Assessing Blame After Wheels Come Off at Indy

Difficulty with tires on high-speed racing cars is nothing new. It has been a challenge -- from the earliest days of automobiles -- for tire companies to match the strides made in building sleeker cars and designing faster speedways.

The most memorable confrontation occurred in 1969, when Bill France and NASCAR opened Alabama International Speedway in Talladega, a 2.66-mile tri-oval that was larger and faster than any other track.

When the Professional Drivers Assn., headed by Richard Petty, petitioned to cancel or postpone the race for safety reasons, France, the founder of NASCAR and a former beach racer, had his unique way of solving the problem. Then 59, he climbed into a race car and lapped the track at 179 mph.

And when that failed to persuade Petty and others to race, France rounded up a group of lesser-known drivers, paid them appearance money and a then-record purse, let spectators in free and ran the race.

Richard Brickhouse, a truck driver from Rocky Point, N.C., was the winner, never to be a contender again.

All the regulars were back at Talladega for the 1970 race.

Reports from Europe indicate that Michelin and the teams it provides tires will be severely sanctioned at Wednesday’s FIA meeting in Paris after their boycott of Sunday’s Formula One U.S. Grand Prix in Indianapolis. Heavy fines and the loss of championship points are expected.

Speaking from a purist’s viewpoint, the problem was all Michelin’s.

The French tire company came with a batch of tires it later judged to be unsafe for Indianapolis’ banked Turn 13, which is Turn 1 for the 500 -- only in the opposite direction. With a one-tire rule in effect, the FIA would not permit Michelin to switch compounds.

Bridgestone, the Japanese tire manufacturer, brought tires that were capable of racing. The strange thing about Michelin’s selection is that the 2.88-mile infield circuit has not changed in six years, so the company had all the data necessary to create a safe compound, or use the one that had worked for the previous races.

Some critics have said the situation was caused by having two tire manufacturers competing with each other instead of having a monopoly. However, that isn’t necessarily true.

In 1985, a CART race at Michigan International Speedway was postponed a week after Bobby Rahal’s crash from tire failure caused concern for safety. Goodyear, the sole manufacturer, was trying to switch from bias-ply tires to radials for the first time on a super-speedway.

Bernie Ecclestone, the British promoter who has amassed billions as the mastermind of F1 for more than three decades, seems to have had his power eroded in the tire fiasco. Final decisions against a compromise that would have permitted a normal race at Indianapolis apparently were made by Max Mosley, the FIA president, who was not at the race, and Jean Todt, head of Ferrari’s racing program.

“My only real concern [at the moment] was for the fans,” Ecclestone said by phone from London on Wednesday. “It’s a pity it happened in America and not in Europe, where there’s another race in two weeks’ time. Hopefully, there’s a lesson learned so that it never happens again.

“Fans don’t care whose fault it was; the race didn’t take place. I’d like to know how to repay [fans] somehow for the disappointment they had.”

Ecclestone did say, however, that the rules could not be compromised.

“You can’t change the rules to level the playing field, which would have been a nice way to go,” he explained. “It wouldn’t have been fair to the people who were properly equipped. Somebody made a mistake; they did something wrong.”

Wednesday we will see just how wrong the FIA thinks they were.

Southland Scene

Gillian Zucker has been hired as president of California Speedway. Zucker, 36, becomes the speedway’s fourth president and the first woman to be a full-time president at a Nextel Cup facility. She assumes her duties July 5.

She comes to Fontana from Daytona International Speedway, where she has been vice president of business operations and development the last four years. Before that, she played a major role in the development of Kansas Speedway, and the launch of Chicagoland Speedway.

At Daytona, she was responsible for overseeing business operations, which included sales and marketing, hospitality sales and management, and coordinating the track budget.

If you would rather see a vintage racing machine rather than today’s high-tech cars, the place to be is the Southern California Historic Sports Car Festival this weekend at California Speedway. After practice today and qualifying Saturday, there will be 10 trophy races Sunday.

More than 200 cars are expected, including some that raced in Can-Am, Winston Cup and IMSA races at Riverside International Raceway and Ontario Motor Speedway before those tracks were shut down decades ago.

Many are more than just show cars. Last year, Phil Stratford of Capistrano Beach took his Tyrell F1 car around the 2.88-mile, 21-turn course at an average of 118.349 mph. And a general admission ticket allows access to the garage and pit area with the racers and their cars.

Rickie Gaunt, the Torrance veteran who drives with a Superman fire suit, will seek a third consecutive win in the Valvoline USAC/CRA sprint car series Saturday night at Perris Auto Speedway.

Perris will also hold a rare Friday night program of a rained-out card from April, consisting of super stocks, street stocks, hornets, trucks and sport utility vehicles.

Anyone holding a ticket stub from Sunday’s U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis will be admitted free Saturday night at Irwindale Speedway. Four NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series short-track races will be followed by a Figure 8. Steve Stewart will be after his fifth consecutive win on the infield Figure 8 course.

“Faster: The Pomona Drags,” a photographic history of 1960s drag racing at the Pomona Fairgrounds, will open Saturday night at the UC Riverside/California Museum of Photography, 3824 Main St., Riverside.

The show will remain through Oct. 2.

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Times staff writer Martin Henderson contributed to this report.