
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 10, 1995                   TAG: 9505100090
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CUMBERLAND                                LENGTH: Short

AUTHORITIES SAY DRIVER IN CRASH WASN'T DRUNK

The driver of a race car that plowed into a crowd and killed three people passed a test that showed he had not been drinking, said Cumberland County Sheriff Claude Meinhard.

Also, the head of the group that sanctioned the race said he inspected the vehicle before and after the fatal race Saturday at the Bodacious Motor Sports Park.

Meinhard on Tuesday identified the driver as Kimble L. Shows, 50, of Soso, Miss.

Reached at his home by telephone, Shows said he took the car home with him and has not looked at it since he locked it up.

He referred all other questions to his attorney. ``I just don't need to be talking to anybody,'' he said.

Gary Baker, president of the National Mud Racing Organization Inc. in Urbana, Ohio, which sanctioned the race, said he inspected the car's throttle, brakes and steering before and after the race. All were working, he said, and afterward he found that none of them contributed to the crash.

He did say after the accident the vehicle's axle appeared to be broken. Even if the axle was broken when Shows started his run, Baker said, ``I don't think it would have made it do what it did when it hit the [guard] rail.''

Keywords:
FATALITY AUTO RACING

by CNB