Columnist Ron Kantowski: Ticket sales for Indy-car race need jump-start

Tuesday, April 11, 2000 | 9:40 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's notes column appears Tuesday. Reach him at 259-4088 or ron@lasvegassun.com

Drag racers tend to refer to their NASCAR and Indy-car counterparts as "roundy-round" racers.

Well, one of the roundy-round media had a pretty good line upon laying eyes on the fabulous Las Vegas Motor Speedway drag strip for the first time last week.

"Just think how nice this place will be when they build the turns," he said.

He was only cracking wise, of course. But he may have been onto something. If LVMS linked the drag strip and return roads with a couple of tight-radius corners, they'd have a dandy modified oval on which to hold next weekend's Indy Racing League event.

The IRL cars, which have a smaller following around here than lounge lizard Cook E. Jarr, have struggled to draw more than 20,000 spectators to cavernous LVMS next door, giving credence to the notion that the spinoff of the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) series is a big flop.

But put 20,000 in the moderately sized 30,000-seat stadium at The Strip (which was filled to capacity for the drags), and the perception might be altered.

"We still wouldn't fill it," said one LVMS official, bemoaning lagging ticket sales for the Indy-car event. Another speedway source indicated fewer than 2,000 tickets have been sold for next week's event.

What's sad is that the series and the promoters went all out in an effort to boost attendance this year. The IRL welcomed a slightly over-the-hill Al Unser Jr. from CART and LVMS arranged for the pop group Smash Mouth to play a free after-race concert.

Neither seems to be moving tickets.

Perhaps if Unser's old man and Uncle Bobby came out of retirement and the Rolling Stones were to do the same (you mean the Stones are still at it?), those turnstiles might starting spinning a little faster than the IRL's wheels.

Engelstad, you may recall, owned half of Las Vegas Motor Speedway but was pretty much a silent partner until Richie Clyne, his former son-in-law, kept pouring IP money into the speed plant. That's why the drag strip at the complex sat unfinished until the property was sold to speedway magnate Bruton Smith.

Having washed his hands of LVMS, Engelstad was nowhere to be found when the NHRA dragsters christened The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway before a capacity crowd.

But Engelstad wouldn't have made it out to LVMS, regardless. He was in Providence attending the NCAA Frozen Four, which his beloved North Dakota Fighting Sioux captured with a come-from-behind 4-2 victory over Boston College.

Engelstad, a former goalie at North Dakota, could share in some of the credit for the NCAA championship, given that his sizeable financial gift to his alma mater enable UND to build a fabulous hockey palace that bears his name -- Englestad Arena.

The ESPN broadcast crew made several references to Engelstad during the game and the cameras constantly panned to the luxury box in which he was seated.

Engelstad usually was clapping his hands or otherwise whooping it up -- as if he had just seen "Legends in Concert" for the very first time.

It turns out Smith was one of George Tarkanian's assistants this season. Smith said Hall is innocent, a victim of trumped-up charges by former girlfriends, but added that the player, who he called a "good kid," isn't totally blameless.

According to Smith, it is the "hip-hop" attitude of today's players that rubs people the wrong way. He suggested that's happening on college campuses across America, as society is becoming less tolerant of boorish behavior from college kids -- regardless of how many baskets or touchdowns they score.

"They don't respect the game, they don't respect (authority) and they don't want to listen," Smith said. "But you can't give up on these kids."

Tying up the loose ends on this topic, the phrasing in this space last week stating that "rotten apples never fall from the tree" rubbed a couple of callers the wrong way.

They thought I was trying to say that Tark and his son were the rotten apples. It was the character of some of their recruits that was being referenced, not that of the coaches themselves.