Race Car Is Too Small for Mansell

After months of planning, testing and fanfare, the McLaren Formula One team has announced that Nigel Mansell will miss the first two races of the season because the cockpit of his car is too small.

Mansell, who won the Formula One title in 1992, then came to the United States and switched to Indy cars, winning that title in 1993, was returning to the worldwide series this year amid great expectations. A car for him was unveiled in London last month, but after testing in Portugal last week, he complained that the cockpit was too cramped.

He will miss the Brazilian Grand Prix on March 26 and a race in Argentina on April 9, but a new car is being prepared for him to run in Italy at the San Marino Grand Prix on April 30.

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Defending champion Michael Andretti won the pole position for Sunday’s Indy car race at Surfers Paradise, Australia. . . . Darrell Waltrip borrowed a Chevrolet Grand National car from Terry Labonte, then won the pole of Sunday’s Opryland USA 320 NASCAR race in Nashville, Tenn.

Baseball

The Toronto Blue Jays, forced out of their space-age SkyDome by a local law banning replacement players, received permission from the American League to play this season in their quaint spring-training ballpark in Dunedin, Fla. With only 6,218 seats, Dunedin Stadium would be the smallest park any big league team has called home since the Brooklyn Bridegrooms played at 3,000-seat Washington Park in 1890. . . . WABC radio sued the New York Yankees for $10 million, charging the team has caused the station to lose millions of advertising dollars by offering “sham competitions” for broadcast.

Boxing

Orlin Norris defended his World Boxing Assn. cruiserweight title with a unanimous 12-round decision over Adolpho Washington in Worcester, Mass. Earlier on the card, Julian Jackson knocked out previously unbeaten Agostino Cardamone of Italy in the second round to win the vacant World Boxing Council middleweight title. . . . Thomas Hearns, 36, will fight International Boxing Council cruiserweight champion Sean McClain on March 31 in Detroit.

Winter Sports

After 13 years with the U.S. Alpine ski team, Eva Twardokens, 29, said she would retire after this week’s World Cup races in Bormio, Italy. . . . American downhill World Cup champion Picabo Street will miss next week’s U.S. ski championships after suffering a bruised shoulder in her heavy fall Thursday, also in Bormio. . . . Ji-Hoon Chae and Lee-Kyung Chun gave South Korea a sweep of the 1,500-meter events at the world short-track speedskating championships in Gjovik, Norway.

Miscellany

Janet Evans of Placentia won the 400-meter freestyle and Mel Stewart of Charlotte, N.C., won the 100-meter butterfly, their second titles in the Phillips 66 National Swimming Championships at Minneapolis. Bart Kizierowski of Mission Viejo tied Justin Thornton of Urbana, Ohio, for first in the 100-meter backstroke.

Arizona State’s Beata Kaszuba became the first woman to break the one-minute barrier in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 59.71 seconds at the NCAA Division I women’s swimming and diving championships in Austin, Tex.

Brad Gilbert, 33, lost to Australian Todd Woodbridge, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5, in the first round of the Lipton Championships at Key Biscayne, Fla.

Three Russians--top-seeded Yevgeni Kafelnikov, Andrei Chesnokov and Alexander Volkov--reached the semifinals of the St. Petersburg Open tennis tournament in Russia, and Guillame Raux of France beat American Tom Middleton, 6-1, 6-2, to complete the field.

John Friesz, a five-year NFL veteran and unrestricted free agent who was with the Washington Redskins last season, will be the Seattle Seahawks’ backup quarterback this year after signing a two-year, $1.45-million contract.

Iowa defending champions Lincoln McIlravy and Joel Sharratt advanced to the NCAA wrestling finals at Iowa City as the top-ranked Hawkeyes clinched their fourth national title in five years.

John A. Curry, the president of Northeastern University, says he is investigating conflicting reports that Reggie Lewis tested positive for cocaine while on the school’s basketball team. He died of heart failure on July 27, 1993.

Names in the News

Herb McCracken, credited with inventing the football huddle while coaching Lafayette against Pennsylvania, died in a Boynton Beach, Fla., nursing facility on March 11 at 95. . . . Florence Chadwick, a long-distance swimmer who set a women’s record for crossing the English Channel in 1950, has died in San Diego at 76.