"For those who think Hinton was a suck up or in favour of this mess, here is a quote from the story that occured in 1997:


"Each side, the IRL and CART, claimed by now that I was biased in favor of the other. To me, and to my editors, that was confirmation of my neutrality. The only thing I was firmly against was the damage to an American institution, the Indianapolis 500.

At one point in the war, I wrote a Scorecard item headlined, "A Pox on Both Their Pits."

At another point, some IRL partisans cornered me in a hospitality tent at Indy for a heated debate.

"Surely you'll admit," an angry George supporter said, "that this race belongs to him."

"I'll admit no such thing," I said. "Tony owns the track. But the Indianapolis 500 belongs to the American people. They're the ones who made it."