Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 29, 1993 TAG: 9305290065
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HARRIS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS LENGTH: Long
Twenty years later, the memories of that awful May are still painful for those who endured the three-day race under gloomy skies at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Twice, the race was stopped and restarted a day later. The third time, it was just stopped. And nobody seemed to care.
The terrible toll from the 57th Indy 500 was two drivers and one crewmen killed, and 11 spectators injured.
Gordon Johncock won the race, but there was no Victory Lane ceremony because the drivers, crews, officials and spectators were scrambling for cover from a downpour that cut the race to 332 1/2 miles.
It may have been just as well that the celebration was washed out. It was a race to forget.
On the first day of qualifications two weeks before the race, Art Pollard, a popular driver hoping to make his sixth Indy, was killed in a crash in the first turn on the 2 1/2-mile oval during practice.
That was just the beginning.
The morning of race day, May 28, was filled with the usual anticipation by the nearly half-million spectators, despite the dark clouds.
Right on time, the 33 cars roared to life and began the parade lap. There was a second parade lap and the pace car speeded up, finally coming out of turn four and pulling onto pit road as the race cars charged toward the flagstand.
The green flag flew, the cars roared, the crowd cheered and - crash!
Some said it was young David "Salt" Walther who started it, while others claimed A.J. Foyt ran over Walther as he dashed to the front from the eighth row.
Walther's car slammed into the wheels of a car driven by Jerry Grant and soared into the air, upside down, spewing methanol as it sailed toward the stands on the main straightaway.
A confusing and terrifying melee ensued, with flames erupting from Walther's battered car, and other cars sliding and spinning, braking and speeding up to weave through the smoke and debris.
Spectators along the fence were sprayed with flaming fuel before Walther's car came off the fence upside down and pinwheeled wildly toward the first turn. The car finally stopped in the grass at the end of the pit road, Walther's legs poking from beneath the destroyed undercarriage.
The race's start is always its most dangerous moment, with 33 fully fueled cars lined up in rows of three, separated by 100 feet or less, sailing toward the first turn at speeds that even in 1973 were above 200 mph. No matter how many cautions are given that the race is not won in the first lap, emotions always come into play.
Eleven cars were involved, though all but Walther's were repaired. Walther, who came back to run in five more races at Indy, suffered serious burns that required skin grafts and cost him the tips of several fingers. He said later he became addicted to the pain-killing morphine while hospitalized.
No other driver was hurt, but 11 spectators were burned or injured by debris.
After a long cleanup, the engines were restarted. Then the rain resumed, and several hours later, the race was rescheduled for the next day.
Tuesday dawned just as wet and miserable, but a crowd of perhaps 200,000 still came, and it appeared there would be racing when the rain stopped and the track dried.
Eventually, the cars were started, the first pace lap began and - rain fell again.
Trucks dragged tires around the oval, trying to dry it or at least keep water from pooling. Diehard fans counted laps and cheered when one of the trucks completed 200 laps - 500 miles.
Drivers Bill Vukovich and Gary Bettenhausen played Frisbee in the grassy area between the track and the pit road. Mario Andretti and one of his mechanics kicked around a soccer ball in the garage area. Other drivers napped, chatted with friends or brooded about the frustrating wait.
"That was the worst situation I've ever experienced in racing," Grant said. "By the time the race actually started, it was the first time I had ever not felt like running a race. The highs and lows were monstrous."
The rain continued. The race was postponed until the next day.
By Wednesday, the sprawling speedway resembled a muddy garbage dump.
Grassy areas in the infield and outside the track were swamps. Paper, chicken bones, beer cans and other trash overflowed garbage cans and lay strewn on the grounds.
The estimated 60,000 people sat where they wanted, scattered through the enormous grandstands. The health department threatened to cancel the race if it was postponed again.
A midmorning shower fell before the race finally began at 2:10 p.m. under sullen skies. The festive mood of Memorial Day was long gone, and the general feeling seemed to be: Get the race over with.
After an uneventful start, the 32 remaining cars got down to racing.
Then, tragedy struck on lap 57.
Swede Savage, who was leading the race, hit the wall in turn 4. His car, which had stopped for fuel only moments before, became a fireball.
Armando Teran, a member of Savage's crew, ran down pit road toward the crash. A fire truck, heading the wrong way on the pit road, struck Teran and killed him instantly.
The race was red-flagged again while the fire from Savage's car was doused and the debris cleared.
The sky was dark and the mood even darker when the race resumed 65 minutes later.
Johncock, Savage's teammate, was leading on lap 133 when the skies opened again, ending the ill-fated event.
"It was really terrible," said Johncock. "We were all in shock over the accidents, and the rain was so bad that there wasn't even a Victory Circle celebration or a Victory Banquet. And at that point, I didn't care."
Two months later, Savage died of complications from his burns.
Roger McCluskey, who finished third behind Johncock and Vukovich, says some good came from the tragedy.
"Those fires were really the final straw," said McCluskey, now competition director for the sanctioning U.S. Auto Club. "Everybody knew something had to be done, and USAC made some changes.
"They set up new rules to limit the amount of on-board fuel to 40 gallons, and made the teams put all of it on one side of the car," he said. "The total amount of fuel the teams could use in the race was also cut, and Goodyear's new fuel cells were required in the cars the next year."
Those changes virtually eliminated fuel fires from Indy car crashes, saving dozens of lives since. The speedway also moved spectator seating away from the fence around the track.
"I guess some good comes of everything," McCluskey said. "But that was a pretty awful time."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING FATALITY
by CNB