The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 18

6B TOE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER Monday August 91993 MOTORSPORTS results 2i Mansell celebrates birthday with win ROUNDUP Best decision Mark Martin slowing to halt speed when a cloud of smoke appeared before him on the 85th of the race's 90 laps It enabled him to maneuver around the cars of Kyle Petty and Dale Earnhardt involved in an accident while running 1-2 The two cars had the track almost blocked Turning point Petty losing control in the esses portion of the road course and collecting Earnhardt into a crash This enabled Martin to go from third back into a lead he'd previously held for 41 laps Martin wound up leading 47 laps to 26 by Earnhardt nine by Petty and eight by Geoff Bodine Worth mentioning Five drivers scored their best Winston Cup finishes Wally Dallenbach Jr was second and rookies Bobby Labonte PJ Jones and Kenny Wallace finished seventh through ninth respectively Scott Lagasse was 13th on the lead lap in his Winston Cup debut Jimmy Spencer who finished third as Ford swept the top four positions felt teammates Martin and Dallenbach ganged up on him on the Lap 88 restart "I got snookered teamed up on" said Spencer "But to come out of here third is a Quote of the race "The brake pedal went right to the floor with no warning going into the corner I had a long time to think about what was going to happen before hitting the wall It felt like I was going 300 mph heading across that grass I hit plenty hard Sometimes it seems like too much (money) 'til you go through something like this Then on a day like today it doesn't seem like enough" Driver Rick Mast on his violent crash early in the race Associated Press On the way to a win: Mark Martin works en route to victory in Sunday's race It his way around the Watkins Glen track was Martin's first win of the season Race Martin benefits from crash between Petty Earnhardt Continued from page IB bert Steve Robertson of England retained his title hopes in the 1993 Firestone Indy Lights Championship with his third win of the season at Loudon NH Dale Quarterley won the first American Motorcyclist Association race of his career and Doug Polen clinched the 1993 Superbike championship with a fourth-place finish at Lexington Ohio Late Saturday Freddie Query of Kannapolis won the late model race at Concord Motor Speedway Terry Brooks of Charlotte was second followed by Greg Pope of Monroe Rick Lambert of Concord and Ned Haney of Marshville Other winners: Jimmy Simpson late model stock Jim Cook super stock and Hank Parker Sr street stock Charles Moody of Asheboro took the late model stock race at Caraway Speedway Other winners Chris Terry limited Jummy Hurley pure stock Shane Fergeson baby grand stock Jesse Berridge Bud truck Tommy Gaddy of Ruby SC took top honors in the super pro category at Rockingham Dragway Other winners: Thomas Tharpe sportsman Keith Jackson tro-phystreet and Simon Pettigrew star racing motorcycle Max Prestwood Jr of Lenoir captured the victory in the late model sportsman division at Hickory Motor Speedway Other winners: Scott Yount limited sportsman Jon Kerley super stock Bryan Childress mini stock Ed Surrette mini series Dennis Ward Auto Trader Cup could win from the position I was in" Martin said I saw smoke (from spinning car) I drove into the smoke about half speed and a good thing I could have got into Dale real easy think I could have caught up to Kyle and Dale if they had trouble but I know if I could have passed them or victory appeared so unlikely that members of the media voting with about 10 laps to go chose Martin for an award that goes to the driver with the worst luck A second ballot gave that bonus to Lake Speed making his first start in a Ford fielded by the Robert Yates Racing team Speed contended early then spun out He raced back into the top five then a transmission problem developed Speed said he "tore it and he finished 27th There was a gruesome-looking crash involving Rick Ford on Lap 6 car skidded across the grass in a wreck reminiscent of the accident that took the life of NASCAR veteran JD McDuffie in August of 1991 Mast who said he lost his brakes hit a tire wall near Turn 10 and his car bounced into the air and spun around The car was demolished but Mast sustained only a sore neck and bruises on his shoulders Observer Staff and News Services LOUDON NH Nigel Mansell went over the hill at top speed Sunday The British racing star celebrated his 40th birthday by winning the New England 200 after a three-car