THAT'S RACIN': McKay's poignant reporting framed the death of a hero

It's been said that everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, and how they first learned that President Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas. I was sitting in a Catholic grammar school, where news of Kennedy's shooting hit especially hard. You knew it was tragic when the typically unshakable Felician Sisters stood crying, en masse, just outside the classroom door.

I remember a portable TV being rolled into class shortly after lunchtime, where my classmates and I watched Walter Cronkite confirm our greatest fears in a short and emotional few sentences.

There is another moment from that time frame that conjures up similar memories, and it has to do with the man synonymous with the phrase "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat."

Sportscaster Jim McKay died Saturday at age 86, a man in grainy black-and-white footage to this generation of racing fans. But if you were a teenager obsessed with sports, especially motorsports, during the 1960s, ABC's Wide World of Sports was must-see TV. Decades before ESPN's 24-hour format or a channel like Speed, Wide World was, for all practical purposes, the only place you could count on for delayed highlights of whatever big race the network chose to cover.

The 90-minute program, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., Eastern time, never was fully devoted to NASCAR's Daytona 500 or the NHRA's U.S. Nationals or Formula One's Monaco Grand Prix. You likely would have to sit through three or four sports -- from cliff diving in Mexico to barrel jumping on ice skates at Lake Placid, N.Y. -- to see a Reader's Digest-style version of anything other than the Indianapolis 500.

Wide World is where I was introduced to Scotsman Jim Clark, who along with Californian Dan Gurney, had triggered the rear-engine revolution at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1963 in Colin Chapman's Lotus/Fords. A few months after winning the 1965 Indy 500 with NASCAR's Wood Brothers as his pit crew, Clark became a two-time F1 world driving champion.

And so on the afternoon of April 7, 1968, at approximately 6 p.m., I was driving my dad's '67 Mustang home from a friend's house. Fiddling with the radio, I thought I heard that "Formula One champion Jim Clark has been killed in a crash in Germany." I was about a mile-and-a-half from home and hurried to get there. I ran to the TV and turned on Wide World.

With about eight minutes left in the program, McKay appeared in-studio. And he was confirming my worst fears, that Clark had died after crashing in a Formula 2 race at the Hockenheimring. McKay truly was the man to deliver the sad news, as he previously had befriended Clark and traveled to his hometown of Duns to produce a rare profile of the shy champion. The dominant driver of his era, Clark was a sheep farmer by trade, a profession light years away from the glamour of F1. Over footage of Clark walking around his property, McKay eulogized the driver who, with 33 F1 pole positions and 25 victories in 72 starts, was dead at age 32.

Jim Clark was the first, but not the last, racing hero of mine to die on-track. That's why Jim McKay's poignant reporting on that particular Saturday afternoon remains frozen in my memory, similar to the heartbreaking moment when Walter Cronkite delivered the news about JFK.

WHO'S HOT

Poland. Robert Kubica and Brad Keselowski each scored breakthrough victories last weekend. Kubica earned his first Formula One win in his 29th start -- and first by a Polish driver in F1's 58-year history -- for BMW Sauber in Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix. Kubica also leads the driver's championship by four points. Keselowski, meanwhile, earned his first NASCAR Nationwide Series victory Saturday night in the No. 88 Navy Chevrolet Monte Carlo owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Nashville Superspeedway.

WHO'S NOT

NASCAR. The sanctioning body has been named in a $225 million lawsuit filed by Mauricia Grant, a former Nationwide Series inspector until she was fired last fall. Grant, who is black, filed the suit Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York listing 23 specific incidents of alleged sexual harassment and 34 specific incidents of alleged racial and gender discrimination. NASCAR Nation, any lawsuit with references to "Nappy Headed Mo" and the Ku Klux Klan spell bad news for The France Family.

BY THE NUMBER

8,000 Total tires (or as the French spell it, tyres) manufacturer Michelin has prepared for more than 40 cars competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car endurance classic Saturday and Sunday at La Sarthe.

