Car Switch Really Pays At Monoco

Auto racing

Michael Schumacher took a gamble that paid off Sunday at Monte Carlo, Monaco, in the first victory by a Ferrari at the Monaco Grand Prix in 16 years - a triumph that vaulted him to the top of the Formula One standings.

A half-hour before the race, as the cars went out for a warm-up lap, the two-time series champion ducked into the pits and switched to a back-up car set up to race in the rain. The result was his first victory of the year and the 23rd of his career.

He was a true student of history. Schumacher had won the race in 1994 and 1995, but last year his Ferrari crashed after less than a lap in the rain.

“We had two solutions,” he said. “One was for the dry and one was for the intermediate one. I just decided in the last seconds to jump in the intermediate.”

His principal rivals, the Williams-Renault team of pole winner Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jacques Villeneuve, decided to stay with what they had.

The rain began falling harder 10 minutes before the race.

“We had data telling us that it would dry after 20 or 30 minutes, so we decided to keep the dry setup and the slicks,” said Villeneuve, who lost the points lead to Schumacher. “It started raining more, so the slicks were useless.”

Schumacher was right, and he won by 53 seconds over Rubens Barrichello in a Stewart-Ford.

Frentzen was left at the start by fellow German Schumacher, and he was out of the race after the 42nd of 62 laps around the historic street circuit.

CART World Series

Paul Tracy had just enough luck and barely enough fuel to win the Rio 400 at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for his second consecutive victory on the PPG CART World Series circuit.

The Canadian driver escaped a rash of crashes and spinouts, then took the lead when Bobby Rahal ran out of gas and pitted with two laps remaining.

Tracy, driving a Penske-Mercedes, averaged 113.721 mph for 133 laps at the 1.864-mile Emerson Fittipaldi Speedway at the Nelson Piquet Raceway.

Greg Moore inherited second place when Rahal ran out of gas, finishing 1.8 seconds off the lead in a Reynard-Mercedes. Scott Pruett was third in a Reynard-Ford.

Indianapolis 500

The king of sprint cars has finally made it to the pinnacle of auto racing, the Indianapolis 500.

Steve Kinser, an Indiana native, first came to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and passed his rookie test in 1981. But he crashed his only car in practice and went home. He did not return to the speedway until last week.

In the meantime, he has piled up a record 14 World of Outlaws sprint car titles, taken a brief shot at NASCAR’s Winston Cup series and won an IROC race.

Sunday, Kinser and fellow rookie Robbie Groff, the younger brother of Indy Racing League point leader Mike Groff, became the 22nd and 23rd drivers to qualify for the Indy 500.

Kinser ran four laps at an average of 210.793 mph, while Groff, making his third and final attempt with his primary car, came in at 207.792.

The first 21 qualifiers completed their 10-mile runs Saturday, the first of four days of time trials for the May 25 race.

The fastest qualifier so far is pole winner Arie Luyendyk at 218.263.