St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 46

CIO ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH SPORTS MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2002 GATEWAY INDY 250 NOTEBOOK GATEWAY INDY 250 RESULTS Final results Sunday In Madison, III. Swtes: Indy Racing League Track: Gateway International Raceway Reason out (cr) crash (ge) gearbox (me) mechanical. (SP) Driver Chassis-Engine lam Speed Money 1. (1) Gil de Ferran Dallara-Chevrolet 200 143.711 $131,600 2.

(3) Helio Castroneves Dallara-Chevrolet 200 143.663 $87,050 3. (14) Alex Barron Dallara-Chvrolet 200 143.650 $79,750 4. (15) Buddy Rice Dallara-lnfiniti 200 143.630 $57,800 5. (2) Sam Hornish Jr. Dallara-Chevrolet 200 143.589 $51,800 6.

(8) Robbie Buhl Force-lnfiniti 200 143,339 $46,200 7. (16) AlUnserJr. Dallara-Chevrolet 200 143.236 $45,500 8. (13) RaulBoesel Dallara-lnfiniti 200 143,088 $43,900 9. (4) Vitor Meira Dallara-Chevrolet 198 142.236 $45,900 10.

(17) Eddie Cheever Jr. Dallara-lnfiniti 198 142.013 $43,300 11. (19) Airton Dare Dallara-Chevrolet 197 141.166 $41,600 12.121) RobbyMcCehee Force-Chevrolet 197 141.137 $18,500 13. (5) Jeff Ward Force-Chevrolet 197 141.084 $39,400 14. (20) Eliseo Salazar Dallara-Chevrolet 196 140.427 $38,200 15.

(18) Buddy Lazier Dallara-Chevrolet 191 136.961 $37,100 16. (23) George Mack Force-Chevrolet 184 132.171 $36,000 17. (24) Hideki Noda Force-Chevrolet 184 131.943 $12,800 18. (10) Scott Sharp Dallara-Chevrolet 164 123.150 $34,800 19. (22) Greg Ray Dallara-Chevrolet 138 136.495 $11,700 (ha) 20.

(9) Sarah Fisher Force-lnfiniti 109 127.274 $10,600 (me) 21. (7) Felipe Giaffone Force-Chevrolet 106 134.581 $32,600 (en) 22. (6) Laurent Redon Dallara-lnfiniti 98 144.621 $32,600 (cr) 23. (12) Billy Boat Dallara-lnfiniti 74 117.300 $32,600 (ge) 24. (11) TonyRenna Dallara-Chevrolet 9 160.656 $10,600 (me) 25.

(PS) Anthony Lazzaro Dallara-Chevrolet 0 0.000 $32,600 CD JIM COMPTON Alex Barron races at Sunday's Gateway Indy 250. Barron led the race car gives him "amazing" ride (DS) did not start. QUICK STATISTICS Timeofrace: 1:44:22.5736. Margin of victory: 2.1024 of a second. Cautions: 4 for 24 laps.

Lead changes: 10 among 5 drivers. Lap leaders: de Ferran 1-57, Castroneves 58-60, Giaffone 61-62, Boesel 63-65, de Ferran 66-69, Castroneves 70-98, de Ferran 99-101, Castroneves 102-118, Barron 119-147, Castroneves 148-183, de Ferran 184-200. Point leaders: Castroneves 437, de Ferran 436, Hornish 425, Giaffone 391, Barron 318, Sharp 274, Dare 272, Unser 261, Ward 254, Lazier 244. for 29 laps before settling for a it's easy. I was really enjoying myself.

We had incredible power today, I haven't been in a race in a long time where I've had that kind of power. I thought we had the car to beat. If just when Helio ran into 1, we ran up high and we lost all the momentum." McGehee falls short Robby McGehee, running a Force-Chevrolet, wanted a top-10 finish in Sunday's Gateway Indy 250. Instead, the 29-year-old driver from Chesterfield, who earned $18,000, developed a gear box problem late in the race and had to settle for a 12th-place finish, three laps down to race champion MOTOR SPORTS ROUNDUP little piece of information that allowed us to keep going faster," said Hampton, who beat 13 other cars. "At midrace my car started going away.

