486-second victory over the Panoz LMP-1 Roadster driven by David Brabham of England and Jan Magnussen of Gainesville, Ga.

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Three track champions were crowned on Saturday night at Irwindale Speedway as James Weston of Goleta, Greg Voigt of Santa Barbara and Rip Michels of Mission Hills each clinched series titles before a crowd of 4,499.

Weston pulled off the championship hat trick winning the NASCAR late model division title, the Exide ShortTrack Pacific Coast regional championship and the 50-lap race held during the evening. Weston, driving the Auto-Pro Chevy, won his 10th race of the season in 16 starts. Voigt wrapped up the Food 4 Less NASCAR Super Late Model series title with his fourth place finish in the 75-lap event.

Miscellany

Two-time 50-goal scorer Stephane Richer, who signed a one-year free-agent contract with the Washington Capitals last month, surprised the team by announcing his retirement after only one practice.

Richer, 34, who was expected to help fill a scoring void, has scored at least 20 goals in 12 of his 15 NHL seasons. His last 20-goal season came with the Montreal Canadiens in 1996-97.

Richer suddenly changed his mind about playing Sunday, informing Capital General Manager George McPhee that he was retiring. Team officials had no details, releasing just a one-sentence statement saying Richer had quit.

A tied soccer game between 8- and 9-year-old girls ended in a brawl among their parents after a disagreement over where a coach was standing, police in South Brunswick, N.J., said.

A penalty-kick shootout was to take place between the teams--one from Staten Island, N.Y., and the other from North Hunterdon--but before it could, a Staten Island coach argued that a North Hunterdon coach shouldn’t be allowed to stand behind the goal.

The argument escalated into a fistfight with as many as a dozen parents and coaches involved. No children were involved, South Brunswick police Officer Jim Ryan said.

Roseleena Blair, a University of Alabama Huntsville tennis player, has been declared ineligible by the NCAA because she was paid for posing nude in a Playboy publication.