Trophy Dash Was a Real Crackup

Usually, it’s the loser who smashes the water cooler, or whatever is within reach, but race car driver John Wells put a new spin on such behavior when he destroyed his first-place trophy from this year’s Pikes Peak Hill Climb, protesting what he said were unfair prizes.

Wells used a hammer to smash the granite-and-glass trophy on the steps of a museum dedicated to the annual Fourth of July race. Wells had won for the first time after 27 years of racing to the 14,110-foot summit.

“It’s the only way I could protest,” Wells said, adding that he had to speak up. Wells, who won $3,047, said racers in his division paid at least $17,500 in entry fees.

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Trivia time: Since 1900, who is the only catcher to lead a league in triples?

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Football second: The debut of Formula One racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has filled the city’s hotel rooms and left the Jacksonville Jaguars without a place to sleep. The Jaguars will stay in Muncie--60 miles northeast of Indianapolis-- for their Sept. 25 game against the Indianapolis Colts.

The race is scheduled for Sept. 24, and NFL rules require teams to arrive the day before a game.

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Roller coaster: NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield on the ups and downs of Winston Cup racing:

“The problem is the good never lasts long enough and the bad never goes away fast enough.”

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Any tickets? With oddsmakers in Lake Tahoe establishing a betting line on the 200-meter race at the U.S. Olympic trials, Gil LeBreton of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram wonders what happened after Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene pulled up lame.

“The odds of a Capel-Heard-Miller trifecta would have had to be astronomical,” he wrote.

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Getting old? If you’re concerned about not being able to do things you once did, think about Abe Greenbaum and Theo Hasapes of the Samson Seventies Strongman’s club.

Abe celebrated his 81st birthday by doing 50 one-arm push-ups, while Theo, 79, plays the harmonica while balancing dumbbells on his forehead.

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Trivia answer: Tim McCarver, who hit 13 for St. Louis in 1966.

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And finally: Australia’s oldest man, 109-year-old Jack Lockett, walked with the Olympic torch before lighting a community caldron in the Victorian state town of Bendigo.

“Really wonderful, really wonderful,” Lockett said after traveling 200 meters with the aid of a walking stick. “It was just beyond my expectations.”

Lockett is older than the modern Olympics, which began in 1896.