I couldn't keep the thing on any given line. Then the last 10 laps the car hooked up and regained its grip." Reporter Ken Roberts E-mail: Phone: 618-257-0745 Franchitti gets CART win Hampton, while Ed Carpenter was third, 3.07 seconds behind Hampton. St. Louisan Curtis Francois, who started third and was driving in his first series race, piloted a Dallara-lnfiniti to a fifth-place finish. "The car just worked perfect We spent about a half day out here testing (last week) and I think we found exactly that magic on Formula chief and the original "Rainbow Warriors" servicing his cars.

But Evernham split midway through the 1999 season to become a car owner, and the Warriors also branched out. So Gordon had to adjust to new crew chief Robbie Loomis' style and a new crew. It took some time, but they broke through last season with six victories and the Winston Cup title. Then everything hit a snag, personally and professionally. First Gordon struggled on the track, then his wife, Brooke, third place finish.

de Ferran. "I think we could have had a top-10 finish if we wouldn't have developed a gear box problem," he said. "Gear boxes take a lot of abuse here and, late in the race, I couldn't (shift) from fourth to fifth. I really had to force it to change (gears). But I'm pretty happy with the finish." Hampton wins Pro Series Gateway 100 Rookie polesitter Ryan Hampton led all 80 laps Sunday to win the Pro Series Gateway 100 in only his fourth series race.

Arie Luyendyk Jr. finished 93 seconds behind It had been so long since he last stood in Victory Lane confetti raining down on him, fireworks popping above that Gordon wanted to savor every moment of this win. "It feels like the first one all over again," Gordon said after bumping his way past Rusty Wallace to win the Sharpie 500 on Saturday night and snap his 31-race winless streak. For the first 23 races of this season, all Gordon felt was mounting frustration over his inability to get in front and stay there. There were weeks when the Hendrick Motorsports team gave him great cars, but driver error sabotaged their efforts.

And there were weeks when the No. 24 Chevrolet was simply junk, unable to even sniff the front of the pack. Races like these left the entire team wondering what had gone so wrong since Gordon wrapped up his fourth Winston Cup championship last November. For a driver and a team used to dominance he now has 59 victories in a career that has included 10- and 13-win seasons not winning since Sept. 30, 2001 was absolute agony.

"When you go as long as we've gone without a win and you realize just how hard it is and how hard you work for them, and just how everything's got to fall in place to get there, you look back and go, 'How in the world did we win 58 Gordon said. Well, he won 47 of them with Ray Evernham as his crew v. J- -V Mortgage! Rates subject to chanae. underwriting guidelines. MSA! Sigii up today for the Barron's By Ken Roberts Of the Post-Dispatch It was evident that Indy Racing League rookie Alex Barron had the best car on the track Sunday during the Gateway Indy 250 at Gateway International Raceway.

Barron, 32 of Menifee, was driving the No. 44 Dallara-Chevrolet and was able to pass high, able to pass low and actually led 29 laps enroute to a third-place finish, his best at Gateway and in the IRL this season. In fact, Barron, who started 14th, was able to hold the largest margin during the race, leading by as much as 5.178 seconds over then second-place competitor IRL De Ferran closes the gap in series point standings Continued from CI "Anything can happen," Castroneves said. "It's going to be really, tight. That's why I'm very happy to at least get a lot of points by finishing second.

I'm really looking for" the championship. "This was a very gratifying race to win," de Ferran said. "But I'm under no illusions. I've really got to stay on course, keep my head on my shoulders, and try to Score good points in the last two faces." De Ferran, a two-time season champion on the rival Championship Auto Racing Teams circuit, and Castroneves, winner of the past two Indianapolis 500s, are in their first season of IRL competition. Team owner Roger Penske, who made the move from CART at the urging of Marlboro, his primary sponsor, has seen his two pilots combine for four wins and a whopping 23 top-10 finishes this year.

Sunday's Penske picnic nearly was scuttled by a surprising invader, though. Alex Barron, who started 14th on the 24-car grid, bolted quickly to the front and proved to be a stout challenger. Barron led 29 laps in his No. 44 Dallara-Chevrolet, and if not for a slight slip after a bold pass of. Castroneves might have reached the checkered flag first.

