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Sports Briefs: McClure will plead guilty to tax fraud
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Published: January 8, 2009
ABINGDON, Va. -- Larry McClure, a co-founder of Morgan-McClure Motorsports, has agreed to plead guilty to tax-fraud charges.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Ramseyer said yesterday that in exchange for McClure's pleas, prosecutors will dismiss fraud charges related to the painting of show-car trailers.
But he says that McClure has agreed to make restitution of nearly $60,000 related to those charges. A hearing is scheduled Jan. 15 in U.S. District Court to receive the pleas.
Ramseyer says that McClure will plead guilty to three counts of filing false tax returns and two counts of obstructing the investigation. McClure faces a maximum of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count.
A call from The Associated Press to McClure's attorney, Wayne Austin, was not returned.
More motor sports
■ Chris Browning, Darlington Raceway president, said on Tuesday that the track would reduce prices by $10 for 9,000 of its seats, a drop that affects about 15 percent of Darlington's capacity of 62,000 seats.
The move means seats in rows 3-14 in the Colvin Grandstand on the back straightaway would cost $35, instead of their previously listed price.
Darlington is one of NASCAR's founding tracks, a 1.366-mile superspeedway carved out of some PeeDee farmland. It fell into disrepair in the 1980s and looked like it might get left behind during NASCAR's emergence as a national sport.
The track lost one of its two yearly races after 2003. But it's enjoyed a resurgence the past four seasons with the race held the Saturday night before Mother's Day. The race has been a sellout each time and the track has added seats, undergone repaving and added a new infield access tunnel.
■ French motorcyclist Pascal Terry, competing in the Dakar Rally in Argentina, was found dead early yesterday in an area of dense vegetation. He was about 50 feet from his motorcycle, without his helmet but with food and water beside him. He had been missing since Sunday's second stage, organizers said in a statement.
This is the first year that the famed race for motorcycles, cars and trucks is being held in South America. Organizers called off last year's race in Africa because of terrorist threats.
Baseball
■ Jason Giambi is returning to his professional baseball roots, with the Oakland Athletics.
Giambi, 38, and the A's have agreed to a one-year contract with an option, bringing Giambi, a free-agent designated hitter and first baseman, back to where he began his big-league career. The sides had reached a preliminary agreement earlier this week but Giambi still needed to complete the obligatory physical yesterday for the deal to be completed.
■ Marcus Giles, a former All-Star second baseman, received a minor-league contract and yesterday was among nine players invited to spring training by the Philadelphia Phillies.
Giles, who was out of the majors last season after being released by Colorado in spring training, provides another option for the Phillies with second baseman Chase Utley and third baseman Pedro Feliz recovering from offseason surgery.
Giles, 30, is a career .277 hitter with 76 homers and 333 RBIs in seven seasons, the first six with Atlanta and one with San Diego. His best season was in 2003, when he hit .316 with 49 doubles, 21 homers and 69 RBIs.
Right-handed reliever Gary Majewski, who pitched for the Cincinnati Reds last year, also agreed to a minor-league contract.
■ Kevin McClatchy, a former Pirates managing general partner, has sold his remaining shares in the team, ending a 13-year relationship that began with McClatchy, a newspaper heir, ensuring that the team remained in Pittsburgh.
McClatchy's spot on the five-man Pirates board of directors will not immediately be filled.
Tennis
■ Fifth-ranked Nikolay Davydenko will miss the Australian Open because of an injury to his left heel. Davydenko, ranked fifth in the world, also pulled out of the Chennai Open, where he was to face Lucas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic in yesterday's second round.
■ A judge in Okitbbeha County, Miss., has dismissed a rape charge against Christopher Richard Doerr, a Mississippi State tennis player from London, England.
Doerr, 20, was arrested Nov. 17 after the reported sexual assault of an MSU coed during a party at an off-campus apartment. His attorney says there was no evidence to support the rape charge. Court records did not allege that force was used but that the victim, also 20, had sex with Doerr under the influence of alcohol.
Golf
■ Seve Ballesteros said he plans to return next year to his role as captain of Europe's Royal Trophy team, according to a statement he released yesterday for a news conference in Bangkok, Thailand, before the start of this year's competition between teams from Europe and Asia.
Ballesteros had several operations late last year for a brain tumor. He was released from the hospital Dec. 9 and returned home to northern Spain to start chemotherapy treatments. Jose Maria Olazabal replaced Ballesteros as captain.
■ Britain's Football Association will cut ticket prices by as much as 25 percent rather than risk empty seats at Wembley for an exhibition match against Slovakia (March 28) and World Cup qualifiers against Ukraine (April 1), and Andorra (June 10).
Tickets for the Slovakia match will be 40 and 30 pounds ($60 and $45), and tickets for the Ukraine match will run from 29 pounds to 59.50 pounds ($43 to $89).
"We want to make watching the national team as affordable as possible, particularly for families, during this difficult economic period," Alex Horne, the FA's chief-operating officer, said in a statement.
■ Boxer David Haye is turning his attention to Wladimir Klitschko now that he won't get a bout against his brother, Vitaly Klitschko, for his WBC heavyweight title. Haye and Vitaly Klitschko had agreed to a June 20 fight in London, but Klitschko must make a mandatory defense against Juan Carlos Gomez on March 31.
Haye, a former world cruiserweight champion, has switched his attention Wladimir Klitschko, the IBF and WBO champion.
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