Motor Racing: Cheever achieves the perfect finish to rob Rahal: Unfamiliarity breeds contentment for a former Formula One driver as beaten Williams take stock of their drivers' shortcomings

THERE were no cups and no cheques, but for Eddie Cheever it was almost as good as winning the thing itself. In an enthralling climax to the qualifying sessions for the Indianapolis 500-mile race on Sunday, the former grand prix driver bumped the 1986 winner and current IndyCar champion, Bobby Rahal, out of the line-up with less than 10 minutes to go.

The light was beginning to fade, the flags were standing stiff above the grandstand and there were specks of rain in the thick, sultry air as Cheever took to the track in a borrowed car. His own Penske-Chevrolet had been judged not up to the job, so he accepted the offer, made during the afternoon, of a ride in the spare fourth car owned by John Menard, a Wisconsin lumber merchant. Menard's other cars were already safely in the field, driven by Nelson Piquet, Gary Bettenhausen and Geoff Brabham.

Cheever needed to beat Rahal's four- lap average of 217.140mph to get back in to the race. He gave himself fewer than a dozen laps to get to know a completely unfamiliar car. 'After that,' he said, 'I knew the car had a lot of downforce and the engine had plenty of power, so if I could put those things together we might be all right.'

His first run, with half an hour left on the clock, would have been good enough, and there was astonishment when Menard waved a yellow flag to abort the attempt on the fourth lap. He had been looking at the stop- watch and thought that the speed would not be quite enough to prevent others beating it in the time available. Given one more chance, he reasoned, bearing in mind the rule stating that a driver may complete only one qualifying run in each car, Cheever could go faster still.

Menard's breathtaking gamble paid off, and deserves to enter the race's bulging annals. More than 50,000 spectators stayed on to watch and whoop as the acid-green Lola- Buick hissed through the gloom on its second run, travelling as close as Cheever dared to the concrete walls lining the two-and-a-half-mile oval. When his first two laps registered speeds in the mid-218s, the cheering began. The car began to lose grip on the third and fourth laps, but an average of 217.599mph was enough to put him in, and to keep Rahal and everyone else out.

There was just time for Rahal to gather himself for a riposte, but he failed to wring the necessary fractions out of his car. 'I've never not qualified for an IndyCar race,' said the 40- year-old Ohio car dealer, who has started 168 of them, and won 24. 'This is pretty close to the most disappointing moment of my career.'

For Cheever, who is 35 and came to IndyCars after a long and difficult career in Formula One, there was relief and elation. 'I'm sorry if I'm making a big thing out of being last on the grid,' he said afterwards, in the middle of a long description of the day's twists and turns, 'but to me it's more exciting than getting on the front row last year.' In 1992 he had led nine laps before finishing fourth. Now, after a month of apparently fruitless endeavour, he was suddenly going to be taking part in a race which offers a prize fund of about dollars 8m ( pounds 5.3m) to its 33 competitors.

But Cheever is too much of a racer to have had the money on his mind. 'It's a very emotional thing,' he said. 'You look your crew in the eyes, and you know it's going to be your last chance. I wanted to get into the show more than anything in the world.'

Bearing in mind the fears expressed by several drivers about the potential for mayhem in the race's first corner, which has been narrowed, the back row of this particular show may turn out to be not a bad place to start.

INDIANAPOLIS 500 Final grid (US unless stated): Front row: A Luyendyk (Neth), Lola-Ford, 223.967mph; M Andretti, Lola-Ford, 223.414; R Boesel (Bra), Lola-Ford, 222.379. Second row: S Goodyear (Can), Lola-Ford, 222.344; A Unser Jr, Lola- Chevrolet, 221.773; S Johansson (Swe), Penske-Chevrolet, 220.824. Third row: P Tracy (Can), Penske- Chevrolet, 220.298; N Mansell (GB), Lola-Ford, 220.255; E Fittipaldi (Bra), Penske-Chevrolet, 220.150. Fourth row: R Guerrero (Col), Lola-Chevrolet, 219.645; S Brayton, Lola-Ford, 219.637; D Sullivan, Lola-Chevrolet, 219 428. Fifth row: N Piquet (Bra), Lola-Menard, 217.949; K Cogan, Lola-Chevrolet, 217.230; S Gregoire (Fr), Lola-Buick, 220.851. Sixth row: Jeff Andretti, Lola-Buick, 220.572; T Fabi (It), Lola-Chevrolet, 220.514; G Bettenhausen, Lola- Menard, 220.380. Seventh row: J Vasser, Lola-Ford, 218.967; S Fox, Lola-Buick, 218.765; L St James, Lola- Ford, 218.042. Eighth row: T Bettenhausen, Penske- Chevrolet, 218.034; A Unser, Lola-Chevrolet, 217.453; John Andretti, Lola-Ford, 221.746. Ninth row: R Gordon, Lola-Ford, 220.085; H Matsushita (Japan), Lola- Ford, 219.949; D Dobson, Galmer-Chevrolet, 218.776. 10th row: D Jones, Lola-Chevrolet, 218.416; Geoff Brabham (Aus), Lola-Menard, 217.800; W Ribbs, Lola- Ford, 217.711. 11th row: J Crawford (GB), Lola-Chevrolet, 217.612; D Theys (Bel), Lola-Buick, 217.752; E Cheever, Lola-Buick, 217.599.