Tobacco Documents Online

Washittigtan, OC WasAingtan Times worl,msm, oc Md hnt 60aey SUN 6e.631 SEP 1®, 1999 1111111111111111 IIII I III III!li 111111 III ~~©© nz~eve M m mber Gonzalo Rodriguez rounds a turn at Laguna Seca Raceway yesterday during practice session tor the CART hel OQ. Rodriguez was killed when his car later crashed into a wall. ROUNDUP Qualifying for CART Shell 300 canceled after driver killed in crash fmm wmm-c mapamho. MONTEREY, Calif. - In a sym- bolic and eerie tribute to Gonzaln Rodriguez,arookiedriverkilledin a crash earlier yesterday, the pit lane and track at Laguna Seca Raceway remained silent during the afternoon qualifying period, CART flagman Jim Swintell stood in the stand overlooking the main straightaway, silently holding a green flag over the track as the clock ticked away the final round of time trials for today's Shell 300. •'It'sjust unbelievable what hap. pened this morningJ' said CART owner-driver Robby GoLdplt "Out of respect for Gon¢alo and his fam- ily, the drivers stuck together and decided to have an afternoon of si. lence. It's the least we can do:' Rodriguez, hoping to qualify for hss scrund CART FedEx Series start, died instantly when his Pem uke Racing Lola crashed during the nwrning practice. His car went offcourse and sped over a gravel pit designed to slow the ears. It slammed thruugh a tire harrier and intu a concrete wall before flipping high in the air, clearing a fence and landing up. side down on a grassy hiflside. The 27-year-old from Uruguay was pmlmunced dead after being taken by ambulance to a nearby huspital, The practice session was imme- diatuly halted and it took several huw:s fm• lhu d2mage to tlw cun- .reac,bar~urmhereP:rirvJ estimated that Rodriguez hit the wall at more than 140 mph. CART officials met with the dri. vers, who requested that the qualifying session be canceled out of respect for Rodriguez and his family. But it was also decided to go on with the race as scheduled. There were no immediate an- swers to questions about the cause of the fatal accident. Initially, it was speculated that the throttle stuck open, but a Mer. cedes spokesman said telemetry from the car showed the throttle was working as expected when the accidentocenrred. "Obviously, our initial reaction was to work on drivervrelated is. sues;' said Andrew Craig, presi- dent and CEO of CART. "CART has impounded the car, which is our-ctandard procedure, and we will, of course, be looking at the telemetry and working closely with the team to identify the cause of this accidentl" The first driver fatallty, in CART since Jeff Krnsnoff was killed dur- ing a race in lbronto in Joly t996 cast a pall over the Picturesqoe Monterey Peninsula truck on warm,sunny day. It was reported that several of ~ the drivers were crying during the meeting following the fatal crash. '4t's a terrible tragedy;' said two-time Laguna winner Michael Andretti. "Our hearts go out to his family." Avdrutti, Scutt 14u.tq ProsiJent of the Championship Drivers As- sociation, and pole-winner Bryan Herta went together to inspect the accident site as additional impact. absorbing materials and a second tire barrier were added to the area and repairs were made to that cracked conerete wall.