St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 23

3 OCT 28 im siiflUGPOST-nsrarcH SATURDAY. OCTOBER 28, 2000 mm SPORTS REPORT 4 TiMi'iii JM 11 fc (Mi chase comes down to the wire at Rflariboro lliNiiwi.wiMrvNu ft www I i. TFT STOPS Mike Seebold of Fenton won the Miracle Toyota Formula One Shootout on Lake Eloise last Sunday in Cypress Gardens, beating his brother Tim to claim the 2000 championship of the Laughlin PROP Tour for Formula One outboard powerboats. See-bold's average speed was 1 19.0 mph. Tim Seebold of Osage Beach, finished second in the race and ended up second in the season points, just seven points behind Mike.

Todd Beckman of St. Louis" finished third Sunday to advance one position and end up third in the season points. The race gave Mike Seebold three victories in 2000 and 11 wins in the six-year history of PROP. Motor Sports Weekly, a production of Fortune Entertainment and Techniconic Studios of St. Louis, won its second Emmy in two years.

It was awarded the Emmy for Best Sports Program. The show's final program of the year will air at 11:30 a.m. today on Fox Sports Net. Tim Foley of Fionssant beat his best friend Greg Sesti, also of Florissant, last Saturday night in the Super Pro category at Gateway International Raceway. Foley's dragster beat Sesti's dragster, so Foley claimed the top prize of the weekend, a Gebhardt dragster.

Racing for a Parkland Truck and Trailer Box trailer, Gary Heilman's 1963 Plymouth Fury defeated Andy Hartline's Pontiac in the Pro Class. Racing continues this weekend at the Gateway dragstrip as the Junior Dragster Nationals will be run. Call 618-482-2400 for more information. Compiled by John Sonderegger WINSTON CUP LEADERS By John Sonderegger Of the Post-Dispatch So it all comes down to the Marlboro 500 on Sunday at California Speedway. A new FedEx Championship Series champion will be crowned and earn the Vanderbilt Cup.

This is the closest title chase in the history of CART racing, and team owner Roger Penske will claim another title as a car owner if Gil de Ferran can finish ahead of Adrian Fernandez in the points chase. The season title will belong to de Ferran of Marlboro Team Penske if any of the following scenarios takes place: Gil de Ferran finishes better than Adrian Fernandez. If Fernandez wins, de Ferran must finish second and Fernandez cannot earn points for the pole or most laps led. If Fernandez finishes anywhere between third and fifth, de Ferran must finish within two places of him. If Fernandez finishes sixth, de Ferran must finish at least 10th.

If Fernandez finishes seventh, de Ferran must finish at least 12th. Going into the season finale, de Ferran has 153 points and Fernandez has 148. Paul Tracy and Kenny Brack are tied with 134 points, and Roberto Moreno and Jimmy Vasser are tied with 131. For Tracy or Brack to win the championship, the following must occur: Either one must win the race and have de Ferran finish lower than 12th and not earn points for the pole or most laps led. Fernandez must finish lower than seventh, and not earn points for the pole or most laps led.

Both Moreno and Vasser have mathematical chances to win, but they are longshots. The payoff for winning the title is $1 million. Second-place in the series is worth $500,000, and the scale goes on down to $100,000 for 10th place. The ninth- through third-place drivers are separated by only 11 points. Through 19 of the 20 events on the schedule, the championship chase remains the most wide-open in CART history, and all of the contenders are pursuing their first title.

De Ferran is trying to bring the legendary Penske organization its eighth CART championship and its 10th Champ Car title and the first since Al Unser Jr. won the crown in 1994. Fernandez, racing for Patrick Racing, made huge gains with his victory, weeks, ago. at Paradise, Australia, jumping from 1. Bobby Labonte 4,645 2.

Dale Earnhardt 4,444 3. Jeff Burton 4,394 4. Dale Jarrett 4,315 5. Ricky Rudd 4,272 6. Tony Stewart 4,210 7.

Rusty Wallace 4,115 8. Mark Martin 4,042 9. Jeff Gordon 3,904 10. Ward Burton 3,809 I. and will be televised live by ESPN.

Race Facts: There are currently only six active drivers in the CART FedEx Championship Series with 500-mile wins: Michael Andretti (2), Vasser (2), Mark Blundell (1), Tony Ka-naan (1), Fernandez (2) and Montoya (2). Only three drivers have won from the pole in 500-mile races in the 1990s Rick Mears, Al Unser Jr. andVasser. Al Unser holds the record for a win from the farthest starting position when he started the 1987 Indianapolis 500 in 20th position. Fernandez holds the record for a win from the furthest starting position at the Marlboro 500 when he started 13th and won in 1999.

The 1999 Marlboro 500 had 18 lead changes among eight drivers. Legends of Racing: The following list of drivers plan to attend the Marlboro 500 on Sunday: Mario Andretti, Michael Andretti, Wally Dallenbach, Emerson Fittipaldi, Dan Gurney, Gordon Johncock, Rick Mears, Montoya, Bobby Rahal, Johnny Rutherford, Danny Sullivan, Al Unser, Bobby Unser, Al Unser Roger Ward and Alex Zanardi. I HE AbSOCIATLO PKtSS Adrian Fernandez leads Jimmy Vasser and Paul Tracy during the FedEx-Cart Rio 200 in Rio de Janeiro. With only the Marlboro 500 remaining, Fernandez trails points leader Gil de Ferran by five points. winning his third 500-mile event of the season.

He already has won the Indianapolis 500 and the Michigan 500 this year, and if he wins the Marlboro 500 on Sunday, he would join Al Unser as the only men who have won three 500-mile races in one Indy-car season. Unser did it in 1978, a year before CART's inaugural 4i Sunday's race begins at 1:30 p.m. fifth in the title chase to second. A maximum of 22 points is available this weekend, including 20 for a victory, and one each for the pole position and leading the most laps. Points are scored through 12th place on a 20-16-14-12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.

Also intriguing about this end the. nassibiltfy, of defending series champion Juan Montoya.