Derrick Walker winced and stared at his shoetops for a few seconds when he heard his driver, Robby Gordon, crashed again in the warmup for the Detroit Grand Prix. "I didn't know what to think," Walker said. "I was afraid our chances of winning might be out the window."
But the Walker Racing crew was up to the task of repairing the team's primary Reynard-Ford for the third time in as many days, giving their aggressive 26-year-old star a car good enough to win Sunday's race."They told me they would fix my car after a crash any day if we could qualify on the pole and win the race." Gordon said after holding off Jimmy Vasser to take his second Indy-car victory on the narrow and demanding 2.1-mile, 14-turn Belle Isle street circuit.
Gordon, who led from lap 43 to the end of the 77-lap, 161.7-mile race, couldn't shake Vasser, who never was more than a second behind in the late going but couldn't make a move on the leader.
Gordon beat Vasser by 0.345 seconds - about three car-lengths.
Scott Pruett was third, followed by Michael Andretti, defending series champion Al Unser Jr., Adrian Fernandez, Teo Fabi and 1994 winner Paul Tracy.
Canadian Grand Prix
MONTREAL - Jean Alesi found out he was about to get his first career Formula One victory just like thousands of racing fans did: He watched television.
Taking over the lead after defending champion Michael Schumacher got stuck in third gear 12 laps from the end, Alesi won the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday by 31.687 seconds over Brazilian Rubens Barrichello.
Alesi was passing a giant television screen set up for spectators near the finish line as the camera was showing Schumacher making his unscheduled pit stop.
"I thought, `Maybe today is my day,' "Alesi said. It was. His 91st career Formula One race became his first victory - on his 31st birthday. He averaged 106.747 mph for the 69 laps on the 2.75-mile Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
The second-place finish for Barrichello, in a Jordan-Peugeot, was his best ever. His Jordan teammate, Eddie Irvine, finished third.
Teamwork 500
LONG POND, Pa. - With six laps remaining in the $1 million event at Pocono International Raceway, Jeff Gordon messed up while shifting gears on a restart and damaged his engine after he'd led 124 of the 200 laps.
Terry Labonte got around the second-place Ford Thunderbird of Ted Musgrave on the restart and won by 1.64 seconds.