Hill Trails Schumacher by a Point After Victory

The problems he thought might ruin his chance to close within a point of the Formula One lead never materialized, and Damon Hill used a little good luck Sunday to win the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril.

The victory gave the British driver 75 points in the drivers race, leaving him one short of leader Michael Schumacher.

The German sat out the race, completing a two-race suspension for ignoring a black flag at Silverstone earlier this season.

Hill averaged 114.740 m.p.h. in his run over the 2.725-mile Fernando Pires da Silva circuit. He finished .603 seconds ahead of Scottish teammate David Coulthard.

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Rusty Wallace led 369 of 500 laps of the Goody’s 500 on the half-mile Martinsville (Va.) Speedway oval as he won for the second consecutive week and a series-leading eighth time this season.

But, despite two early incidents that could easily have been much worse, Dale Earnhardt was second, losing only 10 points and keeping a lead of 217 over Wallace in the Winston Cup standings with five of 31 races remaining.

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Michael Doohan of Australia beat Doug Chandler of the United States by 9.242 seconds in the 500cc class of the Argentine Grand Prix in Buenos Aires.

College Football

Top-ranked Florida retained a slim lead over No. 2 Nebraska, Colorado climbed to No. 5 and Colorado State broke into the rankings for the first time in school history in The Associated Press college football poll.

Florida, which didn’t play Saturday, holds a 16-point advantage over Nebraska, which beat Pacific, 70-21.

USC is 19th; UCLA dropped out.

Jerome Oliver rushed for 148 yards and two touchdowns to lead Fresno State over Hawaii, 31-9, in a Western Athletic Conference game in Honolulu late Saturday night.

Fresno State (3-2 overall, 1-0 WAC) pulled away from the Rainbows (2-2, 0-2) in the second half by scoring 21 consecutive points.

Miscellany

The Baltimore Orioles have been denied permission to talk to Oakland Athletics Manager Tony La Russa about a job, the Baltimore Sun reported.

Dallas Star defenseman Richard Matvichuk is expected to be sidelined for the season after suffering torn knee ligaments Sunday night in an exhibition against the Edmonton Oilers.

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario defeated Amy Frazier, 6-1, 6-2, in the final of the Nichirei International Ladies Tennis Championships in Tokyo.

Thailand’s Saen Sor Ploenchit (19-0) scored a unanimous 12-round decision over South Korea’s Kim Yong-kang (25-5) and retained his World Boxing Assn. flyweight title in Bangkok, Thailand.

Denmark dominated the finals of the U.S. Badminton Open at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion.

Top-ranked Thomas Stuer-Laridsen won the men’s singles title by default when Tiong Ping Lioe of China withdrew because of an ankle injury that occurred in the semifinal. The Danish team of Jens Erickson and Rikke Olsen won the mixed doubles and Olsen teamed with Helene Kirkegaard to win the women’s doubles title.

Ade Sutrisna and Chandra Wijaya of Indonesia won the men’s doubles title and Guimei Lui of China defeated Huai Wen Xu, 15-8, 15-11, in women’s singles.