Full Race Broadcast: 1973 Indianapolis 500
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- It was 50 years ago that a month of dreadful weather and a series of serious accidents forced the running of the 1973 Indianapolis 500 into a third day, and even then it had to be called to a halt after only 332.5 miles.
The subsequent victory by Gordon Johncock was bittersweet for several reasons, not the least of which being that his own teammate, Swede Savage, suffered terrible injuries in an accident and was to succumb 33 days later.
Huge bolt-on rear wings had enabled speeds to skyrocket by an unbelievable 30 mph over a period of just three years, and pole-sitter Johnny Rutherford came within a blink of an eye of recording the Speedway’s first-ever 200-mph lap, with one at 199.071 mph during qualifying.
In 1973 I worked there with Gerhardt Racers. Our driver was Mike Hiss. He had been the Rookie of the year in 1972. It was during the transition between old small teams and the new Superteams. Corporate money was transitioning the teams from three or four guys to dozens, and now hundreds! I worked 80 hours a week for slave wages. Penske was paying people living wages with benefits. Mechanics from the fifties and sixties were amazed.
Between the deaths of Art Pollard, Armando Tehran and of course Swede, the charm of racing disappeared for me. Well, for years.
TV had me thinking that AJ was a jerk. Completely wrong. He may have been rude to journalists, but he was held in great respect by all the mechanics. He joined me at my table at the Speedway Cafe. Called me a penguin. I was starstruck. Still am.
The magazines insulted Frankie Delroy. I met him. He was pretty nice to a random 19 year old kid. They were wrong, again.
Old man telling stories. R
NO, it's fine. I love reading stories like this. Didn't know of all these politics, man, and how things changed over time.
I really appreciate your story. Thanks for sharing.
There are a lot of jerks in my line of work.
I know A.J. has a reputation for being a hothead and at times an asshole, but at the same time, I've seen the way that people who know him well talk about him, and it's pretty obvious that he's got a sweet soul.
1973 was a tragic Month of May. Not just the weather, but all the tragedies, but it does deserve to be remembered, because this was the race that was really the beginning of a safety revolution at Indy. The flag-stand at Indy was built after this race, the Pit Wall was made wider, new rules were put in place for safety vehicles and pit sign carriers to prevent another tragedy like what happened with Armando Terran, and there were changes to the car, from the wings being changed and the fuel tanks were made smaller. A shame it took 3 lives being taken from the racing world to get that started.
64-40-60
You’re absolutely correct. The Speedway had to take action or, I suspect, would have had trouble getting insurance. Well said.
a flagstand made 4 a legendary flagman r.i.p. pat vidan
Though IMO, had the race been on Saturday instead of the Monday it was scheduled for, it likely would have gone off without a hitch as I do think the rains along with numerous mechanics scheduled to work that 500 having to leave to work regular jobs before the race took place with teams scrambling for replacements likely played a major factor into what happened in that race. That likely would have delayed the safety changes but eventually those would come in, especially making pit road much bigger (though with NASCAR coming to Indy in 1994, some of those if not already in place by then would have been plus the addition of the additional entrance to pit road off turn three).
agreed just like earnhardt s death in the 2001 daytona 500 28 years later
Jackie Stewart was not only a Full Time F1 Driver abs took time off for this to commentate, but he WON the Title THAT YEAR! Insane! Like Max Verstappen commentating today at the 500.
I wonder if at some point F1 and IndyCar work a deal to using IndyCars have the Indy500 count as an F1 race in addition to being an IndyCar race and the F1 drivers compete with Monaco pushed back to 1-2 weeks after Indy,.
@@WaltGekko That would be something, but I wouldn't hold my breath. I seriously doubt F1 would even entertain the thought.
i believe the previous year he zig-zagged back and forth doing f1 and canam - but he lost the f1 title race and so gave up canam - but as you say he still did other stuff in 1973 - this race was on (wednesday) may 30 and the monaco gp in f1 was just 4 days later sunday june 3 - and stewart won it.
