Stock-Car Driver Clifford Allison Dies After Crash

-- AUTO RACING

Clifford Allison, son of former NASCAR series champion Bobby Allison, died today after crashing during practice at Michigan International Speedway.

A track spokesman said Allison, 27, of Hueytown, Ala., died en route to a Jackson, Mich., hospital after his car crashed between the third and fourth turns at the two-mile speedway.

Allison, younger brother of Davey Allison, also a NASCAR driver, was practicing for Saturday's NASCAR Grand National series race when the wreck occurred.

-- Actor Craig T. Nelson, a Spokane native who is the star of the `Coach" television series, is scheduled to make his racing debut Saturday at Seattle International Raceway in Kent.

Nelson will drive in an American City Racing League event for Sports 2000-class, open-cockpit, full-fendered racers.

John Hill of Seattle, winner of a league event in Portland June 14, leads the driver standings after three races. Hill and Charles Petty will represent Seattle in the team phase of the competition.

The race is scheduled at 1 p.m. SCCA Regional races will follow.

-- Points leader Dirk Stephens of Tumwater heads the field for the last NASCAR Northwest Tour race of the year, Saturday night at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe (100 laps on the 5/8-mile oval). Time trials are scheduled for 5 p.m., racing at 7.

-- IndyCar driver Rick Mears underwent surgery on his injured right wrist in Indianapolis and probably will miss the rest of the season.

-- DRUGS

Drug taking was rife among athletes at the Barcelona Olympics and few inroads had been made to prevent abuse, Kelvin Giles, an Australian track coach, said today.

Giles told Australian reporters on his return from Spain that he believes the use of performance-enhancing drugs was at an all-time high, but athletes were finding ways to avoid detection.

He said talk that the Games in Spain were largely drug-free was a "fallacy."

-- Final drug-test results to decide whether sprint champion Katrin Krabbe will receive a four-year competition ban for taking the banned stimulant Clenbuterol are to be released tomorrow, Manfred Donike, drug-testing expert for Germany's Athletics Federation, said in Berlin.

-- BOXING

Promoter Don King bristled over Senate hearings in Washington, D.C., that he says merely rehashed old allegations that boxing has ties to organized crime.

"Absolutely, categorically and completely, I have never been associated with, involved with or linked to organized crime," King said in New York.

Sen. William Roth of Delaware, ranking Republican on the subcommittee, said King took the Fifth Amendment when the panel's staff took depositions in preparation for this week's hearings.

Bob Lee, president of the International Boxing Federation, invoked the Fifth Amendment yesterday. He had been asked about allegations he took a payoff, allegedly for speeding approval of a boxing promoter's license.

-- TENNIS

Top-seeded Jim Courier defeated Richard Schmidt 6-3, 6-2 in the second round of the $1.4 million ATP Championship in Mason, Ohio.

-- Second-seeded Martina Navratilova beat Alexia Dechaume of France 6-3, 6-0 in the second round of the $350,000 Virginia Slims of Los Angeles.

-- GOLF

Former champions Anne Sander, Vickie Goetze and Carol Semple Thompson advanced to the second round of the U.S. Women's Amateur championships in Long Grove, Ill. Seattle's Sander, 55, edged Kristi Coats 3 and 1.

-- FOOTBALL

Henry "Gizmo" Williams, who returned a punt 104 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter, caught a 64-yard TD pass from Tracy Ham with 27 seconds remaining in the game to give the Edmonton Eskimos a 30-28 Canadian Football League victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Hamilton, Ontario.

-- BASKETBALL

Orlando Magic forward Brian Williams remained hospitalized in Redondo Beach, Calif., for observation in the aftermath of his collapse Tuesday night during a Los Angeles Summer League game.

-- LOCAL NOTE

Doug Taylor of Tacoma has been named an alternate on the U.S. disabled water-ski team. Taylor, 40, will represent the U.S. in the world championships next year in France if another team member can't attend.