PIT STOPS

Petty Enterprises partners-up: Petty Enterprises, the winningest organization in NASCAR history, has sold majority interest in the 59-year-old company to Boston Ventures. A leading middle-market private equity firm, Boston Ventures has agreed to an undisclosed "capital investment" in Petty Enterprises and the Richard Petty Driving Experience. David Zucker is the company's new CEO, replacing Kyle Petty, son of seven-time Cup champion Richard Petty. King Richard will carry the title of chairman emeritus and continue his day-to-day duties with the current two-car Dodge Sprint Cup team, with plans to expand to three cars. In addition, native Texan Bobby Labonte, the 2000 Cup champion, confirmed he has signed a four-year contract extension to remain as driver of the famed No. 43 Dodge. "I have known all along this is where I want to finish my racing career," said Labonte, who joined the Pettys and the revised management team Wednesday in a news conference at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

Crunching more Bombardier numbers: Attendance was down by 3,000 from last year to 83,000, but Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage was pleased with the TV ratings generated by Saturday night's Bombardier Learjet 550k. The 1.0 rating and 939,160 households made it the most successful IndyCar Series broadcast in ESPN2 history, and a 44 percent increase over last year's race (0.7 rating/639, 952 households).

Crew chief penalized at TMS: Bryant Frazier, crew chief on the No. 4 Dodge Ram driven by Stacy Compton in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series, has been fined and placed on probation for an infraction discovered last week at Texas Motor Speedway. Frazier was fined $2,000 and placed on probation until Dec. 31 after the truck's rear axle housing was found to be offset from the approved centerline during inspection prior to the Sam's Town 400.

Motorplex to host Grassroots Fest: Billy Meyer's Texas Motorplex in Ennis will host the inaugural 1320x Grassroots Drag Racing Fest, a combination of drag racing and classic rock music, on July 4. The program will feature heads-up Outlaw and Bracket racing for American muscle cars, a manufacturer's midway/car show, a concert by Grand Funk Railroad and fireworks. Tickets can be purchased by phone at 734-439-7368 or on the Web at www.texasmotorplex.com.

ON THE GRID

NASCAR Sprint Cup

LifeLock 400

Site: Brooklyn, Mich., Michigan International Speedway (D-shaped oval, 2 miles, 18-degree banking in turns)

TV schedule: Friday, qualifying (Speed Channel, 2 p.m.); Sunday, race (TNT, 11:30 a.m.)

Race distance: 400 miles/ 200 laps

2007 winner: Carl Edwards

NASCAR Nationwide

Meijer 300

Site: Sparta, Ky., Kentucky Speedway (oval, 1.5 miles, 14-degree banking in turns)

TV schedule: Saturday, qualifying (ESPN2, 4 p.m.), race (ESPN2, 7 p.m.)

Race distance: 300 miles/ 200 laps

2007 winner: Stephen Leicht

NASCAR Craftsman Truck

Cool City Customs 200

Site: Brooklyn, Mich., Michigan International Speedway (D-shaped oval, 2 miles, 18-degree banking in turns)

TV schedule: Saturday, race (Speed Channel, 1:30 p.m.)

Race distance: 200 miles/ 100 laps

2007 winner: Travis Kvapil

24 Hours of Le Mans

Site: Le Mans, France

TV schedule: Saturday-Sunday, race (Speed Channel, 7:30 a.m.-11 a.m. Saturday, continues 8 p.m.-8:30 a.m. Sunday).

2007 class winners: LMP1, Audi R10 (Franck Biela, Emanuele Pirro, Marco Werner); LMP2, Lola B05/40-Zytek (Bill Binnie, Allen Timpany, Chris Buncombe); GT1, Aston Martin DBR9 (David Brabham, Rickard Rydell, Darren Turner); GT2, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (Patrick Long, Raymond Narar, Richard Lietz)