@@WaltGekkoThat’s the way it was in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. The 500 counted toward the world driver’s championship and top F1 drivers would come over to race at Indy.
@@gregkurtz1677 And that is somethubg I'd be looking to revive. Make Indy part of the F1 Championship even if they use IndyCars for that race.
Finally, a non-ESPN Classic version of this very tragic race! Now, if we can get the original telecasts of the 1972 & 1976 500s, we'll be all good! 😊☺️🙂👍
I doubt those exist. Networks didn't preserve programming like they do now as the cost of videotape was that expensive back then it often was re-used. Also, storage was an issue.
@@WaltGekko They do exist because ABC's preservation practices were better than the other networks. 76 just hasn't been reaired, and the story about 72 is that it's tape damage that's kept it from reairing.
I'd never thought we would see the full ABC broadcast of 73 uploaded on here. Hoping eventually we get the '72 and '76 race broadcasts... Thank you IMS
I too want to see '72 and '76. Even several from the '80s (1983 and 86 for example) are not on here. I get the feeling slowly they'll get them restored nicely and uploaded.
@@gary24fan The 1972 Indy 500 was the very first go-around for Jim Nabors singing "Back Home Again in Indiana." I'd very much like to see THAT. 🙂
I remember this was the first Indy 500 that I saw from start to finish.
@@pinedelgado4743Definitely. I Would Very Much Like To See The Late , Great Mark Donahue In Victory Lane! ( 1972 )🏁🏎️🥛🍺🏆
First Driver For Roger Penske Winning The Indianapolis 500!🏁🏎️🍺🥛🏆🤠😎😎🤓🙂☺️
I Am Posting 📬 This At 11:08 p.m. , Saturday Night 🌛🌉🌃🌌 , April 6, 2024.
I’ve been to 63 consecutive 500’s This was the one I was glad to leave when it finally was over 2:10:38
I probably felt the same was in pitstands
This was my 10th Indianapolis 5OO and I was 18 at the time. I was 8 when I witnessed the Sachs/McDonald incident, but was too young to understand the terrible cost exacted by the sport. By 1973 I was mature enough to comprehend the horrible human toll inflicted by this spectacle. My Dad and I both thought that we were finished with racing, but here I am, all these later, still going every year and have only missed the 2020 race. As a side note, despite what was reported during the broadcast, this was not the shortest Indianapolis 500 up until this point. The 6th International Sweepstakes Race (as it was known at the time) in 1916 was scheduled for 300 miles in order to make the race shorter and thus make it more appealing to spectators. There was also the consideration of fuel and rubber shortages as well as lack of European entries due to World War One. In fact, seven of the cars that participated in the 1916 race were owned and/or entered by the owners of the Indianapolis Speedway or speedway management in order to insure that a strong field was present. That race was won by Dario Resta and his riding mechanic Bob Dahnke, the FIRST Dario to win at Indianapolis!!!
i was not even born till december 10th hoss a indy 500 to forget the whole month actually
This and the '64 race were the saddest ones I ever saw I thought the race should have been stopped after the Savage crash but as they say the show must go on thanks for finding the full broadcast of this race it still kind of haunts me all these years later
Andy Granatelli appearing in commercials for his own product. You'd never see a corporate CEO doing that today. They'd consider it to be below them.
The good ole days are great memories. No cookie cutters then
I really liked Jackie Stewart when he did the commentary for these races he really knew what he was talking about a real pro
‘73 may be one to forget, unfortunately, for Gordy… but ‘82 was the best for us all.
I was only 12 but who could ever forget this race and this day. Since finding it on RUclips ive watched it dozens of times. The comments below, by people much more knowledgeable than me, are extremely informative and fascinating. Its still rough to watch and listen to.
