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SLAM! Sports Century in Review INTERACTIVE CONTESTS ALSO ON SLAM!  |
TECHNOLOGY, SPEED, SAFETY HIGHLIGHT 1900s Now, nearly a century after it began, auto racing is one of the biggest spectator sports in the world. When the 20th century started, most of the racing was on streets and roads in Europe, with fearless drivers trying to beat one another from one town to another as equally fearless spectators lined the roadways for a glimpse of the noisy, fast-moving, dust-raising vehicles. And the faster they went, the more dangerous they became. "Who would have believed the speeds?" asked the late Fred Agabashian, who drove in 11 Indy 500s between 1947 and 1957. "A lot of us thought 130 was too fast when I first came to Indianapolis." A half-century after World War II, the threshold reached more than 230 mph. Early in the 20th century, spectator deaths were commonplace. But by the end they were rare. And so were fatalities to drivers. "That's the biggest difference in racing today," said Mario Andretti, who won the Daytona 500 in 1967, the Indy 500 in 1969 and added a Formula One championship in 1978. "When I raced in Formula One, it seemed like a driver was killed just about every race. "It got so you didn't want to be too friendly with any of the other drivers because you'd just feel worse when they were killed." As the century closes, drivers usually walk away unharmed from crashes at speeds far in excess of those that once proved fatal. One big reason is rubberized fuel cells, developed for use in helicopters during the Vietnam War to keep the aviation fuel from igniting when hit by snipers' bullets. "Fire probably killed 80 percent of the drivers who died in race cars before the '70s," said race historian Donald Davidson. Combined with space-age materials, computer design and modern ergonomics, drivers today are in far less danger than their predecessors. "Despite what a lot of people might believe, we're not daredevils and we don't have a death wish," said three-time NASCAR champion Darrell Waltrip. "Race drivers just love going fast." Spectators were often killed or injured, and countries like France, Germany, Britain and Italy took turns organizing and banning races through the first half of the 1900s. But the thirst for racing could not be quenched, on either side of the Atlantic. The speed rage began in America with R.E. Olds driving a lightweight Pirate over the measured mile on the hard sand in Ormond Beach, Fla., at 53.5 mph. Three years later, that mark was raised to 127.6 by Frank Marriott in a steam-powered Stanley Steamer. Carl Fisher, a visionary who founded Miami Beach, made his fortune building and selling cars. Fisher added to his riches by building a race car and barnstorming the Midwest, racing and beating the fastest thoroughbred horses of the time. His real contribution to the sport, though, was building the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which has become the centerpiece of worldwide racing since it held its first auto race in 1909. The first 500-mile race on Indy's then all-brick 21/2-mile oval was in 1911, with Ray Harroun winning in a modified production car called the Marmon Wasp. Since then, only the two world wars have interrupted racing at Indy. The names of the 83 winners include some of the biggest stars of the century. Among them are Andretti and A.J. Foyt -- selected by a blue ribbon panel as The Associated Press co-drivers of the century -- Louis Meyer, Mauri Rose, Rodger Ward, Al Unser, Al Unser Jr., Bobby Unser, Emerson Fittipaldi and Rick Mears. But Indy was only one part of racing's growth. Economic recessions and depressions affected the sport gravely, but auto racing kept bouncing back. Its most profound changes came after World War II. Indiana businessman Anton "Tony" Hulman and a group of associates bought the Indianapolis track, which had fallen into disrepair. Now, the Indy 500 attracts more than 400,000 each Memorial Day weekend. While Indy was seeing its front-engine roadsters go the way of the Model T, -- giving way to the sleek, rear-engine missiles of today -- the Grand Prix circuit began in Europe. The first official Grand Prix was held in Silverstone, England in 1950, just two years after Bill France, an auto mechanic and part-time racer, founded NASCAR as haven for stock car drivers in America. Both circuits have grown dramatically in recent years, with huge crowds, huge purses and great competition. There were international stars in the first half of the century -- drivers like Albert Ascari, Rudolph Caracciola and Tazio Nuvolari of Italy, Georges Boillot and Jules Goux of France, and Ralph DePalma and Dario Resta of the U.S. But the biggest names came after World War II. Dashing, romantic Juan Manuel Fangio of Argentina won a record five Formula One championships. Fiery Texan Foyt became the first four-time Indy 500 winner and added victories in the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car race and the 1972 Daytona 500 NASCAR race. NASCAR, which began to build its reputation when France opened his Daytona International Speedway in 1959, developed a star of national magnitude in second-generation driver Richard Petty. His pioneering father, Lee, won two titles as well as -- in a photo finish so close it took two days to determine -- the first Daytona 500. The younger Petty won 200 stock car races, seven Daytona 500s and seven championships, which stood as an unprecedented record until current star Dale Earnhardt matched it in 1994. Petty once won 27 races in a single season and became known as "The King" of stock car racing. Petty's popularity, much like Arnold Palmer in golf, helped NASCAR become more than a regional series. Of course, the growth of the auto racing hasn't been without its problems and controversies. In 1955, a Mercedes sports car driven by Frenchman Pierre Levegh hit another and catapulted into the crowd, killing Levegh and at least 81 spectators in the worst accident in racing history. That prompted Mercedes to withdraw from Grand Prix and sports car endurance racing for more than 30 years. In American open-wheel racing, Championship Auto Racing Teams was formed by a group of dissident owners in 1978, breaking away from the U.S. Auto Club. After CART grew into a formidable series -- including races on long and short ovals, road courses and temporary street circuits -- Hulman's grandson, Tony George, formed the all-oval Indy Racing League in 1996. The IRL, with Indy as its centerpiece, is supposed to be a lower-cost alternative to CART, whose top teams and drivers have stayed away from the 500-mile race the last four years But the staggering growth of NASCAR has resulted in construction in the final decade of this century of gleaming new racing edifices in places Las Vegas, Fort Worth, Texas; Fontana, Calif.; Loudon, N.H.; Chicago, and Homestead, Fla. Formula One, long a globe-hopping circuit, now has races in such far-flung places as Malaysia, Hungary, Japan and Australia and will return to the U.S. next year with a race on a newly build road course at the Indianapolis track. "The future is bright," said Bill France Jr., now president of NASCAR. "This sport has got some momentum going heading into the new millennium, and I don't believe it's going to slow down any time soon." 
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