CART, Citing Safety, Calls Off Texas Race

With drivers worried they could pass out at speeds of more than 230 mph, CART took the extraordinary step Sunday of calling off its inaugural race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

Some drivers were dizzy and disoriented after practicing for the Firestone Firehawk 600. CART medical officials found G forces were almost twice as high as normal on the high-banked track.

After meeting with the drivers, CART postponed the race just before it was scheduled to begin.

“The G forces were beyond what I could have ever imagined,” said Michael Andretti, the winningest driver in CART history. “You feel very compressed when you get down in the corners. Everything is just compressing your body. It’s a feeling I’ve never felt before.”

This was the first safety related postponement by CART since 1985, when tire concerns delayed a race at Michigan International Speedway for six days.

This time, series officials were caught off guard by the impact of the 24-degree banking at Texas. By comparison, the banking at Indianapolis is only nine degrees, and no other track in the CART series is steeper than 18 degrees.

Dr. Steve Olvey, CART’s medical director, said extended exposure to the G force felt in practice could have caused some drivers to lose consciousness during the race, scheduled for 250 laps on the 1.5-mile quad-oval.

“This is a situation that in my 25 years involved in motorsports I’ve never heard of or seen,” Olvey said.

CART CEO Joseph Heitzler said the sanctioning body was considering rescheduling the race for later in the year. He said there was no opportunity to make immediate changes to the cars or the racing surface. “We are in uncharted waters.”

Heitzler refused to blame the track for Sunday’s action. “This is not an issue of safety at this track,” he said.

Track officials had no input into the discussions Sunday morning, General Manager Eddie Gossage said. He criticized CART for its dealings with the track.

Gossage said safety questions were raised by track officials as recently as 10 days ago. There was no open testing, however, and the standard accepted by CART was the 220-224-mph range established by Kenny Brack during a private test in December.

Brack won the pole at 233.447 mph during qualifying Saturday.

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Michael Schumacher didn’t feel much like a winner, but wasn’t about to give back the trophy he got after Mika Hakkinen broke down on the final lap of the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona.

“It’s not the way you like to win a race, honestly,” Schumacher said. “But sometimes it happens in racing. It’s happened to me.”

Hakkinen was leading by more than 40 seconds over the Ferrari of Schumacher, and seemed headed for his fourth consecutive victory in the race when his McLaren-Mercedes broke down midway through the 65th lap.

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Doug Kalitta became the first top fuel repeat champion of the season by winning the inaugural Mac Tools NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol, Tenn.

Ron Capps won the funny car division and Greg Anderson won the pro stock event.

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Jeff Green won his second consecutive Super Stock checkered flag by winning the shortened 30-lap main event Saturday night at Irwindale Speedway, increasing his point lead in the class. . . . Dean Kuhn took the flag in the shortened 25-lap Grand American Modified main event.

Tennis

Andy Roddick, playing in only his 10th ATP tournament and first clay-court event, routed Xavier Malisse of Belgium, 6-2, 6-4, to win the Verizon Tennis Challenge at Duluth, Ga., for his first title.

The 18-year-old Roddick became the youngest American to win an ATP event since Michael Chang in 1992 at 19.

Juan Carlos Ferrero won the $1-million Seat Godo Open at Barcelona, Spain, beating Carlos Moya, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, in an all-Spanish final that lasted more than four hours.

Miscellany

The San Diego Spirit and New York Power played to a scoreless tie in a Women’s United Soccer Assn. game before 7,312 at Uniondale, N.Y. . . . Kristine Lilly’s penalty kick in the 73rd minute lifted the Boston Breakers into a 1-1 tie with the Bay Area CyberRays in front of 10,010 at San Jose. . . . Andrew “Six Heads” Lewis of Guyana won a unanimous decision over Larry Marks in New York to retain the WBA welterweight title. . . . Hunter Mahan and Alex Kuyumjian had top-five finishes as the USC men’s golf team won the Pacific 10 Conference by four strokes over Arizona State at Stanford.