The entire 1973 Month of May at Indy was just dark as a whole, unfortunately
And not just at Indy, because the tone of what was to come that month was actually set at Talladega during the early stages on the Winston 500, when Ramo Stott's engine blew right in front of the leaders, igniting a crash so wild and horrific that Gordon Johncock, who was in that race and who's car was one of the 19 eliminated in that accident called it the craziest incident he'd ever been involved in, and he was in that wild crash that began the 1966 Indianapolis 500. Johncock and Bobby Allison, who finished at opposite ends of the finishing order in this Indianapolis 500, were knocked out in that crash. (Dick Simon also drove in that race and wound up finishing seventh.) The wrecks and rain even extended to the World 600 at Charlotte, because there were two major crashes (Peter Gregg had one and Vic Parsons, no relation to Benny, had the other) and the race was delayed about 90 minutes during the middle of the race, though it did run to it's completion.
Thanks for uploading this race. Such a tragic month. please upload some more full races. I really enjoyed all of the old commercials.
I was at this race with my soon to be stepfather. He was a cameraman for ABC and worked in the pits. He took me up to the press box and I got to sit in Howard Cosell's lap, met Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart. They were very kind to a shy 13 yr. old. My Mom met my stepfather at a hotel bar the year before. They married in 1974 and we moved to Jersey because my stepfather worked for ABC in NYC. I was very blessed to meet many wonderful people with my dad over the 40 yrs. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of dad, but no luck. I do have plenty of pictures. I also have Swede Savage's picture pin. God rest his soul. This sure brought back a lot of memories.
swede savage should had won the 1973 indy 500 that year marie r.i.p. to ol swede marie
@@thomashallman5436 I agree. I sure miss living in Indy
McKay was practically jumping for joy when they stopped the race. I don't blame him.
agreed i even think chief starter pat vidan said thank the lord 4 the red flag i m with both mckay and vidan the ,73 indy 500 was like a real life horror movie r.i.p. jim mckay and pat vidan
I met Andy's son, Vince at my 2018 exhibition at Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale. I had no idea who he was but he came onto my booth when he saw my large original painting of Swede.
He told me all about that tragic day and how he'd given Armando a gopher's job, only for him to die. It still weighed heavily on him, he said.
Andy also said he had 40 gallons of the original dayglo STP paint - but without the catalyst. I wonder if was trying to sell it to me.
He died some years later.
Note that at 8:42, Steve Krisiloff (inside of row 3) has a puff of smoke suggesting a mechanical problem come off his car, causing it to lose power.
I believe that was a factor in the Walther crash.
That was likely the single biggest factor in that crash, because that crash happened as they were passing Krisiloff's strickened car, which forced that part of the field to be five abreast, and there just isn't room for five abreast racing at Indianapolis. How the commentators missed that is beyond me, because the bottleneck caused by Krisiloff's car was really what caused that to happen. Salt Walther had to go wide to avoid another car and ended up clipping Jerry Grant's car, which was as close to the outside wall as he could get. There simply wasn't enough room because of the bottleneck caused by Steve Krisiloff's strickened car, and that crash began where they were passing him.
I heard this Indy "500" via the I.M.S. Radio Network with the late and great Sid Collins and his fine track crew calling the historic three day event. I was in my first year of college in Georgia...a "late comer in higher education" just a few months shy of turning 23. A born and raised Indianapolis resident who had in '73, ten years of high interest in mostly Indy Car racing.
Johncock's win was "shallow" in several ways as the events showed. It saddened many in the racing community with two drivers (Art Pollard of Oregon & Swede Savage) dying during that rainy month of May. And, the young pit crew member of the winning team: STP (Scientific Treated Petroleum) dying from a fire truck pit accident and, lastly, race driver, Salt Walther being critically injured on the start of the race.
You know...Had the weather and accidents had not have happened...that race would have been way different in the end of the event. Sure Gordon Johncock was on a mission. His best years were unfolding to make him one of I.M.S. 's best drivers. He knew his stuff! (As of this writing I'm doing [6-13-2023], Gordie is still with us at 86 years old. May he live to be 100!) He's a legend!
