Auto Racing Roundup : Brabham Teams With Forbes-Robinson in Record-Breaking Win

Geoff Brabham and Elliott Forbes-Robinson drove to a record-breaking victory in the Miami Grand Prix Sunday.

The winners, who earned a top prize of $51,500, finished the three-hour race with an average speed of 82.927 m.p.h., breaking the record of 79.309 set last year by Frenchman Bob Wollek and Paolo Barilla of Italy.

Brabham, who won the pole Saturday in record fashion on the 1.87-mile circuit twisting through downtown Miami, led the first 40 laps and 52 minutes of the three-hour race before making his first scheduled pit stop.

Forbes-Robinson, a former Trans-Am champion, then got in the car and kept it at or close to the front until turning over the Nissan GTP to his Australian-born teammate with about 48 minutes remaining.

Brabham, a regular on the Indy car circuit and a part-timer in IMSA Camel GT sports car racing, stayed out of trouble and retook the lead for the final time 35 minutes from the end. That’s when the Porsche 962 of Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal and West German Jochen Mass made its final pit stop.

Dale Earnhardt, the defending Winston Cup points champion, took a 10.5-second victory in the Goodwrench 500 NASCAR Winston Cup race after qualifying 14th at the North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham, N.C.

“I had two days in the rain to think about how I messed up in qualifying,” said Earnhardt, who won for the first time at the speedway and earned $53,900 for the victory.

The track was deluged by rain beginning late Thursday afternoon until early Sunday morning. It cleared and there was sunshine for the race.

Ricky Rudd finished a distant second while Neil Bonnett overcame a two-lap deficit to finish third.