The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 26

-MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1987 C-6- -TIIE INDIANAPOLIS STAR- Elliott victorious; race wreck-filled minor collisions with Kevin Co-gan, Geoff Brabham and third place finisher Rick Mears, who had a head cold to contend with. The latter Incident resulted In a bent steering arm on Unser's car and kept him from improving his position. Fifth place went to Brabham In the Team Valvollne March-Honda. Brabham, who ran as high as third, had a coming-together John Richards and his ensuing spinout cost him two positions. Rounding out the top 10 were: Arie Luyendyck in the Living WellProvlml MarchCosworth: John Andretti in the Skoal Bandit MarchCosworth; Josele Garza In the SchaeferMa-chinists MarchCosworth; Jeff MacPherson in the MacHoward Leasing MarchCosworth: and Jeff Wood in the Spirit of Wichita LolaCos worth.

AFTER SOMEHOW getting a piece of metal in his right eye, Fabrizio Barbazza was unable to drive so Ludwig Helmrath Jr. was called at the last minute to substitute for him. Simpson captures ARS at Laguna ASSOCIATED PRESS Monterey, Calif. Dave Simpson raced away to an easy victory Sunday in the Laguna Seca Raceway round of the American Racing Scries, while Didier Theys of Belgium wrapped up the second championship with a second-place finish. Simpson, starting from the pole, led throughout the 40-lap.

76-mlle event over Laguna's 1.9-mile, nine-turn circuit. The winner, who picked up $20,000. averaged 112.915 mph as he beat Theys to the finish line by Meanwhile, Theys outran Tommy Byrne of Ireland, his closest pursuer on the track and In the standings. 1. Bobby Rahal 182 2.

Michael Andretti 137 3. Roberto Guerrero 106 4. Arie Luyendyk 96 5. Rick Mears 92 6. Al Unser Jr 91 7.

Mario Andretti 87 8. Danny Sullivan 86 9. Jeff Brabham 76 10. Emerson Fittipaldi 75 "Once he dropped out. 1 could get on with the program of trying to win the race.

Our strategy changed when he (Michael) dropped out." The search for reliability was a factor in the Rahal's second title. Last year, he won six races and had to wait until Miami to get it. This year, the team won half as many races, but has finished in the top 10 11 times. "I'm happy with the way the year has gone," Rahal said. "We traded our win-or-break for some consistency." Right now, Sullivan might be happy to trade some consistency for some wins.

The pilot of the Miller American MarchChevy recorded his sixth top 10 finish since his Penske Team decided to run year-old Marches instead of the Penske PC-16 chassis. "We made the decision that we would be champ or chump with the PC-16," Sullivan said. "We've struggled all year and next yeaj I can assure you we'll have a car we feel we can win with." Team owner Roger Penske has hired Lola designer Nigel Bennett to come up with a chassis called the PC-88 which Is due to be completed orf January 15. One new design that didn't fare well over the weekend was the Quaker State Porsche driven by Al Unser. After starting in 21st spot, Unser ran with the backmarkers and then retired on Lap 6 with a water pump problem.

But while Unser struggled with his problems, his son soldiered the Domino's Pizza MarchCosworth into fourth place. The younger Unser had Sterling Marlin of Columbia. was the only other driver to finish on the lead lap. Dale Earnhardt missed an opportunity to officially clinch his second consecutive season championship with his 12th-place finish. His Chevrolet lost its brakes on lap 193.

However. Earnhardt needs to only start the the AC-Delco 500 in Rock-Ingham on Oct. 25 to win the title. Earnhardt's brake problems put the Kannapolis driver six laps down and overshadowed his earlier effort that saw him make up a three-lap deficit to get back on the lead lap. Earnhardt lost the three laps after he was caught up in a six- car accident on lap 2 1 Derrike Cope and Earnhardt collided between the first and second turns to begin the massive pile-up.

Jimmy Means. Greg Sacks. Buddy Baker and Cope were eliminated from competition while Ken Schrader missed several laps In the pits. The early race accident began a series of wrecks and mechanical failures that resulted in only 19 of the 42 starters running at the end. There were seven cau-, tion flags for a total of 60 laps.

Bonnett. of Bessemer, crashed into the fourth turn wall on lap 56 and suffered a broken hip. He was taken to Cabarrus Memorial Hospital where he Is scheduled for surgery today. He remained hospitilized for at least the rest of the week, officials said. The other serious accident came on lap 126 when Rick Wilson ran Into Geoff Bodlne as the two, along with Lake Speed, attempted to go into turn one three abreast.

Wilson, Geoff Bodlne Brett Bodine, Alan Kulwicki and Bobby Hillin, were knocked out in the chain reaction wreck. ASSOCIATED PRESS Concord, N.C. Bill Elliott said the secret to his victory in Sunday's Oakwood Homes 500 NASCAR race was simple stay out of trouble. That was no easy feat in an accident-riddled race that claimed more than half of the 42-car starting field. The race featured two early multi-car pileups and a third accident that broke the right hip of veteran driver Neil Bonnett.

