U S 500 Automobile Race

Three spectators were killed and six others injured by a wheel and other crash debris that flew into the stands in the U.S. 500, a CART championship at Michigan Speedway in which most of the drivers did not know of the tragedy until after the race. The accident, the worst involving spectators in a major modern U.S. race, occurred on lap 175 of the 250-lap race when pole-sitter Adrian Fernandez lost control of his Reynard-Ford and it slid into the wall at better than 200 mph.

For as long as there have been automobile races, one great fear has been that a car might break loose and careen into a spectator area. The major fear is for wholesale loss of life, but there is an underlying fear as well, that a major disaster could end racing. Such a wide-scale disaster hasn't happened since nearly 100 were killed at LeMans, France, in 1955, but what happened Sunday, when three people were killed and six others injured during the U.S.

For as long as there have been automobile races, one great fear has been that a car might break loose and careen into a spectator area. The major fear is for wholesale loss of life, but there is an underlying fear as well, that a major disaster could end racing. Such a wide-scale disaster hasn't happened since nearly 100 were killed at LeMans, France, in 1955, but what happened Sunday, when three people were killed and six others injured during the U.S.

Three spectators were killed and six others injured by a wheel and other crash debris that flew into the stands in the U.S. 500, a CART championship at Michigan Speedway in which most of the drivers did not know of the tragedy until after the race. The accident, the worst involving spectators in a major modern U.S. race, occurred on lap 175 of the 250-lap race when pole-sitter Adrian Fernandez lost control of his Reynard-Ford and it slid into the wall at better than 200 mph.

If it's your custom on the Sunday before Memorial Day to pull up to your TV set and watch the Indianapolis 500, and you haven't been paying close attention to Indy car racing this year, there is something you should know. Former winners Bobby Rahal, Emerson Fittipaldi, Al Unser Jr. and Jacques Villeneuve won't be racing at Indy today. Neither will Michael Andretti, Paul Tracy or Jimmy Vasser. Robby Gordon? Uh-uh. Raul Boesel? Nope.

Michael Andretti is worried about the Indianapolis 500. He's worried about it this year, and he's worried about it long range. He figures that the feud that has left Indy car racing with two competing events this Memorial Day weekend will have serious, negative effects on the race he, and so many of his fellow drivers, consider the sport's crown jewel. And he blames Tony George, the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the founder of the new Indy Racing League, the man behind the split.

The Indianapolis 500 will have its racing date to itself next May. Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc., the older Indy car sanctioning body, will not go head-to-head with the Indianapolis race, centerpiece of the newer Indy Racing League, but that does not mean the two racing organizations are any closer to peace. The CART schedule, released Monday, shows a race at the yet-to-be-built Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill.--across the Mississippi River from St.

Jumping from the cockpit of his sleek Indy race car, Al Unser Jr. could be mistaken for a walking billboard. Seemingly every inch of his red jumpsuit is covered with corporate logos. Unser's garb is a fitting symbol for Indy car racing. Its high-decibel, high-tech machines--capable of 240 mph on the straightaways--have fostered a $1-billion-a-year enterprise that has become one of America's fastest-growing sports industries.

Once they got it started Sunday, the drivers representing Championship Auto Racing Teams put on just about the kind of show everyone here was hoping for in the U.S. 500, the anti-Indianapolis 500. In a race of sweeping passes, frequent lead changes and multicar position competition, winner Jimmy Vasser had the kind of day that usually shows up only in bad fiction.

Let me get another look at that book--you know, the one that says rookies cause most of the big accidents in Indy-car racing and that you need veteran drivers in a race to keep them from destroying themselves and the race generally. Read me again the part where it tells you to look out for young guys in their first race. Because I have trouble reconciling that with what happened in the big doubleheader of oval auto racing Sunday.

When NASCAR decided its stock cars were going too fast on certain superspeedways a few years ago, officials introduced carburetor restrictor plates to reduce speeds. CART, after seeing Mauricio Gugelmin reach 240 mph last year at California Speedway, decided it had to slow its Champ cars for Michigan and California speedways, the twin two-mile ovals owned by Penske Motorsports.

The second U.S. 500 wasn't billed as a Demolition Derby, but it seemed to turn out that way. Nine drivers led during the 500 miles Sunday, but six of them never made it to the finish line. One after another, the leader and the contenders dropped out--either because of hitting the wall or engine failure brought on by hot temperatures and high speeds. At the end of CART's longest race, Alex Zanardi, the talkative little Italian from Chip Ganassi's Target team, was left.

It's still called the U.S. 500, and it's still 500 miles on the high banks of Michigan Speedway, but that is about all that connects Sunday's CART race with last year's heavily promoted in-your-face defiance of the Indianapolis 500. For beginners, last year's race was on May 26, directly opposite the traditional Memorial Day weekend Indy race. It was the centerpiece of CART's attempt to blunt the Indy Racing League's arrival as an Indy car force.

The Indianapolis 500 will have its racing date to itself next May. Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc., the older Indy car sanctioning body, will not go head-to-head with the Indianapolis race, centerpiece of the newer Indy Racing League, but that does not mean the two racing organizations are any closer to peace. The CART schedule, released Monday, shows a race at the yet-to-be-built Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill.--across the Mississippi River from St.

Once they got it started Sunday, the drivers representing Championship Auto Racing Teams put on just about the kind of show everyone here was hoping for in the U.S. 500, the anti-Indianapolis 500. In a race of sweeping passes, frequent lead changes and multicar position competition, winner Jimmy Vasser had the kind of day that usually shows up only in bad fiction.

Let me get another look at that book--you know, the one that says rookies cause most of the big accidents in Indy-car racing and that you need veteran drivers in a race to keep them from destroying themselves and the race generally. Read me again the part where it tells you to look out for young guys in their first race. Because I have trouble reconciling that with what happened in the big doubleheader of oval auto racing Sunday.

The second U.S. 500 wasn't billed as a Demolition Derby, but it seemed to turn out that way. Nine drivers led during the 500 miles Sunday, but six of them never made it to the finish line. One after another, the leader and the contenders dropped out--either because of hitting the wall or engine failure brought on by hot temperatures and high speeds. At the end of CART's longest race, Alex Zanardi, the talkative little Italian from Chip Ganassi's Target team, was left.

It's still called the U.S. 500, and it's still 500 miles on the high banks of Michigan Speedway, but that is about all that connects Sunday's CART race with last year's heavily promoted in-your-face defiance of the Indianapolis 500. For beginners, last year's race was on May 26, directly opposite the traditional Memorial Day weekend Indy race. It was the centerpiece of CART's attempt to blunt the Indy Racing League's arrival as an Indy car force.

If it's your custom on the Sunday before Memorial Day to pull up to your TV set and watch the Indianapolis 500, and you haven't been paying close attention to Indy car racing this year, there is something you should know. Former winners Bobby Rahal, Emerson Fittipaldi, Al Unser Jr. and Jacques Villeneuve won't be racing at Indy today. Neither will Michael Andretti, Paul Tracy or Jimmy Vasser. Robby Gordon? Uh-uh. Raul Boesel? Nope.