duel with Paul Tracy and Emerson Fittipaldi Mansell passed Tracy while the two ran in traffic on Lap 197 and prevailed by 45-hundredths of a second with Fittipaldi teammate 88 seconds behind got to turn 40 this is Mansell the way to do Mansell said was pure racing at its best Lola-Ford started from the pole and led the first 40 laps before Tracy taking advantage of a different racing line put his Penske-Chevrolet in front Through three days of practice drivers had avoided the inside of the 1058-mile New Hampshire International Speedway which was extremely slick where lime had been applied to secure some new asphalt But on Sunday Tracy gambled early and found his car worked well racing through the lime-treated lower groove Fittipaldi seeing the success of his Penske teammate also began running on the inside line and quickly progressed from his No 1 1 starting position Fittipaldi was up to third when the yellow caution flag came out on Lap 66 because of David collision with the wall Mansell regained the lead after the top three made pit stops but Tracy went back on top with a sensational outside-inside move past Fittipaldi and Mansell on Lap 86 Tracy took his last lead by passing Mansell on Lap 174 and those two took turns going at each other the rest of the way John Force became the first Funny Car driver in National Hot Rod Association history to have eight wins in a season winning the Jolly Rancher Candies Nationals at Kent Wash Tommy Johnson Jr took the Top Fuel title over Cory McClena-than and Joe bid for an unprecedented fourth straight title was dealt a serious blow when he was ousted in the first round by Scott Kalitta Eddie Hill seeking his first season title lost in the first round to Doug Her- crowd estimated at 150000 the largest in the history: Jimmy Spencer Ford Bill Elliott Ford Ken Schrader Chevy Sterling Marlin Ford Bobby Labonte Ford PJ Jones Ford Kenny Wallace Pontiac and Harry Gant Chevy Earnhardt continued after the crash winding up 18th Even so Earnhardt increased his lead in the standings toward the $15 million Winston Cup championship to 281 points a gain of 47 over second-place Dale Jarrett who also experienced trouble and finished 32nd Petty wound up 26th just lost it said Petty who took the lead by passing up a pit stop during a previous caution period on laps 81-82 one of those deals where all my fault and I really hate I collected Dale up in Said Earnhardt: "I thought Kyle was going to slide further right but he Martin said he see the incident that turned the race in his favor was driving hard but I think I alace Crash Chances of victory spin out of control for 2 drivers Continued from page 1 was negotiating the turn and then the smoke started to said Martin drove into it at half speed and saw and cars sideways and crumpled up believe it We were awful fast but realistically we were pretty far back and it look like we were going to be able to pull it off I guess when your turn your turn happy it was ours Earnhardt was able to continue finishing 18th But Petty was sidelined and wound up 26th Petty crawled from his car and stood talking to some of the while he awaited a wrecker Dale Jarrett a friend of since boyhood stopped at the wreck site and Petty crawled into his car for the trip back to pit road where he jumped out and went to the garage Petty waved to fans en route back around the track Earnhardt said he thought Ford was in a class alone suggesting that only problems with inexplicably soft lug nuts had Martin trailing at the time of the accident think anybody had anything for said Earnhardt Martin trailing in third place as the unlikely trouble hit Petty and Earnhardt see exactly what happened around the corner ahead of him But he knew something was going on from all the smoke that appeared Time of race: Two hours 12 minutes 1 8 seconds Average speed: 8477 mph Margin of victory: 384 seconds Caution flags: Seven for 21 laps Lead changes: Eight among four drivers Lap leaders: Martin 1-20 Earnhardt 21-25 Martin 26-35 GBodine 36-41 Martin 42-52 Bodine 53-54 Earnhardt 55-75 Petty 76-84 Martin 85-90 Point standings: 1 Earnhardt 291 1 2 Jarrett 2630 3 Wallace 2570 4 Martin 2527 5 Shepherd 2502 6 Petty 2430 7 Schrader 2403 8 Irvan 2375 9 Bodine 2337 10 Gordon 2253 11 Marlin 2250 12 Elliott 2232 13 Spencer 2230 14 Rudd 2161 15 Gant 2137 The Friendliest Girls in Town 1 M-F: 3-2am Sat 5-2am Buffet 4-6 1 12400 INDEPENDENCE (V mile East of 51 on lndependence) 847-9203 I -rv QUALITY MOTOROLA CELLULAR PHONES! 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