IRL Responds to Fatalities With Tethering

The Indy Racing League will start requiring wheel-tether systems beginning with the Indianapolis 500 May 30, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

The move was made in response to the sport’s latest fatal spectator accident.

The IRL’s largest promoter, Speedway Motorsports Inc., also announced plans in Concord, N.C., to raise the height of safety fences at its tracks.

The company owns the tracks at which five of the 11 IRL races are run, among them Lowe’s Motor Speedway at Concord, where three spectators were killed and eight injured by a flying wheel and suspension parts during a race May 1.

The fences between the racing surfaces and grandstands, 15 feet high and topped with three-foot-long overhangs at most SMI properties, will be raised to 21 feet and topped with six-foot-long overhangs.

IRL officials declined to confirm their intentions but three authorities in the open-wheel racing industry, speaking anonymously, told the AP that the IRL plans to announce the tether rule soon and put it into effect for the 500.

IRL teams will test the new restraining cables during Carburetion Day, May 27, the last practice session before the race. The 500 will be the first IRL event since the accident at Concord.

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Writer Ed Hinton of Sports Illustrated has been denied credentials for the Indy 500, partly because the magazine ran a photograph of a sheet-covered body after three fans were killed at the IRL race in Concord.

In response, the magazine said in New York that it would not cover the event.

Tony George, president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and founder of the IRL, said in a letter to the magazine that Hinton, the magazine’s senior auto racing writer, would be barred because of the photo and accompanying story, in which Hinton wrote that such accidents could be avoided.

The speedway offered to provide credentials for another writer, but the magazine declined.

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Rookie Mike Borkowski crashed at 200 mph in practice at Indianapolis, but he was not injured.

Tennis

Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia will be top seeded for the French Open despite six consecutive recent first-round losses. Martina Hingis of Switzerland, the Australian Open winner, will be the top-seeded woman, ahead of Lindsay Davenport and Monica Seles, in the clay-court major that begins Monday.

Kafelnikov was a 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 winner over Jimy Szymanski, a qualifier from Venezuela, in the first round of the Raiffeisen Grand Prix tournament in St. Poelten, Austria. . . . Alex Corretja and Moya led Spain to a 2-1 victory over Britain at the World Team Cup in Duesseldorf, Germany, but both needed three sets to overcome their British opponents. Corretja prevailed over Greg Rusedski, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, and Moya outlasted Tim Henman, 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (7-2).

Unseeded Mary Joe Fernandez boosted her preparations for the French Open with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 victory over eighth-seeded Anne-Gaelle Sidot of France at the Strasbourg Open in France.

Jurisprudence

After suing one another last month, suspended San Francisco 49er owner Eddie DeBartolo and his sister, Denise DeBartolo York, agreed to a truce in their feud over ownership of the team.

In Akron, Ohio, U.S. District Judge Daniel Polster asked both sides to suspend litigation for a month and begin settlement talks.

The NFL suspended DeBartolo through February 2000 and fined him $1 million for his role in a Louisiana gambling and bribery case.

New York real estate investor Howard Milstein filed a lawsuit against Washington Redskin President John Kent Cooke and General Manager Charlie Casserly, claiming they interfered with his $800-million bid to purchase the NFL team.

Former U.S. Open champion Ken Venturi testified in South Bend, Ind., that allowing disabled golfers to use carts can provide an unfair advantage.

“Where do you draw the line?” Venturi said. “It’s simple: Play by the rules.”

The U.S. Golf Assn., rested its case in a suit filed by Ford Olinger, an Indiana golf professional seeking a permanent injunction allowing him to use a cart in a qualifier for the U.S. Open.

Miscellany

Felix Trinidad has until 5 p.m. PDT today to accept a $10-million offer to fight Oscar De La Hoya on Sept. 18 in a welterweight unification bout or promoter Bob Arum says he will withdraw the offer. . . . If Trinidad doesn’t agree, Arum said De La Hoya, who defends his WBC title Saturday against Oba Carr, will go ahead with a rematch against Ike Quartey on the same date.

The Massachusetts House and Senate approved a plan for a new $225-million stadium for the New England Patriots, but voters overwhelmingly rejected a $1.8-billion convention center and sports complex that would have featured a new stadium for the Arizona Cardinals.

Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, 37, banned for life after two positive drug tests, could have his application for reinstatement heard this week by the International Amateur Athletic Federation.

Laurent Jalabert of France beat four other cyclists in a close sprint finish to win the fourth leg of the Tour of Italy in Terme Luigiane.

California baseball Coach Bob Milano is retiring after 29 years at the school. . . . New Mexico swingman Lamont Long has decided to opt out of the NBA draft to return to the Lobos for his senior season.