Over the left hand I wear a glove, a black glove. They had recently returned from a New Orleans vacation with their wives and two other couples. Kind, generous, friendly, outgoing, persistent, honest, gentlemanly, optismistic, competitive, even-tempered, vibrant - these words describe a few of the qualities of this exceptional person who was also a great race driver. Savage suffered fractures of both legs and burns on his face, arms and right hand. Teran, a mechanic on Graham McRae's car, sprinted down pit lane to see if he could be of help to his injured teammate. "People don't realize how the driver gets himself geared up for battle," said Bobby Unser, who would lead 39 laps before retiring with a blown engine. As the race started, Salt Walther and Jerry Grant touched wheels, launching Walthers car into the catch fence. The rear of the car slipped out in Turn 4, and when Savage caught the car it another driver," Johncock said. Stay up to date with everything Boston. Print Headline: Recalling Indys worst crashes, Copyright 2023, Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC. The car exploded into pieces, as a fireball erupted. Parts of my kneecap were smashed. Then the fireworks began. I didn't cry 'til I got back to the bed. Drivers who survived an earlier era now openly wonder how they did. Instead, he survived with multiple burns, particularly to his 1973 Indianapolis 500 crash and subsequent death, Complete Non-Championship Formula One results, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Andretti Wins Both Heats of Questor Race", "Swede Savage 1973 Indy 500 Fatal Crash Original ABC Broadcast Footage", "Deadly May of 1973 still resonates at Indianapolis Motor Speedway", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Swede_Savage&oldid=1133528939, Sportspeople from San Bernardino, California, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2021, Articles needing additional references from May 2014, All articles needing additional references, Pages using small with an empty input parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 14 January 2023, at 07:12. Johncock left the track quickly. It was pole day for the Indianapolis 500, a sunny Saturday bright with the promise of speed.

Only a couple of hundred yards past the flag stand, Milwaukee-area auto dealer. "This is what everybody feared," ABC's Jim McKay told the worldwide television audience.

The race ended after 133 laps with only 10 cars still on the track. "When I finally got out, I was still weak. Foyt went even further, cursing and calling him Coogan on the public address system. Survivors were his widow, Patricia; a son Michael; a daughter, Judy Dipple of Speedway; and his mother, Mrs. Artie Pollard of McMinnville. A hospital spokesman said the cause of his death was. "I had the gloves on, so I grabbed the hottest thing, the turbocharger, which was google_color_border = "DDAAAA"; "We flipped it over and I didn't want to see him because I knew I had to race. google_color_url = "0033FF";

With the advent of bolt-on rear wings and engines producing more than 1000 hp, speeds had climbed dramatically over the prior two years. Nobody has challenged Luyendyks track records since. By his mid-teens he was racing motorcycles competitively. | He was just 26 years old when he died. "I think it was because of things like that that I really never got that close to Eventually I began to work with the weights. "He said, 'You don't want to see it.". It erupted in flames with the green flag still waving. When Unser had an unusually long pit stop, Savage found himself leading the Indianapolis 500 for the first time in his career. Young men like Francois Cevert, Adam Petty, Greg Moore and more recently, Jules Bianchi, had yet to demonstrate how far their careers would take them before they were taken from us. The high point of the season came at Road America where Savage took the car to a hard-fought second place on the sweeping four-mile long road course. After a partial season driving NASCAR stock cars in the South for the Ford factory-backed racing team Holman-Moody, Savage received a telephone call from Gurney inviting him back to Southern California to try his hand at sports car racing.

Undaunted, Savage returned to the Patrick organization for 1973, teamed alongside Gordon Johncock. It came out in the papers that i said that maybe I didn't get bumped. [9], Savage joked with medical personnel after the wreck, and was expected to live when taken to Methodist Hospital and for some time thereafter. He had to relearn to walk but he was back at Indy, back in the field for the 1974 Indianapolis 500. Party The next few seasons saw Savage display his skills in a number of different racing arenas. Gurney had cut back the sports car program for 1969, and Savage returned part-time to motorcycle racing to supplement his income. Please read our Terms of Use or contact us. Second, where was I? Safety workers shielded television viewers from the scary scene by parking in front of the car with Ongais still seated in the cockpit as the air filled with white smoke. He was unconscious until his death an hour later at Methodist Hospital of flame inhalation.

However, due to Savage's reputation in the racing world as a highly skilled driver who did not take unnecessary chances, Unser's comments have been attributed to his resentment of Savage's rapid rise in the racing world as opposed to the "hard knocks" experiences of Unser's career. Following graduation from Averett College, Santoroski covered the CART series through the 1990s and 2000s for CART Pages and Race Family Motorsports in addition to freelance writing for various print and web sources. Dave MacDonald, a rookie, was moving through the field quickly late on the second lap when his car spun coming out of the final turn. The 20-year old Savage was showing off, popping wheelies on his motorcycle, when he caught the attention of Monte Roberts, who worked in the Public Relations department for Ford. Early attrition knocked out Mario Andretti, stock-car regular Bobby Allison and A.J. A fire truck traveling at an estimate 60 mph in the wrong direction hit Teran, who suffered crushed ribs and a fractured skull. While the injured spectators and drivers were being attended to, the rains began to fall again, delaying the race until the next morning. Two-time race winner Bill Vukovich seemed destined for greatness at Indy. There wouldn't be another on-track fatality at IMS until Gordon Smiley in 1982. That same season, Savage first drove in the USAC Champ Car Series, taking the Olsonite-Eagle to a top-five finish in his debut at Brainerd. Web1973 Art Pollard, Salt Walther, and Swede Savage Speculation about cracking 200 mph vanished during a month everyone wanted to forget. Schedule

Walther sustained severe burns and a crushed kneecap but survived. interrupted and shortened the race. Debris landed in the stands, injuring three track workers.

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A start was attempted Tuesday, but didnt get farther than the pace laps when the skies opened up again. He had been the fastest driver for much of practice. Granatelli had always watched the race from the pits but that year for the first time was in a penthouse suite overlooking pit lane from across the track. Swede Savage was the first to break the track record with a four lap average of 196.582 mph. He was married with a seven-year-old daughter, Shelly; his widow Sheryl was expecting their second child, daughter Angela, at the time of his death. All three major accidents resulted in fireballs. driving through a river of flaming methanol," recalled David Hobbs, now a But after the wreck, I looked like I was fifteen years old again. It was erroneously reported !last week that Walther's condition was fair. interrupted again by rain, which, mercifully, caused it to be stopped at Lap 133 of the Richards writes for The Indianapolis Star, a Gannett property. His car exploded in an angry orange flash. At Indy, the closest grandstand seats were moved back from the fence, and the wall