Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Angioplasty surgery doesn’t keep Jim Yates down

Thursday, Oct. 4, 2001 | 10:18 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

Michael Jordan may have grabbed the headlines, but the biggest comeback in sports last week belonged to NHRA Pro Stock driver Jim Yates.

Yates, the two-time NHRA Winston champion, returned to the track just four days after undergoing angioplasty surgery for a blocked artery and qualified third for Sunday's eliminations at the inaugural fall NHRA event at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill.

In fact, the 48-year-old Yates briefly held the pole and the Pro Stock elapsed-time record after a career-best run of 6.805 seconds at 201.37 mph on Saturday. Kurt Johnson bumped Yates down a notch with a 6.801-second performance and Mark Osborne later added a 6.802 run.

"I felt like I went from a rookie driver when I got to the track last Friday to an experienced veteran on Sunday," Yates said. "I was a little anxious about getting in the racecar and how I would do everything when I first got there.

"The doctor gave me a clean bill of health but that doesn't keep you from having second thoughts sometimes."

Despite everything he went through after experiencing chest pains on Sept. 22, Yates remarkably still is thinking about a third NHRA championship as the series heads to Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., this weekend.

"We have to get serious about this championship race," Yates said. "If we're going to catch Warren (Johnson), we need to start making up some rounds and this is the place to do it. We are still trying to win the championship, not come in second."

Yates, who lost in the quarterfinals at Joliet, lost ground on Johnson in the points standings. Yates entered the race only 76 points off the lead but after Johnson's win Sunday, Yates now trails by 135 points.

Hammonds, 34, reached an agreement with the Minnesota Timberwolves for a buyout of the last year of his contract. "I'm both excited and nervous," Hammonds said. "I've played basketball for the last 12 years of my life and now I'm turning over a page in my career. These last two weeks have been pretty crazy. I just realized that I wasn't going to be able to help the team out physically and didn't want to take up a roster spot.

"I feel this is the best business decision for the team and myself. I've been in contact with the players and they have expressed that they will miss me, which means a lot. I will miss them and playing as well, but feel that racing will fill my need for competition."

Hammonds, who finished 31st in Pro Stock points last year, is 24th going into the final four races of the season.

The NFL announced on Wednesday that it would hold the 2002 Super Bowl in New Orleans on Feb. 3.

"This move expedites our original plans to move the date to the second week in February in 2004," NHRA president Tom Compton said, citing the NFL's announcement earlier this year to move the Super Bowl to the first week in February beginning in 2004.

"We were aware that the NFL would change, in 2004, the date of the Super Bowl to the first week in February. At that time, we would be forced to change the date of the Winternationals to the second week in February. With the temporary move by the NFL to the first week in February in 2002, it made sense to make our change beginning next year."