Paul Tracy darted past Nigel Mansell on the 15th lap of the Cleveland Grand Prix and led the rest of the way in Sunday’s race for his second career Indy-car victory.
Tracy’s Penske teammate, Emerson Fittipaldi, finished second, winning a tight duel with Mansell during the final laps.
The 24-year-old Tracy had won the pole, but he lost his advantage to Mansell immediately, while several cars farther back in the field collided on the hairpin turn at the start. The collision ended the day for Bobby Rahal and Roberto Guerrero, but no serious injuries were reported.
After a five-lap caution flag was lifted, Tracy soon regained the lead from Mansell on that same hairpin turn and led for the rest of the 85-lap race. Tracy averaged 127.913 m.p.h. in a Chevy-powered Penske PC93 on the 2.369-mile, 10-turn course.
“(Mansell) was struggling in traffic, and he made the mistake of taking the wrong line,” Tracy said. “It wasn’t an easy pass. Nigel picked to go to the bottom of the track and tried to make himself a real tight corner. I took the normal line, because the track kind of separated itself apart. Nigel and I drag-raced all the way down the back straightaway.”
New Hampshire 300: A “perfect” pit stop was the difference as Rusty Wallace won the inaugural NASCAR stock-car race at New Hampshire International Raceway.
Wallace, admitting he lost his rhythm after a horrifying crash on May 2 at Talladega, Ala., that left him with a broken wrist, finally found it again on the 1.058-mile oval in Loudon, N.H.
But it took a 17.1-second stop for four fresh tires and a tank of gas during the last of six caution periods to give Wallace the final push toward his fifth victory of the season and 26th of his career.
The crew of the Penske Racing South team took full advantage of the stop by getting Wallace out ahead of Davey Allison, who had taken the lead during a series of green-flag pit stops by the leaders about 30 laps earlier.
Allison and Wallace came down pit lane for the final time with about 50 yards separating the cars. But it was Wallace who came roaring out first.
“The pit crew did an absolutely perfect job,” Wallace said. “They thought they could do a 15-second stop, so it was really so-so, but it was faster than anyone else.”
The green flag came out for the final time three laps later, and Wallace kept his Pontiac Grand Prix in front the rest of the way. Pole-starter Mark Martin got past Allison to take second.
Wallace beat Martin to the finish line by 1.31 seconds. The winner averaged 105.947 m.p.h.
Road America: Germans Manuel Reuter and John Winter drove a Porsche 962C to a two-lap victory in Elkhart Lake, Wis., the first triumph in more than two years for Porsche in an IMSA Camel GT race.
Reuter and Winter averaged 106.23 m.p.h. in outrunning teammate John Paul Jr. in another Porsche 962C.
Reuter built the two-lap margin before turning the car over to Winter, dueling the Nissan NPT 90-03 of Derek Bell and Gianpiero Moretti before the car retired with engine failure.
It was Winter’s second and Reuter’s first IMSA Camel GT victory.