Thank you so much for this upload. Any chance 1976 race is forthcoming soon? Maybe even 1972? I have heard the 1972 tape was damaged. Perhaps Roger Penske has a copy of his first win as an owner?
Methodist Hospital is now part of the IU Health network. Back in the 1980s, my grandmother worked there as an overnight nurse. She worked in the spinal cord unit. She took care of patients such as Landon Turner and Danny Ongais. As a private duty nurse, she took care of Pops Meyers.
Also as a U.K. resident seeing those classic American commercials is.. interesting to say the least
Thank you for uploading. Hopefully there is a copy of the 1972 500 as well!
Thank you for posting the original ABC broadcast and also for including the classic commercials. Why did the video jump at the 1:33:34 mark and play the previous 12 minutes of the broadcast all over again? Can it be fixed and re-uploaded?
Any video editing software program will suffice. Just clip out those 12 minutes.
I was 13 years old, but this race engraved itself on my mind. ABC / Jackie Stewart were pretty brave pointing out AJ's multi-row jump start and contact with Savage triggering the crash. AJ was always known for doing whatever it took . . . he raced with huge passion. My dad was a big fan of his. But this was a sad, sad day in his career. Without the crash, he probably would have gotten away with it!
Wow, the Speedway actually reaired this race
ABC actually aired it
I was there for the first day, father took me for my 10th birthday, saw the Salt Walter crash scared the crap out of me
50th Anniversary of what can definitely be argued as the worst Indy 500
Very surprised that they even showed the lifeless body of Terran getting attended to in the pits but of course it’s very important to show these kind of things as well.
Evidently, ESPN didn't think it was important to show Terran after the accident, as this scene is omitted in the rebroadcast shown on ESPN Classic.
wow this is a surprise an extended edition! This Race although the Darkest is important as it shows all that can go wrong and the risk that all drivers accept and take. RIP Mr. Savage, Mr Walters, and Mr Teran
Armando Teran. He was part of the crew on Savage's teammate, Graham McRae.
This is the original ABC telecast. The additional time accounts for the original commercials that were part of this telecast.
Mr. "Walters" is actually Mr. Walther and he didn't die from his injuries. Art Pollard, however, died from injuries suffered in a practice session crash on Pole Day morning.
Walther suffered from addiction to pain killers that he used to combat his injuries from this race. He spent many years in either rehab or prison after briefly trying to revive his racing career. He died of an overdose in 2012.
The irony is, had this Indy 500 been on Saturday like the two previous 500s after Memorial Day was permanently moved to the last Monday in May starting in 1971, this Indy 500 could have very well gone off without incident as all of the rains that hit Indy did beginning that Saturday night, AFTER this race would have been run had it been on Saturday instead of the Monday it was moved to (in response to complaints from patrons who in many cases then still worked Monday through Saturday with only Sundays and Holidays off). I believe Indy officials wanted to move the race to Sunday but were asked to wait a year because of events already scheduled for that particular Sunday (5/27/'73), with 1974 being the first year it was scheduled for Sunday as it has been ever since. I suspect the rain and all the delays contributed heavily to what happened with this Indy 500, forever the worst of all time (Gordon Johncock's crew "celebrated" their win with a meal at Burger Chef as I remember afterwards because of what happened to Swede Savage and others during this 500).
39:54 - This Goodyear commercial appears to have been filmed at Laguna Seca. When they get to "Guard 4" that looks like the corkscrew to me.
TBH, as much as the last few years have been good, "BHAIN" will never be the same without our good friend Jim Nabors singing it. RIP Gomer. 😥😢😭
The story about how Nabors started singing it is pretty funny.
1:02:34 the madness of Savages crash and the the sound the crowd makes when his pit guy gets ran over in the pits. This scene never gets easy to watch..utter madness.
You notice almost all the crowd was clapping and whistling when the final red flag came out. You never see that.
