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Breaking through Defending champ de Ferran earns first win of season
Updated: Saturday September 22, 2001 10:01 PM
ROCKINGHAM, England (AP) -- A race that almost wasn't run turned into one of CART's most dramatic of the season. Coming out of the final turn Saturday in the shortened Rockingham 500, defending CART series champion Gil de Ferran surged by Kenny Brack for his first victory of the year. The race -- CART's second in Europe -- was originally set for 311 miles and 210 laps but was shortened to 249 miles and 168 laps. However, after 100 laps and dusk settling, CART shortened the final distance to 140 laps. The changes stemmed from water seepage on the new 1.5-mile oval, which opened a few months ago. The trouble wiped out two days of practice and qualifying and delayed the start by more than an hour. The riveting finish before 38,000 fans at Rockingham Motor Speedway in central England came a week after Alex Zanardi crashed in Germany during CART's European debut and lost both his legs. Last week's race also was disrupted by rain and run in the wake of terrorist attacks in the United States. Drivers managed only 90 minutes of practice Saturday -- their first practice of any kind on the track.
The grid -- absent qualifying -- was set according to season points. Brack was on the pole, followed by de Ferran and Michael Andretti. Most drivers seemed willing to go along with CART's decision to run on the untested oval, which has remained wet in places despite two days without rain. "There has been a little cloud over this trip with Alex's accident in Germany," de Ferran said. "However, it's largely been a success. Here it was reasonably well attended and in Germany it was a very well-attended race." "Of course, we had to contend with rain and all that. And if I had to give any advice to CART -- they shouldn't come back in September." Since Thursday, workers have been drilling holes into the track to relieve underground pressure and speed drying. De Ferran was overtaken by Brack with two laps remaining but de Ferran came back on the final lap for his sixth career victory. Brack of Team Rahal kept the season points lead with 147 to 141 for De Ferran of Team Penske. Andretti has 125 followed by Helio Castroneves (123) and Cristiano da Matta (92). Four races remain. Castroneves dropped from third to fourth place after he was penalized for accelerating too soon coming out of the pits. Da Matta moved up to third. De Ferran won by 0.634 seconds against Brack. De Ferran is CART's 11th different winner this season, tying a record set a year ago. De Ferran, whose previous victory came in Portland, Ore., last season, took the lead with a quick pit stop under the third yellow flag after 100 laps. Two laps from the end, Brack passed de Ferran as de Ferran got caught in traffic behind Max Papis, Brack's teammate. "I certainly wasn't about to give up," de Ferran said. "I just tried to stay with him as much as I could and see if I could turn nothing into something. It worked out OK because Kenny had exactly the same problem I had. He couldn't get by the traffic." De Ferran likened the first two turns on the new oval to Indianapolis and Brack called it "extremely fast."
Brack has won all four of his races this season on ovals. He was going for his second victory in a week after capturing the American Memorial 500 in Germany, winning under a yellow flag following Zanardi's nearly fatal crash.
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