MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017 SPORTS Austin Theriault wins ARCA season opener race at Daytona DAYTONA BEACH: Austin Theriault track. “When you’re fast and you play a and we hope to be able to provide a fur- Gerhart, Codie Rohrbaugh and Derrick then made his way to victory lane to cel- would have welcomed another restart in smart race, you’re hard to beat,” Theriault ther update on his recovery time when Lancaster also were caught up in the late ebrate. the ARCA season opener. said. “Fortunately everything played out it’s appropriate.” Fontaine thanked safety melee. None of them was injured. “Our focus is to win the champi- After all, he figured he had the field in our favor.” While Theriault celebrated personnel for “their quick actions after Terry Jones finished second, followed onship,” said Theriault, who drives for covered. “I feel strongly we still would his second ARCA victory in three career the accident.” “I just want to let everyone by Shane Lee, Dalton Sargeant and pole- Ken Schrader Racing. “I have been in good shape,” he said. starts, Justin Fontaine was headed to a know that I’m OK and I’m thankful for the sitter Tom Hessert. think we made that clear tonight. We Theriault never got a chance to find out. hospital. The 19-year-old Fontaine sus- outreach of support,” he added. Theriault passed Jones for the lead have a long season to go, though, and a He won at Daytona International tained a mild compression fracture of his Fontaine’s wild ride brought out the with eight laps to go, but the race was lot of work to do. We always want to get Speedway on L1 vertebrae and will be kept overnight final red flag. He slammed into the out- red-flagged after Fontaine’s crash dam- better, and Daytona’s kind of a different Saturday after a harrowing late acci- for evaluation and will be in back brace side wall, slid on his driver’s side door, aged part of the SAFER barrier at animal, obviously. “Once we get to dent damaged part of the energy- for the next three months. flipped and then came to a stop on his Daytona. The energy-absorbing wall had Nashville (in April), we’ll have a better absorbing wall and halted the race. The “Justin is awake and alert following a roof. Fontaine was stuck in the car for to be repaired before the Monster idea of maybe what we have to work on 200-mile event was called with five laps hard crash at Daytona International several inutes as safety workers turned Energy Cup Series exhibition Clash. and what we’re good at and we can go remaining - with Theriault sitting in his Speedway,” Win-Tron Racing owner Kevin his car over and cut him out of the cock- Theriault sat in his car for more than from there. But our intention’s to go for No. 52 Chevrolet on the high-banked Cywinski said. “Justin is in good spirits, pit. Eight-time race winner Bobby 10 minutes until the race was called. He the championship.”— AP GOLF Rumford beats Khongwatmai in Super 6 matchplay final PERTH: Australia’s Brett Rumford captured Khongwatmai squeezed into the 24th his sixth European Tour title with a historic and final spot in the Super 6 and defeated victory over Thailand’s Phachara Australians Sam Brazel, Lucas Herbert, Khongwatmai in the final of the inaugural Matthew Millar and Jason Scrivener en World Super 6 Perth yesterday. route to the final. Rumford, who dominated the field by Rumford got off to a sensational start, five shots after 54 holes of strokeplay, won putting his approach to the first to within four match play rounds of the revolution- three feet, and when Khongwatmai flew ary new European Tour format to claim vic- the green into a bunker and failed to get tory. His 2 and 1 victory over Thai teenager up and down, the hole was conceded. Khongwatmai in the final at Lake Karrinyup The 39-year-old Australian conceded on will now earn Rumford an exemption on the second hole, sending his tee-shot well the European Tour until the end of the 2018 right and his second well left, with season. It was Rumford’s first win since the Khongwatmai safely on the green in two. 2013 Volvo China Open. “It’s amazing, par- Khongwatmai found a bunker off the ticularly being a new format, the first win- tee at the par three third but recovered ner of that,” Rumford said. well, with Rumford playing his ball up to “It’s great to be back. I’ve done a lot of the hole as they