"I had to work for this one," Elliott said after he beat pole-sitter Bobby Allison by 2.22 seconds to the checkered flag at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Driving a Ford Thunderbird. Elliott averaged 128.443 mph to win $74,040. It was the second time he has won the race. He also won in 1984.

"I'm so thankful to have stayed out of trouble," the 32-year-old Elliott said on victory lane. "I thank the good Lord for giving me a good race." Elliott, of Dawsonville. took the lead after the seventh caution flag of the day came when Larry Pearson spun out on the 270th lap of the 334-lap. 500-mile race. He never relinquished it to the hard-charging Allison.

"I really didn't know how good Bobby would be at the end," Elliott said. "But I felt I could hang on. The crew did a great job. what won the race." Elliott quipped that he was "the best of what was left" after the early accidents. "That's all it takes." he said.

Allison. 49. was leading the race prior to the final caution, but dropped to fourth on the restart. Allison, in a Buick, moved Into second place after two laps under the green flag, but could never pull closer than the final margin of victory. STAR FILE PHOTO Bobby Rahal No.

1 again Halsmer triumphs in Trans-Am race ASSOCIATED PRESS Flowery Branch. Ga. Pete Halsmer of Anaheim, won his fourth Bendix Trans-Am race of the season Sunday at Road Atlanta, defeating polesitter Elliott Forbes-Robinson by 7.437 seconds. Halsmer, in a Merkur XR4Ti, took the lead on lap 10 and wasn't passed again. Halsmer averaged 89.168 mph for the 40-lap, 100.8-mile race that took 1:07.49.585 to complete.

Actor-racer Paul Newman, in a Nissan 300XZ Turbo, started at the 5th position and finished third, his best Bendix Trans-Am finish In six starts this season. "I learned a whole new way of driving the course today," Halsmer said. "You would be surprised on how smooth you can drive when you don't want to put any tension on the car through a turn." Forbes-Robinson of Denver. N.C.. led nine of the first 10 laps before Halsmer passed for the lead.

Driving a Porsche 944 Turbo, Forbes-Robinson dropped to third on two occasions before regaining second nine laps from the end. GART Continued from Page 1 Seca. "I don't know what It Is about this place, but I can tell you I'm coming back." the race winner quipped. He also became the first man lo win back-to-back CART titles sinfe Rick Mears did It in 1981 and '82. Ironically, Rahal's title came with- some help from the Andret-tis.

Michael Andrctti. who trailed Rahal by 25 points prior to the race, had to win to have a chance In the season finale in Miami. And he looked determined to do It as he charged into the lead at the start. Unfortunately for Michael, the', first of a series of electrical problems struck his KracoSTP MarchCosworth on the seventh lap; It would be the first of four trips to the pits and when he retired for good after completing 27 Japs, his championship hopes wefe gone for good. J'We had trouble with the charging system.

It's really frustrating because the car felt like it was on rails. 1 think we had this race in the bag we were gone," Michael lamented. That left his lather, Mario, with the lead and like so many times this season, he ran away with the race in the Hanna Auto Wash LolaChevy. Mario proceeded to lap all but Rahal and Sullivan and was 20 seconds in front when mechanical gremlins hit him on Lap 67. just blew up," explained Mario.

"The oil pressure light started blinking in the corners right after I took the lead. I had no oil pressure the last 34 laps. Once again, it seems one got away from us." that left Rahal out in front where he would stay for the remaining 31 laps and with Michael out of the picture, everything went according to schedule. "Early on, I had to make sure that- I finished," Rahal said. "With Michael still in it, I had to firtish and I was really racing against one guy Michael.

c.s.i. custom Window tinting ANY 2-DOOR CAR OR PICKUP 3-M PINSTRIPINC CAR STEREO, TOO! FINANCING AVAILABLE! 3550 S. MADISON 787-8229 VISA CASH! s9600 in Total Prizes $500 Weekly Prizes $300 FIRST PRIZE each week PLUS $100 Bonus Prize if you are a subscriber to The Indianapolis News. ENTER EACH WEEK. Entry blank appears in The News every Monday and Tuesday.

THE NEWS Call 633-921 1 lor home delivery 1 LIFETIME WARRANTY I EXPIRES 10-31-87 'j' -T n'TTi I 1 mawurKi vnKaiwA. -Vvv-s -HimwoMmK. iinn.wiwMMrTffftwiiiifcr .1 SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Smoking Sg3Sfcjid v- By Pregnant Women May Result in Fetal WWM 'l-X-y'-M Injury, Premature Birth. And Low Birth Weight. yu n--Mt--lim-nTtrTiii-iiiiiini wiinrtiiiiliiiri' i iViHiffl ntiiininfriiMiniiiiiiiifi 'rfr-trrl ft- 1.