Barron charged by Castroneves on the outside and into the lead after a restart on the 152nd of 200 circuits around Gateway's 1.25-mile oval. But Barron's pass, which began in Turn 1, went sour in Turn 2. He slid up the track, nearly brushed the wall, and lost significant momentum. Barron dropped quickly to fifth place but recovered to finish third, 2.647 seconds behind de Ferran. Rookie Buddy Rice wound up fourth, followed by Hornish.

Plan? in motion. E7 I UPS can help put your plan; Team Penske driver Helio Castroneves with 60 laps remaining. But Barron, who won $79,750 for his efforts, wasn't able to pull off a daring outside pass over Castorneves in Turn 1 on a green-flag restart with 49 laps to go. Instead, he pushed up the track, barely avoiding the wall between turns 1 and 2 and fell back to fifth. From there, he had to scramble to get back to the leaders, eventually finishing 2.64 seconds behind winner Gil de Ferran and Castroneves.

"When you have a car like that it's just amazing," said Barron, who stopped for fuel and tires on lap 147. "You're going fast and "I went in there pretty hot, and when you go in mere hot, you drift up a little bit anyway," Barron said. "But I think the (tire) shavings on the track were starting to get pretty severe. That, at the same time with the cold tires (after his pit stop during the caution period), it just moved up a little bit too far and took too long to get it back down." De Ferran set the pace in the early going, but Castroneves led the most laps (85). Five drivers spent time at the front, and the lead changed hands 10 times.

Castroneves bolted past de Ferran just after a restart on the 70th lap and held the advantage until his Penske pal returned the favor 29 circuits later. Castroneves regained the lead on Lap 102 and stayed there until Barron got by him on the outside again, this time in Turn 4 on the 119th lap. The leaders headed for the pits during the fourth and final yellow-flag period with just over 50 laps to go. Barron came in with the lead, but Castroneves' crew hustled their guy back out first, followed by Barron and de Ferran. After Barron's slip-and-slide move seconds later, effectively ending his chances, it settled into a two-car dash to the finish.

Castroneves maintained his edge until the 185th lap. When Castroneves got caught up in traffic with lapped cars, de Ferran spied the opening he'd been seeking. "I saw an opportunity in the middle of turns 3 and 4," said de Ferran, 34. "He got stuck behind a guy (who) wasn't giving him either the inside or the outside. So, he had to get out of the throttle.

I saw that, and I thought, 'You know what? I'm "I went around the outside, the front end stuck, and I was going, I was able to squeeze between him and the (lapped car) on the front straight, and that was that, really." Reporter Bill Coat E-mail: Phone: 314-340-8189 If 5 --1 Jfcrv vpw 1 AMI rfani From News Services Dario Franchitti took advantage of Cristiano da Matta's strategic gamble Sunday to win the inaugural Montreal Indy. An early pit stop by da Matta, the runaway CART series points leader, opened the door for Franchitti, who pulled away after a late race restart to win the 80-lap race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve by 2.588 seconds about half the last straightaway. Da Matta started from the pole for the seventh time in 13 races this season and was shooting for his seventh victory, but, after an early caution flag, his Newman-Haas Racing team decided to bring him in for an extra stop on lap 12. "It was similar to the strategy that we ran in fuel strategy races last year," the Brazilian driver explained. "Most any other times that strategy would have won us the race.

If any yellow had happened at any time except the last 10 laps, the race would have come back to us. "Strategy sometimes is a little bit of a game." It turned out the extra stop by da Matta gave Franchitti all the edge he needed. It was the first experience for most of the CART drivers on the 2.709-mile, 14-turn road course on which the Formula One series has competed since 1978. Winston Cup: Jeff Gordon hoisted the enormous Bristol Motor Speedway trophy over his head, hesitant to ever put it down. MlicatioiW Ho r-v One course filed for divorce after seven years of marriage in March.

He said he never lost his focus but admits he sometimes wondered what was wrong with him. Powerboat racing: Tim See-bold of Osage Beach, won the Champ class at the Roar of the Rockies boat race in Windsor, for the third consecutive year. He is the only driver who has won the race for the world's top class of outboard powerboats. Mike Seebold of Fenton finished third. the information listed below.

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