The 1973 Indy 500 was a classic example of "Murphy's Law."
If your not old enough to remember they never broadcasted live due to wanting people to attend in person the only way you could get it live was on radio.
The race still isn't shown live in central Indiana to this very day.
Is shown on tv on Sunday evening.
On the restart after Swede Savage's crash, it seems to me that the whole field was running slower than before. The engines weren't running at quite as high of a pitch. Am i hallucinating?
Can't tell here. They all still look mighty fast to me!
Notice how McKay keeps insisting the wing flew off Savage's car which is simply not true.
"Welp...It's making an old man out of me!" Lol. Classic.
The attrition rate was very high after just 133 laps, makes me wonder how many cars would have been left had they went the full distance.
Yeah there’s no way that Monday start should have been green flagged then.. ok a lot of drivers were at fault but the organisers should have been on the case with that
A tragic May at Indy, then a really close call on first lap at Silverstone and the equally horrific crash involving Roger Williamson. 1973 really was a depressing year in motorsports. As a child I did witness the spring of 82 with Villeneuve, Smiley and Paletti.
Not to mention what happened at Talladega at that year's Winston 500, which really set the tone for what was to happen at Indy, and even at the World 600 Charlotte, as that race was also not entirely spared from the rain and serious crashes, though no driver was seriously injured and the race did run to completion after a 90-minute delay in the middle of the race for rain. Gordon Johncock, who was involved in that massive 21-car pile-up on the 10th lap of the Winston 500 and who would go on to win the rain and tragedy-marred race at Indy, called that crash at Talladega the wildest he was ever in.
Then there was Francois Cevert's disgusting crash at Watkins Glen
82 Indy rookie of the year Jim Hickman died in an accident at Milwaukee 2 months later
Any 3 of the tragedies would have made a terrible month. What a horrendous year.
Takes me back to the days when we had to wait for the race to come on that evening and try and keep from finding out who won earlier in the day.
What happened to the two girl
David Hobbs punched somebody that day who said to him, “Well, that’s racing for ya.”
This is according to Hobbs himself.
Hopefully , One Day Soon , We Will Be Able To See A Videotape 📼 Of The 1972 Indianapolis 500 , With The Late , Great Mark Donahue , Winning For Roger Penske!🏁🏎️🍺🥛🏆🤠😎😎🤓🙂☺️
1st Indianapolis 500 Victory For Roger Penske.🏁🏎️🍺🥛🏆🤠😎😎🤓🙂☺️
I Am Posting 📬 This At 11:14 p.m. , Saturday Night 🌛🌉🌃🌌 , April 6, 2024.
I know this is off topic but what the hell is that guy wearing at 1:15:25
Fireproof suit. That very large odd looking getup was how they fought fire in the race cars and the pits back then. The idea being the firefighter wearing this could even reach into the fire and rescue a driver.
What a tone deaf interview by Dave Diles with Andy Granatelli after the race ended. Could see that there was no joy for Andy w/ Savage in critical condition and a crew member dead and Diles is basically asking for some kind of joyous statement. Plus, was a little turned off by Bignotti's joy after the race. McKay saying that maybe they didn't know of the crew member's death.....find that hard to believe. Also always liked Jerry Grant. Was watching the '79 race last night and he moved from a driver to a member of Foyt's crew.
I totally agree! Pretty classless
@1:02:25 🙁
@31:56 is that James Hampton ( aka "Caretaker") from the original film version of The Longest Yard?
USAC was so inept. . the real star in this video are the commercials.
agreed includin the jack webb commercial bud
Modern commercials are horrible. They have forced humor, plagiarized pop songs, and are either too long (especially those commercials for medicine that rattle off a ton of side effects that could scare prospective customers off), don’t make it clear what the advertised product does, exaggerate the truth about a product, outright LIE about the product (which is illegal), throw immature insults at competing products, or all of the above. Some of the worst commercials include those with bad CGI and annoying voice acting (like Blue Max and Protegent), commercials that don’t even say what they’re advertising until the very end (leaving you scratching your head at how what you just saw relates to the product), and commercials that use outright EMOTIONAL MANIPULATION to get you to donate money (like those commercials with sad-looking animals or starving African children; not that those aren’t good causes, but there are better ways of getting people onboard besides guilt-tripping viewers).
