Auto Racing Roundup: Hornish cruises in Miami IRL race
Homestead, Fla. ? In a new season with plenty of new competition, IRL champion Sam Hornish Jr. put himself in the same old position Saturday: atop the series standings.
Hornish won IRL season opener, the Grand Prix of Miami, in dominating fashion. It was his fourth victory in two seasons and second straight at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Hornish lapped the field with about 65 laps remaining. Even though two late caution flags allowed insurgent Team Penske drivers Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves to get back on the lead lap, they never got close enough to challenge for the victory.
De Ferran, the two-time CART champion, finished second. Castroneves, last year’s Indy 500 winner, was third in the caution-filled race. Jeff Ward was fourth, Eliseo Salazar fifth and rookie Tomas Scheckter sixth in his IRL debut.
None of them could have caught Hornish on this warm and windy day.
The 22-year-old driver led 166 of 200 laps. He was fast and able to drive anywhere on the 112 oval. He passed on the outside and was virtually unpassable on the inside.
He was equally strong here last year, leading 142 laps and putting on an impressive performance over the final 20 to pull away for good.
This season, the league added several new challengers, most notably Castroneves and two-time former CART champion de Ferran. Each of the Penske drivers took the lead only to see Hornish drive back to the front.
Burton wins again in Vegas
Las Vegas If only Jeff Burton could run every weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The pole-winning driver came from behind following his final pit stop and pulled away to win by a full straightaway Saturday in the Sam’s Town 300 Busch Series race.
Burton has been dominating on the 112-mile oval in both Busch and Winston Cup. He now owns two victories and five top-10 finishes in as many Busch Series starts here and goes into today’s UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 with two victories and a runner-up finish in four Cup starts.
Schumacher wins Australian
Melbourne, Australia Michael Schumacher won the Australian Grand Prix for the third straight year today, avoiding a pileup at the start and easily holding off Juan Pablo Montoya.
The Ferrari driver, the defending Formula One champion, raced to his 54th career victory, completing 58 laps at Albert Park in 1 hour, 35 minutes, 36.792 seconds to edge Montoya by 18.6 seconds.
Kimi Raikkonen was third in his first race for McLaren as the replacement for two-time world champion Mika Hakkinen. Only eight cars finished the season-opening race, with Schumacher, Montoya and Raikkonen the only ones on the lead lap.
Eddie Irvine, the 1999 champion in Australia, finished fourth, and Australian rookie Mark Webber was fifth in a Toyota in the Japanese company’s first Formula One start.
Ralf Schumacher, Michael’s younger brother, wiped out pole winner Rubens Barrichello in a multicar wreck at the start.
Baldi, Theys team for victory
Miami, Fla. Mauro Baldi and Didier Theys teamed up to earn their second straight win in the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series, taking the Nextel 250 on Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Starting from the pole, they matched their finish at last month’s Rolex 24 At Daytona, leading most of the way through the 104-lap, 250-mile race in a Doran Lista Racing Judd-engined Dallara.