High Turn Wasn’t Part of the Design

Michelin said Monday that a design flaw rather than a material defect in the tires it supplied to Formula One teams forced 14 cars out of the U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on June 19.

Michelin, the world’s largest tire maker, said a lack of on-track testing and an insufficient computer model caused the design problems that forced seven teams to withdraw from the race because of safety concerns about the high-speed 13th turn. Only six cars, all using Bridgestone Corp. tires, competed in the race, won by Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher.

The six-car race damaged Formula One’s attempts to bolster its popularity in the U.S.

“The tires were not intrinsically flawed but were insufficiently suited to extreme racing conditions encountered through Turn 13 of the Indianapolis circuit this year,” the company said in a statement.

Michelin said Turn 13 at Indianapolis, with its severe banking and high speeds, is the only turn of its kind in the 19-race Formula One season. The loads exerted on the rear left tire in the turn were “far superior to the highest estimations of Michelin’s engineers,” the company statement said.

The company told its teams not to compete in the race after it was unable to determine the cause of tire failures that led to two crashes during practice.

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Hockey

Philadelphia Flyer center Jeremy Roenick has some advice for hockey fans who blame the NHL lockout on greed by the players: Once it’s settled, stay home.

“We’re going to try to make it better for everybody, period, end of subject. And if you don’t realize that, then don’t come,” said Roenick, who spoke at a charity golf event he played in over the weekend in suburban Pittsburgh.

“We don’t want you at the rink, we don’t want you in the stadium, we don’t want you to watch hockey,” he said on Saturday.

The NHL and the Players’ Assn. have been in almost daily negotiations to get a new collective bargaining agreement after the lockout that canceled the 2004-05 season.

“I say personally, to everybody who called us ‘spoiled,’ you guys are just jealous ... we have tried so, so hard to get this game back on the ice,” Roenick said.

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Miscellany

The state of Louisiana will again borrow the cash needed to make its annual payment to the New Orleans Saints, thanks to a loan arrangement approved Monday, though it is unclear how that borrowing will be repaid or how the state will meet its future obligations to the NFL franchise.

The state has struggled to pay the Saints for the last few years and has yet to repay the cash it borrowed from an economic development fund last year to make its payment. This time, the state will borrow $10.5 million through a financing mechanism it hasn’t used for at least a decade.

Members of the State Bond Commission, which approved the plan, said there were few options available since the Legislature adjourned last week without approving a new tax source for the Saints’ payment.

The Oakland Raiders signed defensive tackle Ed Jasper, who was released by Atlanta in February.... The New York Jets signed former linebackers Mo Lewis and Marvin Jones so they can retire as members of the team.

Jockey Stewart Elliott, who nearly won the Triple Crown aboard Smarty Jones in 2004, will have his deportation case moved from Philadelphia to Newark, N.J.

Elliott, who was born in Toronto, is facing deportation because of a 2001 guilty plea to aggravated assault. He sought the switch to New Jersey because of a recent move from Pennsylvania to Hunterdon County, N.J., said his lawyer, Supti Bhattacharya.

Kim Un-yong, once one of the most powerful Olympic figures, is among about 700 convicts to be released on parole this week in South Korea, the government said. Kim is serving a two-year prison term on corruption charges.

He resigned from the International Olympic Committee last month rather than face an expulsion vote in July. The 74-year-old Kim had been suspended from the IOC for more than a year after he was accused of embezzlement and bribery in South Korea.