Wildfires force California Speedway to postpone CART event

Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2003 | 10:26 a.m.

California Speedway president Bill Miller on Tuesday postponed this weekend's CART Champ Car World Series and NASCAR Winston West Series races at the Fontana track due to the Southern California wildfires.

The decision, Miller said, was made without the blessing of CART and came after nearly six hours of contentious communication with CART chief operating officer David Clare at the series' headquarters in Indianapolis.

"We are 100 percent confident we made the right decision given the current circumstances that are going on here in Southern California," Miller said of the postponement. "Where they (CART) were on the situation is they wanted to (race) this weekend.

"What took us this long to come up with this announcement was a difference of opinion on where we were as it related to this weekend."

With fires burning out of control as close as 5 miles from the speedway and local health officials warning resident to stay indoors, Miller said he was at a loss to explain CART's reluctance to go along with either canceling or postponing Sunday's King Taco 500.

"I've struggled with that all day today," Miller said Tuesday evening. "We had dialog with them (Monday) while people were coming back from Australia and they had some people here on the ground (in Los Angeles). To sit there and take the situation out here lightly, it was very surprising, very disappointing.

"I can't explain it. ... Maybe it was a beautiful day in Indianapolis, I don't know."

Miller said he was working with CART officials to find a suitable date to reschedule the race.

"We do not have anything specific right now ... we've talked some alternatives with CART."

One of those options, Miller said, was to run this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway, which is hosting a NASCAR Winston Cup race. Miller said he did not see that as "a viable option." Both California Speedway and PIR are owned by International Speedway Corp.

Paul Tracy, the 2003 CART champion and a Las Vegas resident, said he was forced to drive home from Los Angeles on Monday after his scheduled flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Las Vegas was canceled.

Tracy said he did not want to see Sunday's season finale postponed or canceled, but agreed with Miller's point that safety for fans and drivers has to come first.

"The most important thing is we need to think about the safety of the fans," Tracy said before Miller announced his decision. "I drove through there (Monday) and, really, the fire is only about ten miles away from the track. The smoke is very heavy in the air and it's basically almost like being in fog."