Schumacher Wins Pole for Japanese Grand Prix

L.A. Times Archives

Oct. 14, 2001 12 AM PT

Frim Wire Reports

Defending champion Michael Schumacher won the pole Saturday for the Japanese Grand Prix, the final event of the Formula One season.

It was the 10th pole this year for the four-time series champion. He will be trying Sunday for a record-tying ninth victory this season.

Driving a Ferrari, Schumacher got around the 3.6-mile circuit at Suzuka in 1 minute 32.484 seconds. Rookie Juan Pablo Montoya’s Williams-BMW was seven-tenths of a second slower.

“This is one of the tougher circuits, so I’m really pleased with today’s time,” said Schumacher, trying to win the race for a fourth time. “We did even better than we expected.”

The German is trying to win nine races in a season for the third time and second year in a row. Nigel Mansell won nine times in 1992, and Schumacher first matched that in 1995.

“I think second and third for our team is pretty good,” Montoya said. “I’m pleased with getting the front row on my first visit here, but I think a little experience in this place would help quite a lot.”

Ralf Schumacher, Montoya’s teammate and Michael’s brother, will share the second row with Ferrari’s Rubens Barrichello.

The Busch series Sam’s Town 250 at Millington, Tenn., was rained out and rescheduled for today.

The inclement weather left Kevin Harvick, the Busch series points leader, signing autographs, talking to fans and mostly playing video games in his trailer.

“There’s nothing you can control about the weather. There’s no reason to beat yourself up over stuff you can’t control, so I’m trying to kill some time and make it to tomorrow,” Harvick said while playing a video baseball game in his trailer with a crew member.

Harvick was given the pole based on points standings after qualifying was rained out Friday. He leads Jason Keller by 186 points and Jeff Green by 213. Greg Biffle, the leader in rookie standings, qualified fourth.

The field will start in that order.

Harvick had planned to race in the Busch race Saturday and travel to Martinsville, Va., today to race in the Winston Cup’s Old Dominion 500.

Rick Mast qualified 35th in his car for him in Martinsville, but unless the Cup race is washed out, Harvick’s double-duty weekend is out. But he would drive at Martinsville if the Cup race had to be postponed.

“Hopefully all this stuff moves up there and we have to race in Martinsville on Monday,” Harvick said. “If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, we’ll just do like we’ve done all year and deal with the situations as they come to us.”

Kenny Wallace had also planned a double-race weekend. He was in Martinsville on Friday and qualified 37th, but it was unclear who would fill in for him in the Cup race since he was staying in Memphis.

Officials tried to get the track ready in time to run a race in daylight since the Memphis track doesn’t have lights.

But the drying was taking too long to start the race at 4:30 p.m., which would have been early enough to get the race in before night fell.

The last time Dale Earnhardt Jr. raced at Martinsville Speedway, he finished 11th and felt like he had won--in part because he finished the race.

Today in the Old Dominion 500, he’ll start on the outside of the front row, another sign that the son of a champion is learning his way around the .526-mile oval--the oldest and shortest in Winston Cup. He was one of only 17 drivers to complete all 500 laps in April in the Virginia 500.

“We wrecked a lot here last year and didn’t finish any of the races,” Earnhardt said. “So you can imagine what the team’s feeling like now.”

With its long straightaways connected on either end by tight turns, Martinsville is unlike any other challenge the drivers face. Passing is especially difficult, and some brakes don’t last 500 laps.

Some drivers have all but given up on doing well here.

“In 25 years, I still don’t seem to have figured out the key to getting around here,” said 1988 series champion Bill Elliott, never better than third in Martinsville. “I just go in and try to do the best that I can.”

Ken Schrader, whose best finish is a fourth in 33 starts, said comparisons between Martinsville and other short tracks end in size.

“When you grew up racing on places that were a little bit like this, you didn’t do it with 3,400 pounds and 750 horsepower,” he said.