1.
TV PAN Start of the race
0.10

2.
GV Spectators
0.11

3.
TV PAN Gray & Marcus in collision
0.24

4.
TV Spectators
0.26

5.
LV PAN Car 11 spins off the wall
0.34

6.
LV Crowd
0.35

7.
TV Car 77 spins out on first bend
0.47

8.
LV Marshall waves yellow caution flag
0.48

9.
TV PAN Cars spinning after collisions
0.59

10.
SCU PAN Driver Brookes assisted to ambulance
1.10

11.
TV & LV Pearson crosses finish line
1.20

12.
SV Pearson out of car
1.28



Initials ESP/0107 ESP/0122


SPORT: MOTOR RACING

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: David Pearson won his third consecutive 500-mile stock-car victory at Darlington International Raceway, South Carolina on Sunday (15 April). He drove his red and white Mercury through an entangling maze of wreckage to finish a clear 13 laps ahead of the next competitor in the 17th 'Rebel 500' stock car race.

Of the 40 cars who started on the 367 laps, only 12 were there at the finish. The first of four bends claimed most victims, and only 25 laps from home, there was a spectacular pileup involving seven cars.

Pearson's average sped was more than 122 miles an hour. The caution flag was shown eleven times, but no one needed treatment for injury. Pearson's prize-money was 16,000 dollars (6 1/2 thousand pounds sterling).

SYNOPSIS: Prominent driver david Pearson started in front at Darlington International Raceway on Sunday and went on to notch his third consecutive victory in 500-mile stock-car races.

The course of the seventeenth 'Rebel 500' race became a tangle of broken cars through which Pearson drove his red and white Mercury. Collisions began as early as the fourth turn.

Bill Bravo, the second fastest qualifier, never seriously challenged for the lead after hitting a wall down the back straight.

The first bend claimed the most victims. Of the 40 cars which started, only 12 crossed the finishing line.

The caution flag had to be used eleven times slowing the drivers over 69 laps. 25 laps from home there was a massive pile-up of seven cars which knocked out Person's closest competitors. Driver Dick Brookes was slightly dazed but no one in the race needed treatment.

So numerous were the spills that Pearson had a clear run home and finished thirteen laps ahead of the second placed driver. He completed the course laps at an average speed exceeding 122 miles an hour. His prize is sixteen thousand dollars.