Stuck Overtakes Carradine to Win

DEL MAR — The nerd didn’t quite get revenge, but actor Robert Carradine and Hans Stuck ran a spirited, back-and-forth race Sunday in the Bridgestone Potenza Supercar Race.

Stuck, driving a Porsche, was passed by Carradine’s Lotus after 12 laps but regained the lead six laps later to win the 30-minute race.

Hurley Haywood of Jacksonville, Fla., also in a Porsche, finished fifth and won the overall series title.

Stuck, based in Germany, said brake problems made him ease up when Carradine took the lead. “I had to back off, I kept it easy for a few laps,” he said. “(A few laps later) my brakes were back, I didn’t want to wait too long (to regain the lead) when there might be a possible yellow flag. It was a very fair fight--he gave me some room, I gave him some room.”

Carradine, the star of “Revenge of the Nerds,” said Stuck’s brake problems forced him to make a move, perhaps sooner than he would have liked. “He was coming to me, I wasn’t going any harder,” Carradine said. “So I down-shifted, and gassed it. To my utter delight, I was in the lead and we didn’t have a collision. The car was absolutely perfect--I’d like to blame (losing) on something other than my own driving.”

He said later, “Not bad for a nerd.”

Pole sitter Johnny Robinson won his seventh Barbar Saab Pro Series race of the year, but couldn’t catch Bryan Herta for the overall series title.

Herta, a UC Irvine student, stayed on Robinson’s tail throughout the 30-minute race to finish second.