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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Fittipaldi Hopes To Have Leg Up On Rivals

Associated Press

Christian Fittipaldi was back in a race car this week for the first time since he fractured his right leg and left foot in a crash in Australia on April 6.

The 26-year-old Brazilian took part in an open test Tuesday and Wednesday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, running 59 laps and 133 miles the first day.

His Newman-Haas Swift-Ford had the seventh-fastest lap at 118.990 mph.

“It would have been easier to do my first test on an oval because you don’t have to brake and shift so much,” said Fittipaldi, who has been undergoing about 10 hours of therapy daily while missing six PPG CART World Series events. “But I have to come back to the same scenario that I’ll be coming back in the next race (on the road course at Portland, Ore., June 22).”

With a metal rod and two screws helping to hold his right leg together, Fittipaldi said he has learned to brake with his left foot, “because I still can’t put much pressure on my right foot.”

Fittipaldi said he wasn’t worried he might not be able to handle a race car so soon after such a serious accident.

“The doctors said the only thing that was going to limit me was the amount of pain I could take. So far, it’s bearable,” he said.

Way off road

Steve Barlow was on the way to what he thought was going to be his second straight Pro Truck class victory in the Baja 500 off-road classic. Then part of his pickup literally went over the cliff.

“We were only about 30 seconds behind the leader and thought we could win it until about 20 miles from the finish,” Barlow said. “Up in the mountains there were some rocks across the course we couldn’t get over. We got the front end of our Ford F-150 stuck on them, so we backed up. That’s when I dropped a wheel off the side of the mountain.”

Barlow couldn’t believe his predicament.

“We were hanging there and some local kids came down to help us out,” he said. “We dug and we pulled and, after about 20 minutes, we finally got going again.

“It’s too bad. We could have won that thing.”

Winning ways

Canadian drivers have won five straight PPG CART World Series races, all with Mercedes-Benz engines.

Paul Tracy, the series points leader, won three in a row and Greg Moore has won the last two.

The string by the Canadians matches a record set in 1994-95, with a win by Jacques Villeneuve followed by season-ending victories by Tracy, then a season-opening win by Villeneuve and another win by Tracy.

No engine manufacturer has won six straight CART events since Ilmor-Chevrolet won every race during the 1991 season. Ilmor builds the current Mercedes Indy V8s, which have led 48 percent of the laps this season.

Mario’s moment

Since Mario Andretti retired from Indy-car racing following the 1994 season, his only real racing has been in the 24 Hours of LeMans sports car endurance race each June.

The 57-year-old former Formula One and Indy-car champion will be back in action this weekend in France, where he will team with son Michael and French driver Olivier Grouillard in a Porsche Courage.

She’s back

Cristen Powell will return to the driver’s seat of the Royal Purple Motor Oil dragster this weekend at Hebron, Ohio. She skipped the event two weeks ago to attend her high school graduation in Portland, Ore. The 18-year-old Powell created a sensation by winning at Englishtown, N.J., two weeks before her graduation.