Despite Errors, Zanardi Drives To Victory Lane

Auto racing

Alex Zanardi knew he dodged a bullet Sunday in the U.S. 500 at Michigan Speedway at Brooklyn, Mich.

Zanardi took the first oval-track victory of his Indy-car career despite an early pit stop wacky enough to be included on one of those video blooper tapes.

“You have to be lucky to win a 500-mile race,” the smiling Zanardi admitted. “Especially when you make a pit stop like I did.”

It was on lap 36 of the 250-lap event, under the first of six caution flags, that the Italian driver made his first stop.

“I realized I was coming in too fast. Then I realized I was in Jimmy’s pit box,” Zanardi explained, referring to Target-Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Jimmy Vasser. “That’s the kind of mistake that can cost you the race.

“I knew then that I had to take a penalty because I had to drive over Jimmy’s air hose to get to my pit. His crew chief tried to hold the air hose up so I could drive under it, but it got caught on my rear wing and the (air) gun hit the side of my car.

“Then I stalled the engine,” he added with a grimace. “I was screaming to myself.”

At a track where laps speeds are routinely above 220 mph, the ensuing penalty, forcing Zanardi to drive through the pits at the 80 mph speed limit after the green flag came back out, dropped him from sixth to 18th.

With the help of some ferocious attrition - a combination of smothering heat and humidity, a rash of gearbox failures and some nasty-looking crashes, Zanardi was able to work his way to the front - much as he did in winning earlier this month at Cleveland, where he was penalized for entering a closed pit road.

In the race on Cleveland’s temporary road course, Zanardi charged back from 22nd. This time, he had to bide his time.

“I was in a little bit of trouble when I first came out,” he explained. “We did an adjustment to the car and it was a little too much. I finally found a way to compromise and get the car in balance.”

Zanardi came on to lead 104 of the last 132 laps, including the final 31.

The victory was his third of the season and sixth in 28 PPG CART World Series starts. But, more important, this one boosted Zanardi into the series points lead, six points ahead of previous leader Paul Tracy, who finished a lap down in fourth.

There were just 10 cars running at the end.

Mark Blundell, winner of two of the previous three races, was the only driver able to stay with Zanardi on the lead lap. But the Englishman was 31.737 seconds - nearly a full lap - behind on the two-mile, high-banked track when the checkered flag flew.

Gil de Ferran finished third, passing Tracy in the last 10 laps.

Randy LaJoie beat all the big names, and Mark Martin did what was necessary to win a record third championship in the final event of the 1997 True Value Firebird International Race of Champions series.

LaJoie, the defending NASCAR Busch Grand National champion, went from seventh in the 12-man all-star lineup to first in three laps, and led the rest of the 100-mile race on the two-mile, high-banked Michigan Speedway oval.

“Anytime we can come from the back to the front in a hurry like that, you know you’ve got a great car,” LaJoie said. “I wanted to beat Robby (Gordon) and Terry Labonte to finish in the top five in the points. But I won and moved up to third. That’s pretty cool.”

Martin, who won two of the four IROC races this season, came into the finale knowing a finish of seventh or better would clinch the title no matter what Gordon and Al Unser Jr did. They were the only other drivers with a shot at the $225,000 first-place money.

The IROC race was part of a doubleheader with the U.S. 500 Indy-car race.

German Grand Prix

Gerhard Berger, the oldest driver on the Formula One circuit, made a spectacular comeback, winning the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, Germany, for his first triumph in three years.

The Austrian, who was considering retirement, gave Benetton-Renault its first win since 1995, when Michael Schumacher won the Grand Prix of Japan.

Berger, who will be 38 next month, had missed the previous three Grand Prix races because of sinus surgery. Less than two weeks ago, he buried his father, who had died in a plane crash.

On Thursday, Berger said he would leave Benetton at the end of the season and had even talked of retiring. But Sunday’s impressive win revived his career.

He led this race last year until engine problems forced him to drop out with three laps to go. This time, he won by 17.5 seconds over Schumacher on the 4.239-mile circuit.

Schumacher, seeking his third drivers’ title, finished second in a Ferrari, with Mika Hakkinen of Finland third in a McLaren-Mercedes.

Berger covered the 45 laps in 1 hour, 20 minutes, 59.046 seconds, averaging 141.036 mph. He also clocked the fastest lap, 144.012 mph.

With seven races left in the 17-race season, Schumacher extended his lead over Jacques Villeneuve of Canada in the drivers’ standings.

Winston West Series race

Kevin Richards of Spokane finished fifth as Michael Waltrip edged fellow Winston Cup regular Ken Schrader by 0.17 seconds at Fountain, Colo., to win the NASCAR 500K Winston West Series race at Pikes Peak International Raceway.

Waltrip, making his second appearance in the West Coast series, averaged 104.962 mph in his Ford Thunderbird. Butch Gilliland was third, followed by Sean Woodside and Richards. Pappy Pryor of Priest Lake, Idaho, finished 10th.

NASCAR trucks

Joe Ruttman won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Lund Look 275K at Topeka, Kansas, muscling his Ford past Jack Sprague with less than a mile to go after leader Jay Sauter ran out of gas.

Ruttman, who edged Sprague by 0.820 seconds, overcame a restart infraction on the 34th lap that dropped him from fifth to 21st in the 34-truck field after a NASCAR-imposed trip to pit road.