Rookie Riggs Earns First Victory

Scott Riggs led only once for the final 47 laps Saturday as he got his first NASCAR Busch series victory in his seventh start on the circuit at the Pepsi 300 at Gladeville, Tenn., tying a record for the quickest victory by a rookie.

Johnny Rumley also won in his seventh start, in 1993.

Riggs became the first rookie to win on the Busch circuit this season as crew chief Harold Holly gambled in the final pit stop, taking only two tires and gas.

He took the lead on Lap 179 and started stretching out his lead in his Ford in winning with an average speed of 111.038 mph.

Darrell Waltrip’s return to racing ended long before the Advance Auto Parts 250 did and Dennis Setzer passed Terry Cook with 43 laps to go at Martinsville, Va. and went on to his seventh career win.

Waltrip, who retired in from Winston Cup racing 2000, lasted only 86 laps as a one-race fill-in for NASCAR truck series driver Stacy Compton before the rear end in his leaking Dodge failed.

Mike Bliss rallied to finish second, also in a Chevy, followed by Rick Crawford in a Ford, Bobby Dotter in a Chevy and Cook.

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World champion Michael Schumacher won the pole position in record time for the San Marino Grand Prix, setting up an all-Ferrari front row for the Formula One race at Imola, Italy. Schumacher covered the 3.065-mile Imola circuit in 1 minute, 21.091 seconds.

He beat by nearly two seconds the mark set by David Coulthard during last year’s qualifying.

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Canyon Country’s Ben Walker fought off a surging Rip Michels for his first win in two years by winning the 75-lap Jani-King Super Late Model Series feature race at Irwindale Speedway before 5,743 fans.

In the 75-lap Southern California Auto Club Late Model series feature, Tim Huddleston held off Mike Price and Todd Burns for the final 40 laps to win.

In the 30-lap King Taco Legends Series feature race, Jim Kalawaia claimed his first won of the series, holding off Brent Jones and Bill Everett.

Tony Solorzano

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Defending champion Chris Manchester won the Costa Mesa Speedway Spring Classic scratch main event in front of a sellout crowd at the Orange County Fairgrounds.

The two-time champion, who became the speedway’s youngest champ at 17 in 1997, led from start to finish in the main event, outpacing Bobby Schwartz, who finished second, and third-place finisher, Josh Larsen.

Tim Dermody

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Whit Bazemore earned the top position in NHRA Funny Car competition after qualifying in the O’Reilly Spring Nationals at Baytown, Texas.... Nathan Ramsey got his first main-event victory and ended Ricky Carmichael’s six-race winning streak by beating him in the 250cc Supercross competition at Pontiac, Mich.