walked off all square. reflection these past few months after Rumford looked in trouble again with a missing my (European) Tour card last year. wayward second shot on the par five fourth “I had a tough year and didn’t see my but he hit a sensational shot over a bunker family that much, only four weeks in six to set up a ten-foot birdie and a one-hole months. It was a gruelling six months, but lead. An approach to two feet on the fifth I’m back and I couldn’t be happier.” piled the pressure on Khongwatmai, and Khongwatmai, 17, would have become when the young Thai found the bunker the second youngest winner in European with his tee-shot and failed to get out with Tour history if he had beaten Rumford in his second, it was all over. the final. Rumford had a bye in the first Bland finished third after beating round of the match play round and over- Scrivener in a play-off, with South Africa’s came Hideto Tanihara, Wade Ormsby and Louis Oosthuizen fifth followed by Steven Adam Bland on the way to the final. Jeffress, Millar and Ormsby. —AFP ST MORITZ: Silver medalist Manuel Feller, left, of Austria, Gold medalist Marcel Hirscher, center, of Austria, and Bronze medalist Felix Neureuther, right, of Germany, pose with their medals, during the award ceremony of the men’s slalom at the 2017 Alpine Skiing World Johnson leads at Riviera, Championships in St Moritz, Switzerland, yesterday. — AP edges toward number one ALPINE SKIING LOS ANGELES: Dustin Johnson left the weather had cooperated enough that play- Genesis Open in the twilight Saturday real- ers no longer could lift, clean and place izing he could be as little 24 hours away their golf balls in the short grass. from reaching No. 1 in the world. He wasn’t Imperious Hirscher the least bit concerned, mainly because he MARATHON still had 36 holes ahead of him. And all that Johnson was in control of his game and really mattered to Johnson was winning at the focus going into a marathon yesterday. Riviera, the course he loves that has done Play was set to resume at 6:50 am. He said hails ‘perfect’ worlds nothing but tease him over the last five earlier this year that Riviera was the one years. Johnson had it really easy on a slop- tournament he wanted to win outside the py Saturday of light rain and a muddied majors because of his love for the course ST MORITZ: Marcel Hirscher was at his imperi- contender here, was 0.11sec short of a medal. try’s best for a male skier since 1981, also threat- course. He only had to play 18 holes of the and how much he loves it, even though it ous best as he sped to victory in the slalom at Norway, in the absence of the injured Aksel Lund ened in the first run, in which he was fourth second round, making three birdies over has given him nothing but heartache. He the World Ski Championships yesterday to add Svindal, finished fourth in all five of the men’s fastest. But a bad mistake on the second descent his last four holes for another 5-under 66 has had a chance to win four times in the to his triumph in the giant slalom and silver in events in St Moritz. saw him clock up just the 22nd fastest time for that gave him a one-shot lead at the last five years. the combined. The 27-year-old Austrian, who Britain’s Dave Ryding, whose second place in 11th place overall. “I just wish I could have done halfway point of the rain-plagued tourna- Now, a victory might be enough to also won the world slalom title on home snow in the Kitzbuehel slalom in January was the coun- better,” said the Englishman. —AFP ment. “I want to win this tournament,” move him to No. 1 in the world. Johnson Schladming in 2013, led after the first run and Johnson said. “Whether I get to No. 1 or not would have to win the Genesis Open and went on to clock a combined total of 1min doesn’t affect me at all.” The tournament have world No. 1 Jason Day finish out of the 34.75sec to bring the curtain down on what he lost an hour to fog Thursday, then seven top three to go to No. 1 for the first time. dubbed a “perfect” championships. hours when heavy rain and wind arrived in “I don’t really worry about that,” Johnson That was a massive 0.68sec ahead of team- S Korea’s Jang wins southern California on Friday, and two said. “I want to put myself in position to win mate Manuel Feller, whose silver was a career- more hours Saturday morning to get the this golf tournament.