Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 25

THE HARTFORD COURANT: Tuesdoy, July JtoFm Westport driver killed in speedway accident ft I ft' I Jf Winning may have freed Faldo Jerry Trecker i 'li rV) Ij' iff 7 ix By ROY HASTY Courant Staff Writer THOMPSON Prentice "Corky" Cookman Jr. of the Greens Farms section of Westport was fatally injured in a one-car accident Sunday night in a NASCAR Modified Tour race at Thompson International Speedway. Cookman, 43, was pronounced dead at Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam at 11:51 p.m., according to night supervisor Claire Roediger. A spokesman for the chief medical examiner's office in Farmington said an autopsy revealed that Cookman died of "multiple fractures and internal injuries due to blunt trauma." Cookman was running in the top 10 when his car slammed into the third-turn wall on the fifth lap of the 75-lap race. The car scraped along the wall in turns three and four and slid backward halfway down the track, ending up near the exit of turn four, facing the wall.

Neither speedway officials nor NASCAR could be reached for comment Monday. The car was impounded and will be inspected by Department of Motor Vehicles officials to determine the cause of the accident. Reggie Ruggiero, who went on to win his fourth Tour race of the season, was behind Cookman's car when it hit the wall. "I was running right behind Corky and two laps before the accident his car got a little pushy in the corners, it was drifting toward the top of the track," Ruggiero said. "Right before the accident I saw a big cloud of smoke near the right front and it wasn't from the headers.

I think his right-front tire blew out and he hit a ton." Ruggiero, who estimated that a Modified would be traveling at about 135 mph at the end of the back straight going into turn three, said there is nothing a driver can do when a tire blows in those "When a tire blows like that the car turns right automatically," Ruggiero said. "There's not much you can do because you only have three wheels." Cookman began racing in 1969 on dirt tracks in Middletown, N.Y., and Reading, before switching to the asphalt at Danbury in 1975. He began running at Stafford in 1978 and his first asphalt Modified victory came in the Manchester Oil Heat 100 CORKY COOKMAN "He was such a perfectionist" Aug. 6, 1982. A year later in the same race, Cookman was vaulted into the front straight grandstands when his car brushed wheels with Mike Hornat.

About 30 people were injured, but Cookman walked away from the accident Cookman's best year was 1984, when he finished fourth in the Northeast Region and 10th in the Modified standings. He finished eighth on the Modified Tour in 1986 and won the Modified race at the World Series of Auto Racing at Thompson in October. Cookman, who was known as a clean and consistent driver, was able to compete on the Tour despite a limited budget Bernie Dolan and his wife, Marcia Dolan, of Danbury sponsored Cookman 12 years. Marcia Dolan, a 10-time Connecticut Women's Golf Association champion, described Cookman as a perfectionist about his work. "What attracted us to Corky was the fact that he always was able to create something out of nothing," Marcia Dolan said.

"He never had much money, but he would make things, trying to cut corners, that others would order on the phone. "And he was very demanding. If Corky asked you to do something, you felt honored, but because he was such a perfectionist you had better do it right. Corky marched to a different drummer than most people." Since 1969, Cookman was the director of maintenance and transportation for Greens Farms Academy, an independent day school. Cookman, who was single, leaves his father, Prentice Cookman Sr.

Nick Faldo's victory in the 116th British Open may not stir many hearts this side of the Atlantic Ocean, but to someone who has seen many recent Open championships and spent a fair bit of time in the British Isles the past two decades, Sunday's outcome was pure theater. Faldo is a wonderful golfer, maybe too talented for his own good. His schoolboy successes augured a new British star in Scotland's national game and created the burden of a "grand potential" that later haunted him. He was supposed to win the British Open years ago and was pilloried when he didn't Now that he finally has triumphed, perhaps the vultures will let him alone. I was far away from Muirfield Sunday afternoon, watching the events courtesy of ABC-TV, but having spent hours in the Open press tent and years reading of Faldo's "fol-dos," I felt mixed emotions when Paul Azinger finished bogey-bogey.

I imagine that there were commentators who said "Faldo didn't win, Azinger lost," simply because the relationship between the new champion and the press has long been strained. That is too bad. Faldo is everything a sporting hero might be; everything, that is, except a gracious target for criticism. The British, you see, like to take potshots at sporting heroes, perhaps because Britain doesn't have all that many superstars to cheer. Great runners like Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett and Steve Cram are fair game even when they are setting world records; Ian Botham, the Joe Namath of cricket, is regularly hammered while he creates one record after another.

As for the hitherto unlucky Faldo, he has been dissected with a vivisectionist's fervor. I have been in the Open press tent enough times to see the sparks fly between Faldo and his media adversaries. Faldo would appear because it was clearly a necessary part of his business. Some of the questions he faced were tough, indeed. To say that the relationship between Faldo and those who wrote about him was strained would be prime British understatement.

And yet Faldo was always there come the Open. His problem was that he could never avoid one poor round, and he didn't have to stray very far from par to put himself out Associated Press Nick Faldo, left, has two admiring fans in wife Gill ish Open Sunday, he may have won over a few of and daughter Natalie. And after winning the Brit- his critics, too. have you done for me lately? is too often the criteria. Having won, Faldo may be expected immediately to realize his great potential Somehow, I think he will smile quietly to himself and stop reading the reports, if he hasn't already.

If ever a player was entitled to say that he won a championship for himself, rather than his followers, it was Nick Faldo Sunday afternoon. strokes on the closing holes turning him from the cup as Watson played safe and smiled as champion. Two years ago, Royal St. George's proved unrelenting at the finish, Sandy Lyle able to take one late birdie and make it stand as the wind and rough did the rest. Sunday, Faldo's par golf was more than enough to subdue young Azinger, who will have learned a lesson on the 17th and 18th, where mistakes were punished in the sternest possible way.

Now Faldo is champion, freed at last from the unbearable pressure placed upon him. Faldo may now go on to truly significant things in golf. He certainly always seemed more likely to be Britain's golfer of the decade than Lyle. Yet one wonders if he will ever be spared the spotlight that British writers and commentators place upon their best. It seems that "what of contention.

He would usually be in the top 10, maybe in the top five, but not quite good enough to claim the prize that even his heartiest critics willed for him. Sunday, I saw a Faldo unwilling to bend under the pressure. Instead of playing with the recklessness that could lead to disaster, he stayed within the bounds of Scottish links golf and settled for one par after another. To Americans, weaned on golf featuring Sunday charges for birdies, the big man's steady, calm pace may have seemed too slow. Go for the birdies, we might say, but Faldo knew better.

On a British Open course, where the finishing holes are always the least forgiving, victory so often goes to the patient, for defeat lies in wait for any mistake. In 1983, South African Nick Price was unable to hold a lead against Tom Watson at Troon, wayward WVSVB.VULab. CE SR-COALS DO YOURSELF A FAVOR, GO TO ENGINE TUNE-UP OIL FILTER, CHASSIS LUBE OIL CHANGE w' mm i For most cars with electronic ignition systems 4ql $69 $79 Lubricate chassis, drain oil and refill with up to five quarts of major brand motor oil, and install a new oil filter. Note: special diesel oil and filter type may result in extra charges. Chick battery, starting, charging, combustion systems.

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