Andretti wins Firestone Firehawk 500

K.P. Hong

Sunday, May 14, 2000 | 3:55 a.m.

MOTEGI, Japan - Michael Andretti credited a 24-hour rain delay for making him a contender in the Firestone Firehawk 500.

Then a bad valve in the car of series champion Juan Montoya transformed contention into victory Sunday for Andretti.

"The rain may have been a blessing in disguise," Andretti said after extending his career-best record of CART victories to 39. "There was a 90-percent chance that we would be OK, but you don't want to mess with the 10- percent chance of a problem."

So, when rain Saturday forced postponement of the fourth race of the season, Andretti's crew worked especially hard to see if they could make an eighth-place qualifier more closely resemble a winner. They nearly did.

That's where polesitter Montoya came in. After leading all but three of the first 175 laps, mechanical woes hit his Toyota-Lola just as they had in the first three races this season.

"After my last pit stop I was just ready to get to the flag, but during the pit stop a valve came loose," Montoya said. "I had to come back in for them to fix it."

As they did, Andretti took his Ford-Lola to the front and stayed there for the final 26 laps on the 1.549-mile Twin Ring Motegi oval.

"For once, luck went our way and I'll take it for sure," said Andretti, who beat the Honda-Reynard of Dario Franchitti by a half-second for his first victory this season.

Third was Roberto Moreno, followed by Christiano da Matta, rookie Kenny Brack, points leader Paul Tracy and Montoya. He and Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Jimmy Vasser looked like the drivers to beat, Andretti said.

"They were pretty tough," he said. "I don't know if we would have had anything for them today."

But the problems with the Toyotas made that a moot point. Vasser started third, but a mechanical problem ended his day after just 127 laps, and he wound up 21st in a field of 25.

Toyota power, the new choice of car owner Ganassi - whose drivers have won an unprecedented four straight CART titles with Honda engines - is yet to result in a victory in five seasons on the circuit.

"Everything was really coming together," said Montoya, who overcame a radio that malfunctioned from the start to dominate until the valve failure. "Jimmy and I were both having a good day and then it changed.

"It's coming together though. It really felt good today, and the Toyota was great for me."

Now, a day before he races in an Oldsmobile-powered car as a CART intruder in the IRL's Indianapolis 500, Montoya will try to give Toyota its first victory. He has the pole for the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix, postponed from April 9 to May 27 by snow in Nazareth, Pa.

Andretti, the 1991 series champion who never won the Indy 500 while it was CART race prior to 1996, will start an uncharacteristically low 15th in the Bosch Grand Prix, a race he has won twice in his hometown.

If his car runs as well there as it did Sunday, he should be a contender. When he's that, Andretti is particularly hard to beat. On restarts, no one is better, something he proved again Sunday, when he was forced to hold off Franchitti after a caution period caused by Tony Kanaan ended with five laps remaining.

"I just kept the car above the oil dry so I would have a good clean line and just try to stand on the throttle when I knew I could stand on it and hopefully steal a little of Dario's air," Andretti said. "It worked perfect."

Tracy increased his lead over Vasser from six points to 56-42. Moreno also has 42 points.

Andretti averaged 157.154 mph in a race slowed by caution five times for a total of 29 laps. Only Andretti, Montoya and defending race champion Adrian Fernandez, who won the first two CART events in Japan, were able to lead Sunday.

Fernandez faded to finish 10th.