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©1998 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc. By Dan Proudfoot, Toronto Sun Adrian Fernandez "didn't put a wheel wrong," according to runner-up Scott Pruett, but so many others did that the Mexican wasunchallenged leading the final 26 laps of the Miller Lite 200. Greg Moore put a wheel wrong, unintentionally,spectacularly, going from a strong lead to elimination. Bryan Herta put a wheel wrong in the first lap, taking out himself, pole-sitter Dario Franchitti and Jimmy Vasser. And Alex Zanardi was in a Vancouver frame of mind, bulling his way forward from 13th and, in the process, leading indirectly to Michael Andretti's frightening 195-mph slide and quadruple rollover andHelio Castro-Neves' tour into a tire wall. Zanardi finished 12th, good for a single championship point. Of the 10 fastest qualifiers, only four made it to the finish. Long shots prevailed. Bobby Rahal, the sentimental favorite because he lives little more than an hour from this road circuit, finished a strong third after starting 16th. Paul Tracy camefrom 21st to fifth, equalling his best finish of the year. "I'm learning that if you can finish one of these races, chances are you're going to get a good result," said Patrick Carpentier, dehydrated but content with his season-best seventh, despite popoffvalve problems on his Player's/Forsythe Reynard Mercedes-Ilmor. That was Fernandez's approach. Content to run second to every leader, his Tecate Reynard Ford-Cosworth was seen behind Mauricio Gugelmin, Moore and Gil de Ferran before finally assuming control when de Ferranpitted on the 57th lap. After that, teammate Pruett was the closest witness. "Actually we had a little quicker car, but wecouldn't do anything with it," Pruett said. "We could catch up, but we weren't so strong that we could makea move without Adrian making a mistake. And Adrianjust didn't put a wheel wrong all day long." Exciting passes there weren't; incredible crashes here were, including Moore's. Gassing it out of his pit, his left rear tire ran over Andre Ribeiro's right rear, breaking the Canadian's suspension. In the process Moore's left-rear struck a tire carried by Penske crew chief Jon Bouslog, launching it so it hit the crewman changing the right-front on Ribeiro'scar. The victim, Matt Jonnson — the same crewman Tracybowled over at Nazareth two years ago — was unhurt. "It felt like I got hit by a bouncing tire, that'sall," Jonnson said. "Did I still change my tire? Ofcourse." Bouslog said Moore was guiltless. "Moore didn't take an undue chance, he just didn'thave the room," Bouslog said. "The pits here are waytoo tight." Franchitti wanted blame where blame was due. Herta'sattempt to take the lead in the first corner left theScot winless in 29 races despite four poles. Herta iswinless in 68 with the same number of poles. Herta led out of the first corner, but Franchittiwas able to pull beside him, setting up a re-pass atthe next corner. But Herta pulled over on Franchitti,setting up a multi-car crash. "(It was) a stupid move — that's a mistake you makein your first year of racing," said Franchitti, whohas started on the front row in four of the past fiveraces. Source: Canada Online, used by permission | ||
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