Auto Racing -- Car Somersaults Five Times -- Driver Is OK But Mercedes Pulls Both Cars From Le Mans

LE MANS, France - A spectacular crash on the 75th lap caused Mercedes to pull its two cars out of the Le Mans 24 Hour race yesterday.

Peter Dumbreck's car was running in fifth place, one lap behind the leading BMW, when its nose suddenly flipped up.

His speed at the time was about 185 mph. The Mercedes CLR somersaulted five times before crashing into trees to the left of the track.

Mercedes said that Dumbreck, 24 of Britain, was not injured, but it immediately withdrew its other CLR, driven by Bernd Schneider of Germany, Portugal's Pedro Lamy and Franck Lagorce of France.

The crash comes as a bitter blow to Mercedes, which had started the race well, with two cars in the top six.

The German constructor was looking for its first Le Mans victory since 1952.

BMW and Toyota were fighting a stirring overnight battle in the Le Mans 24 Hour race early today.

After 9 hours, the BMW V12 driven by Tom Kristensen of Denmark, Finland's Jyrki Lehto and Jorg Muller of Germany held the lead with 139 laps.

Toyota's best hope for victory, the Martin Brundle-led team that was the fastest in qualifying, withdrew from the race. But two of its other GT1s were still in contention as drivers began their long night.

The Toyota team of Thierry Boutsen, Ralf Kelleners and Allan McNish was in second place, with 138 laps.

The BMW team led by Joachim Winkelhock was in third place, with another Toyota in fourth.

Audi had a fine performance in its first appearance here, with the trio led by Emmanuel Pirro in fifth after nine hours. Goodyear pulls away in Longhorn 500

FORT WORTH, Texas - Scott Goodyear outlasted several mid-race challenges by local favorite Greg Ray, then pulled away after a late caution to win the IRL's Longhorn 500.

Goodyear's average speed of 151.177 mph was the fastest of the four Indy-car winners at Texas Motor Speedway. The points he gained sent him into first in the driver standings.

Ray, a native of nearby Plano, came in second.

Notes

-- David Keith won the Michigan ARCA 200 in Birmingham, Mich., despite an inoperable third gear that caused him to fall back every time the race was restarted after a caution. "We're the class of the field," said Keith, who won his first ARCA race in his second start. "It makes my job easy."

NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield, who will start 17th in today's Kmart 400, is a part-owner of Keith's car. Keith's sister, Christina, is married to Mayfield.

Jeff Gordon appears to be the man to beat today. Gordon shattered his track record with a qualifying lap at 186.945 mph to win the pole. Gordon, who has won the Winston Cup points series three of the past four seasons, has finished sixth or better in his last eight races at this 2-mile oval.

-- Dale Earnhardt Jr. passed Jeff Green with 70 laps to go and won the Textilease-Medique 300 at South Boston Speedway in Virginia, the defending series champion's second consecutive victory in the NASCAR Busch Grand National series. Earnhardt started on the pole but didn't lead a lap until passing Green on the 231st circuit of the .4-mile oval. When he withstood a hard, contact-filled charge by Green over the last five laps, he became the first pole-sitter to win a BGN race at South Boston since Sam Ard did it twice during the 1984 season.

-- Michael Schumacher snapped Mika Hakkinen's string of five straight poles in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. It was close, though, with Hakkinen's final lap coming within .029 seconds of Schumacher's Ferrari, which was on top right from the first lap.

Schumacher, who goes into today's race holding a six-point lead over Hakkinen, the defending Formula One champion, got around the 2.747-mile (4.421-kilometer), 13-turn road course in 1 minute, 19.298 seconds. The Finnish driver's McLaren-Mercedes was clocked at 1:19.327.