Compare them to ads from the 1970s. They were short, sweet, and to-the-point, oftentimes demonstrated the product more clearly than the vagueness of modern commercials, had great personalities like Colonel Sanders, and had a certain air of classiness that modern ads just can’t capture.
I those days they didn't turn away from the tragic things that happened live.. nowadays some producer would be yelling at them to cut to a wide shot or picture of the sky or something.
It’s because the FCC is run by what can best be described as preschool teachers who think children need to be coddled and shielded from reality. If they showed anything like that today, the FCC would issue a steep fine, and the network would fire the producer.
i also feel that jim mckay,s announcing left alot to be desired, too !!!!!!!!
By now Foyt was sporting his familiar number 14.
Here we come May
@38:00 Still using the old style manual lift jack👍
Did the spectators recover
I feel bad for Walther, even though he was supposedly a spoiled rich boy. Ive watched this from another angle several times in slo mo, and there was a mechanical problem in a car a few rows up, and it threw the whole field out of whack. That was the reason for the lack of lane discipline. A car to Walther's left was shying away from the stricken car that was being swallowed up by the field and Walther was moving right to avoid it when he clipped the guy on his left. It was really just a very bad position for him to be put in and for decades he's gotten a bad reputation from it.
the worst indy 500 ever only the ,55 24 hours of lemans was worse r.i.p. art pollard david aka swede savage, and amando teran
17 Days Before Leeann Tweeden Was Born In 1973
Vaya joyita de vídeo
8:44
29:47
8:47
What an absolute shitshow. Also, why was Jim McKay so obsessed with "aerial bombs" and making sure we didn't mistake the fireworks for exploding cars?? He carried that bit all the way to the 90's.
ETA: The 500 is my favorite race of all time, but it could have, and probably should have, been shut down after this fiasco. Terrible 1st start, not much better 2nd start, and the reaction to Swede's crash was not only slow, but the extinguishers made the fire worse. And then to top it off, a firetruck hits a crew member on pit lane?? Who was running this circus?
He probably said the aerial bomb thing for new fans and new viewers just incase. I assume
USAC
1964 set the precedent of not cancelling the race when Eddie Sachs and Dave McDonald were killed in an early race crash.
No, the extinguishers didn't make the fire worse. Remember that methanol fires basically burn clear. What the extinguishers did was to make it _look_ worse, but that fire was already there-just not visible.
Ol Gomer just caterwaulin away
In 1982 Gordon Johncock won The Indianapolis 500 nobody will forget. In 1973 he won the one everybody wants to forget. You don't need to show this race.
long live the ,82 indy 500 the greatest race ever my 1st ever 500 ever watched as a kid regret goin to bed after the flagman duane sweeney threw the 45 minute red flag after a 5 cvar i mean car pile up howdy gordy
this unser character always has struck me as dishonest !!!!!
Obviously, Speedway President Tony Hulman should have cancelled the race after Savage's crash!
Not obvious at all. That is not how the Indianapolis 500 works, and I hope it never will.
@@nitromemoriesagree 100%
We didn't know that Swede Savage would die for several weeks.
Had the Swede Savage crash not occurred, the entire 500 miles likely would have been completed.
Had the Swede Savage crash occurred more than halfway through the race, it's possible that the race might never have been resumed, given the weather forecast called for rain prior to sunset.
@@altfactor I often wonder what may have happened if the race went the distance. There were so few cars left and most front runners were out. Could have changed history if McCluskey or Vukuvich could have won. How their careers would have been different. I was happy for Gordy and he got his glory in 82!