The refusal of CART drivers to compete Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway is the
first in the United States in 16 years.
Excessive speed that resulted in G-forces twice what drivers normally are
subjected to resulted in vertigo among most of the racers.
The last time drivers balked at racing was in 1985 at Michigan International
Speedway, when three accidents prior to the event led to a six-day
postponement. The concern was over racing with Goodyear's new radial tire.
Goodyear solved the problem by bringing back the bias-ply tires it was to
discard, and the race went off without incident.
Tires also were the focal point for the most famous of all boycotts, when
NASCAR drivers wouldn't roll out for the inaugural race in Talladega, Ala., in
1969. That led to their ouster from the track by NASCAR founder Bill France,
who staged the race with replacement teams.
Richard Brickhouse got his only career victory in a race where there were no
major problems.
Winston Cup Drivers also were worried about rubber six years ago in Dover,
Del., after a handful of tire-related crashes in a Busch Series event on the
then-new concrete surface. Goodyear withdrew the tires and immediately shipped
in more than 1,000 of another compound for the Miller 500, which went smoothly
the next day.
At other times, driver unrest brought about changes in race tracks. Last
September, NASCAR put speed-robbing restrictor plates on the cars at New
Hampshire International Speedway, a response to the deaths on that one-mile
oval earlier in the year of drivers Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin.
Near-boycotts have brought changes in Formula One, where several drivers
died in the formative years of the sport. The most well-documented change was
the insertion of a chicane at the high-speed Tamburello curve in Imola, Italy,
where F1 great Ayrton Senna was killed during the San Marino Grand Prix in
1994.
AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service
Copyright 2001, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved