IndyCar's Darkest Moment: The 1964 Indy 500
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- Опубликовано: 13 май 2024
- #indy500 #indycar
The 1964 Indy 500 was IndyCar's darkest moment. An accident on lap 2 shattered the aura of Indianapolis and led to many safety reforms during the race's golden era. Discover the tragic story of the 1964 Indy 500, featuring Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald. Learn about the events that unfolded during this historic race, and the lives and careers of both Eddie Sachs and Dave Macdonald.
Credit to: RACER Magazine/Channel, Robin Miller, Getty Images, Alamy, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame.
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Dad was a tech inspector and was done with his duties when walking to meet mom who was sitting in the inside stands to watch the race until he had to go back to his assigned car. He hadnt reached the bleachers yet when the crash occurred. Mom said she could hear the screams of the drivers(I'm assuming it would have been Dave). I remember my dad telling me about this when I was a kid as I wasnt born until 1966, but Dad was friends with Eddie and spoke highly of him. They would hang out together at the track and during dinners. I know this was a dark day in Indy history, but it is also a personal one for me as well. Thank you for such a wonderful tribute!
I’m glad you got something out of the video. I always enjoy hearing stories from people who were there, it adds a new layer to the story. Thank you!
Not sure how appropriate it is to have a teck inspector powwowing around with a driver. Probably not at all.
I had met Eddie Sachs when my Dad took me to Kiwanis event at which Sachs was the speaker. I still have his autograph. Dad took me to the 500 for the first time in 1963. I really wanted to go again in 1964, but Dad had only two tickets and Mom finally agreed to go to the race after Dad asking her to go with him for years. Just before they left for the 60 mile drive to IMS, they said I could go and sit in the car. I declined that offer. Their seats were in the outside grandstands not many rows from the front, right where Sachs hit McDonald's flaming car. Mom got our of her seat and walked back to the car and sat there until Dad arrived after the completion of the race.
Mom reported that the pre-race buildup and the beginning were the most thrilling things she had ever experienced, and informed us that the race was never to me mentioned in front of her ever again.
In 1970 I was a spectator for the sixth time and was second row from the top of the bleachers inside the track, behind the concrete wall that angled from the infield to the inside pit wall. At least three or four disabled race cars, including Mark Donohue's, had been parked next to that wall. Mike Mosely and Bobby Unser collided exiting Turn 4, and I jumped up to take a photo with my Dad's Retina Automatic III camera, as Mosely slid across the track toward those parked cars. I tripped the shutter then fell back into the next row as the heat from the ensuing fireball hit me. I still have a piece of Donohue's car that also hit me.
It was several days later before that slide film was processed so that I could see what I had recorded. I had captured the fireball at the moment Mosely's car his Donohue's. Wheels were just appearing from the glow, and photographers who had been stationed at the wall were running for their lives.
After covering the 500 for the next three years as a sports writer, I arrived at IMS on opening day with no credentials or media connections. I did have a couple of 35MM SLR cameras and a few lenses, and a box of photos. I paid my way in and went to the Associated Press Darkroom/office and asked to see the photographer in charge. I told him I was a free lance photographer and would like to shoot for A.P. for the month. He told me he had all the photographers he needed. I opened the box and showed him the 8x10 color print of that photo and he pulled a couple documents out of a drawer and said, "Sign here and here." I covered the 500, and many other races and events for AP through 1992, before moving over to Reuters for the next three years.
Mom did eventually relent to her edict of not mentioned the race, and became quite proud of seeing her oldest son's photos from the race published all over the world.
I have no idea how many race crashes I photographed over the years, including some of the most dramatic accidents ever recorded, but I was fortunate to never photograph a fatal wreck. Mom saw three laps of racing and saw two drivers killed, I covered races for more than a quarter century and never saw one killed.
@MarkWick wow, what a story!
My father was seated in the Tower Terrace just south of where the cars came to rest. He has told me many times how silent the crowd was when the race was stopped. Thank you for remembering Dave and Eddie.
I was there with my family and that is true about how quiet it got. Terrible incident. Led to fuel changes. Still have fires but not like that.
@@karenkoe7096 I was 14, and in the J stand on the 4th corner. And yes, it was quiet, everyone was stunned.
A friend of mine told me a story of that day............every year his father would take his sons to the race but there was on rule and that was you had to wait until you were 9 years old until you could got with the rest of the brothers...............he told me that his youngest brother couldn't wait to go with his older brothers and dad to the 500 but wasn't old enough and stayed home year after year...............finally the year came that he was old enough to go with everyone.........that was in 1964. So they sat in the infield seats out of turn 4 very close to where McDonald crashed on the inside retaining wall. At the festivities leading up to the race he told me his younger brother wanted to eat something so dad bought him two hot dogs loaded up with mustard, ketchup and relish...........and was back to his seat holding the hot dogs as the cars were being pushed off to start the pace laps. While mesmerized by the whole affair his younger brother just held the hot dogs one in each hand waiting for the start of the race........at the green flag with eyes glued to the sights and sounds of it all then soon enough comes McDonald's crash right in front of them..........and then Sach's slamming into the cars and wreckage all over the place......my friend told me he never saw such panic at a race track as to whose car to go to (Ronnie Duman was presumed dead and officials threw a sheet over the car which came to rest right in front of them......then all of a sudden the sheet started to moving around and they realized he was alive) for the next 40 mins in all the mass confusion another driver was administered a tractotomy right in front of them to open up an airway.. While this was going on his younger brother at 9 years old just stood and stared in disbelief...........then he told me something that he said was an image that had stayed with him all his life..............when in the middle of all this panic he turned and finally looked at his younger brother and saw him still in a trance over everything that happened but that in the tension of all this he had squeezed tightly the hot dogs in each hand and it squeezed all the mustard, ketchup and relish all over his hands down his arms and just was dripping off his elbows and was completely unaware of what he did...........my friend said he never forgot that image of that 9 year old younger brother frozen in a stare completely unaware that he crushed the hot dogs and they ware in pieces and dripping all down his arms all over the place.......at 9 years old things like fire engines dinosaurs and race cars are larger than life and he had an overload in that experience that day that my friend never forgot.
I was an 18 yr old sitting 33 rows up just past finish line and felt the heat For everyone that goes to races to watch wrecks they need to watch this
Can you believe AJ ran the whole race on the same tires? Old school racing.
I read in Facebook that Rich MacDonald, Dave’s son, just passed away. He was born in 1957 and wasn’t at the track but watching a closed-circuit broadcast at the Los Angeles Sports Arena when the tragedy struck. He didn’t follow the footsteps of his father in motorsport but he had been active in social media preserving his father‘s memory. Watching this video a few days ago and then reading about the passing of his son, 60 years apart, was a shock to me.
I like hearing about Eddie and Dave's lives. A person should be known for there life, not just their deaths.
You read that radio copy at the end. Then ponder that Mr. Collins spoke these words on live air, on the fly. This was no pre-written script copy, this was live on-air speaking, from his mind. He may have had a moment to jot down a few bits, but I don't know that he even had that long.
Journalism is dead.
Those words literally immersed me in the moment as if I were there. Incredible talent to describe the gravity of the situation, striking the human chord & resonating with all through emotion, class, dignity, intelligence, & respect. Kudos & thank u as well for pointing it out.
My mom and dad were on the inside of Turn 4 that year and saw the whole thing. My dad was a Speedway native and a sportswriter as well, but this shook him up. It was a sad day all around.
Yes - I remember your dad from the Muncie Star. Definitely a very sad, tragic day.
"Race drivers are courageous Men who try to conquer life and death and they calculate their risks. And with talking with them over the years I think we know their inner thoughts in regards to racing. They take it as part of living."
That quote hits hard. These athletes are superhuman, both the Men and the Women, and they live with every risk not because it's their job, but because it's their passion. I always push for Motorsports to be as safe as it can be because while these drivers say they'll happily have a race car be their coffin, none of them should experience their passion turn into tragedy. My heart hurts for drivers like Dave and Eddie, as well as others that died living their dream in Motorsports; may they all rest in peace ❤
I was stunned when that photo of the smoke and fire on the Speedway's front straight didn't become the most famous sports photos of the 20th century. In my mind there was no comparison. I remember the ad from Marathon Oil, Eddie Sachs' sponsor, "I've got six fuel tanks in my car and they are all full of Marathon Gas!". A common error about the rules, gas was not banned. Several cars ran it in 1965 but it was not spoken of very much. Ford had debuted their new 4 cam Indy engine in 1964 and had insisted that gasoline be used in the race so all the Ford powered cars were except for Roger Ward's who switched to alcohol behind Ford's back and then ran out of fuel several times which cost him the race win as he made 3 extra pit stops on his way to a second place finish.
I was just a kid in '64, and my family was in Indy that day, visiting relatives. Sometimes, our relatives were able to get last-minute tickets to the race through their employer, but not that year. It would have been my first race if tickets could be found, and when we couldn't, I remember we were all travelling home listening to the race being broadcast on our car radio when this sad event occurred. I knew more about Sachs than I did Macdonald at the time, and I couldn't believe someone as good a driver as Sachs was lost. I learned more about Macdonald over the years, and think he would've won an Indy 500 had he gotten the chance. I never personally met either of the drivers, but have always felt a loss from that day, as a race fan. It is good you remind everyone about these two drivers, 60 years later.
IIRC, Graham Hill (I think it was), tested the Tompson Flyer and refused to drive it because of how unstable it was, though I'd argue 1958 and 1973 are just as dark though.
I would say this race and 1973 are 1A and 1B. 1973's deaths and fire fest led to massive changes in safety regulations and procedures in a time when safety was finally becoming a hot button in racing ( beginning with Jackie Stewart). The tragedy at the 1973 Dutch Formula 1 Grand Prix happened two months after the 500. The changes immediately after and in the next few years were MUCH more than USAC and any others did in the 1964 era. 1958, it is sad to say no one blinked after that carnage.
I was 14, sitting on the 4th turn and saw it all. Sachs was my favorite driver. I think it was the 63 race where he lost a wheel on turn 3, and walked it past the fans, and back to his pits - waving has we walked by.
Also this was the reasoning behind the fuel rules change in 1965. It's a myth that gasoline was banned due to this crash. Instead USAC tweaked the rules to favor methanol however, not gasoline, until the E85 era that is
A tragic irony is that, just six days earlier, Fireball Roberts had suffered the crash in the World 600 that would eventually take his life (he was to pass away on July 2 from burns suffered in that crash), so there was already a pall cast on the 1964 Indianapolis 500 before it even began. And Dave MacDonald was one of the drivers Roberts had been mentoring after Roberts had joined the Ford camp in 1963. In fact, they had paired up in a number of sports car races in 1963, and in another tragic irony, MacDonald was the runner-up in the final NASCAR wins for both Joe Weatherly, who'd been killed at Riverside in January of '64, and Roberts.
In addition, one of the other drivers involved in the Sachs/MacDonald crash, Ronnie Duman, who suffered serious burns in that crash, would be burned to death just after the race at Milwaukee began in 1968 (and just days after finishing sixth at that year's Indianapolis 500). In addition to that, as he was leaving his pit area after his first pit stop, the on-board fuel tank in the car driven by Parnelli Jones exploded, and he had to dive out of his car to avoid a similar fate, though he also suffered burns in that incident. It was a tragic week, both at Charlotte and at Indianapolis.
Yeah I would not want to be a racecarndriver know as "Fireball"
@@bradsanders407 A nickname that had nothing to do with auto racing. Glenn Roberts got the name "Fireball" because of his pitching prowess before he became a race driver. But the name fit because he was one of the first great drivers in NASCAR history. In fact, Ned Jarrett, who was in the crash that claimed Roberts' life, went as far as to say that Fireball Roberts was NASCAR's first superstar. And the sad thing was that the race in which Fireball suffered the injuries that was to take his life was going to be either the next-to-last or third-to-last race of his career, because he'd already decided he was going to retire after the '64 season, but was going to defend his victories at Daytona in the Firecracker 400 and/or Darlington in the Southern 500, both of which he won in 1963, and then hang up his helmet, but sadly, he never got that chance.
Same thing with Swede Savage in 1973.
@@waynecampbell9208 One eerie thing those two situations had in common was that they not only suffered fiery crashes in Memorial Day weekend classics (Fireball at the 1964 World 600, which was run almost a week before Memorial Day that year and Savage at the 1973 Indianapolis 500), but they also died on the same date on the calendar, July 2. They also raced for Holman-Moody (that's how Bobby Allison got to know Savage, and of course, Roberts was driving for Holman-Moody at the time of his fiery crash).
I saw a picture of Fireball Roberts in the hospital after his accident. His arms & hands were nothing more than blackened stumps. That image has haunted me ever since.
So dark and stuff. Also. Front-engined INDYCAR. The 60s marks the beginning of seasons of funerals.
The one in 1973 was also a very rough one as well!!
So no one died in the front engine cars but these 2?
agree 100%
Great video, a touching tribute to both. Today I was listening to the 1960 Indy 500, where Sachs led for a bit before dropping out due to mechanical issues. He determinedly in an interview after that he would win the 500 one day, and that any man capable of leading the race is capable of winning. God speed Dave and Eddie
I was listening to the race on the car radio with my folks as we drove home from our Sunday drive. I was 11 years old and will always remember that brief time in our car.
My father was sitting in the Firestone box having won a sales manager's contest in 1963. Dad was excited to see his favorite driver, Jim Hurtubise and his monster Novi powered car. He never said much about the race but gave me his Firestone Manager's Trophy we he got home. I still have the trophy and memories of the day knowing that my father was in the grandstands. He never attended another 500 but he - and I - remained fans.
lll be watching this year from Turn 4 and will think of them on Lap 2, on this the 60th yr anniversary of the tragedy.
My dad and grandfather were at the race that day. He told me how bad it was. Rip
I remember that crash. I was 16 years old. I was watching TV and the station cut in with a bulletin announcing that Sachs had been killed and the race had been red flagged for the first time in its history. I was very upset because Sachs was one of my favorite drivers. That same year I saw Mario Andretti at the Milwaukee Mile driving the Dean Van Lines car that Sachs would have been driving.
73 was pretty bad too. An ambulance going the wrong way on Pit Road killed a crew member on their way to a fatal accident at the start of the Pits. They didn't show the man being hit on Tv but you could plainly hear the crowd gasp when it happened.
I remember hearing a commentary on "Wynn Elliott's Sports Central USA" on CBS Radio Network on this tragedy. I don't recall all of it, but I remember the question this commentator asked..." Why would he think to look to his left, or look behind him, when he was running the wrong way on the ultimate one-way street?"
I was 14 and attending my first 500. Eddie was my favorite driver at the time. We left after the accident.
Same here. We hung around for a while and my dad just decided he (as had the rest of us) had had enough and we left.
@@karenkoe7096
"It was a good race; nobody was killed"
Juan Manuel Fangio after 1958 F1 Italian Grand Prix
Greetings from Venezuela 🇻🇪
True tragedy. Very respectfully done video.
That was my 6th indy. We had seats on the inside of turn 4. MacDonald hit the wall about 40 feet upstream of us. Never forget the heat from the fireball. Next year, at moms "request" we sat in the paddock penthouse.
Incredible story. Always great to hear from people who were there!
I heard mickey thompson villified for years nobody ever blamed usac for forcing the tire size change thankyou.
Our next door neighbor Mr
. hedback built Eddie Sach's car. They had a big party for him before the race. We were all devastated.
did you mean, hildebrand?
I had a neighbor a few houses from ours, a Mr. Beauvais. He had been a senior mechanic for a major race team and left the sport after the driver was killed on the track, blaming himself for the incident. I never found out for whom, but my mother said it may have been an Indy-car team. I need to get back to the Speedway Museum and research the books upstairs. To this day, I think Mr. Beauvais may have been on Jerry Unser's crew.
Thank you that speedway is hallowed ground
Very nicely done. The words from IMS broadcaster Sid Collins at the end of your segment encapsulated the situation perfectly. Growing up in the 1960s/1970s, I listened to him reverently. He was always in control, and never jumped to conclusions until official word could be confirmed. Thank you for uploading, and again, many kudos to you.
I did not know that Graham Hill had passed on that car - in Sweden we say "When the old dog barks - better look out the window."
I remember playing Indy 500 Legends and hearing about this wreck.
This was a sad moment for racing, and there was even a Jim Clark mission based around this wreck.
"The Indy 500: A Race for Heros" and "Legends of the Brickyard" both have interviews and accounts, especially the Race for Heros series. The episodes featuring Bobby Unser, Rodger Ward and Mr. Foyt are especially detailed as they were in different positions on the track. The man you can see jumping out of his machine and diving over the wall is, I think, Bobby. Mr. Ward was ahead of the crash and Mr. Foyt drove by on the outside wall, having seen the crash going into Turn 4.
I was there that day with my parents. We were high up in a grandstand on the other side of the track (inside). The cars went by and quite a few of them never came back around. We weren't seeing any cars coming around or hearing much engine noise. We turned around and look west toward the other side of the tracks and saw what looked like a bomb had gone off. Billowing black smoke. They stopped the race. Eventually they announced that Sach had died in the accident and McDonald had been transported to the hospital (later died). They eventually restarted the race. We stayed for a while and left long before the end of the race. None of us had the heart for it after that.
I watched this race at a party at Harvey Aluminum in Torrance, Ca. where my dad worked. with my dad, mom, brother and sister. I actually got sick to my stomach when this accident occurred
Think had USAC not made Thompson change his tires given its instability,perhaps this disaster had never occurred????
A Good Video & Tribute To Two Racers Of The Past. Sounded Like A Real Person Narrating, Too. That's Always A Plus. Thank You. (Like #445)
Wow, Dave could drive anything on any track and drive it well.
This was my dad’s first Indy 500. Great seats on the front stretch. Got to watch his favorite driver (Eddie Sachs) die right in front of him.
Lots of good oval racers are not particularly fast on a road course. Takes special talent to do both well.
We watched this race ĺive at the academy theater in Pasadena ca. Really sad. I was 16 at the time. We were all rooting Davy to win.
The only race my Dad and uncle ever went to. Said they would never go again.
Thanks for shariing! HAPPY INDY 500 WEEKEND!!
Thanks. Great respect for Indy drivers. Some came to Good wood. However if Graham Hill refuses to drive a car it must be difficult to ignore.
Thanks. The Cruel Sport claimed many lives. I stopped watching motor racing for years when Jim Clark died. The Indy 500 is one of the world's great motor races. It attracted many millions of European fans when Jim and Graham Hill won. We respect the drivers who sadly died. I met Dan Gurney at Good wood. An absolute gentleman.
This was classy short document about the black day and people concerned. I saw this crash on tv at Motorsport history document decades ago. I was a child back then and still remember the moment seeing it first time.
It was a truly sad and tragic day in the history of the speedway
It was a real shame that Eddie Sachs died because of Dave McDonald's mistake. Even McDonald himself confided to friends a few days before this race that the car was not safe to drive but because this was the Indianapolis 500, he felt it was too big to turn down his chance to take part. Eddie Sachs was a victim of McDonald's decision to drive in the 1964 Indy 500. The fact that Eddie died in such a horrific accident compounds the fact that Sachs could have easily won the 1961Indianapolis 500.
My Dad and I were seated in the Tower Terrace Extension up towards turn 4, infield. Pretty much directly in front of that firey crash. It looked like the whole track was on fire and looked like the grandstands on the outside of the track might be ablaze! The heat hit my face like a slap. If you are squeamish, stop reading now. They backed two wreckers up on opposite sides of Sachs car, which was a burnt-up, gray mess and pulled the car apart. An ambulance attendant laid a white sheet down alongside the "car". He reached-in and lifted out a charred lump, all that was left of Eddie Sachs, placed it on the sheet, folded it up, carried it to a an ambulance. I will never forget that. How could I?. And two hours after the crash the track announcer came on and said that Eddie Sachs and Dave Macdonald had died and asked for a minute of silence. 350,000 people and all you could hear was the breeze blowing past your ears. That was so eerie. Unforgettable. I was 15.
Now they would immediately cancel the race like a bunch of wussies!
Not true. After the fire was extinguished they put a tarp over Sachs' car and towed it back to the garage, where Eddie's body was removed. He died from blunt force trauma to his chest when he hit McDonald's car, not from burns.
Don't think that the tank ruptured on first impact, that was what was shot out from the fill tube. Not that it matters. BTW, thanks for not pushing that idea that it had 100 gals of fuel in that car.
Thank you for brining life to those guys -- not just "the guys who died in that crash".
Great job with this video
Watched this race with my Dad on closed circuit at the packed Royal Theater in Detroit.
The day I was born RIP MacDonald and Sachs.
I watched it live on closed circuit tv with my father. A day ill never forget.
A friend of our family was seated on the infield bleachers and happened to be filming with his 8mm home movie camera and caught the whole accident live. I remember as a 14 year old watching the film two weeks later. I wonder why that footage has never been seen? If someone is interested, the only thing I can add is the last name of my parents friend is Yaccino.
Eddie and Joe Weatherly would have been great together
I was there my 2nd 500 right across from Eddie's pits
Black Noon
I’ve read Black Noon. It brought the reality home to me with the in-depth story of the events leading up to the crash and the immediate aftermath.
I have huge respect for auto racers and it will always be risky but it meant something different. It just did
Indy 2023 was the most insulting.
They should not allow betting on any auto racing.
Safety For Auto Racing From The 70s 80s And Early 90s Pop Culture
The second the car hit the infield wall, all of the gascaps popped open, fire bursting everywhere.
Amazing history.
For anyone that saw this live, what was the feeling after they continued the race?
I was there with my dad and brother,we were sitting near where the accident happened.
Darkest moment... 1964 or 1973?
Whoa, there were no fuel cells in those days. This car had two aluminum gas tanks.
He had a ranch en route to Del Rio, Texas. I often wondered if he lived there or just used it for hunting
Jim Clarknwas also killed in these foolish endeavors as well as many Jacky Stewart’s peers. He was wise enough to get out of it.
Hauptsache der Überrollbügel ist kleiner wie der Pilot !!! Top Ingenieurs Kunst !!! Das waren rollende Särge, in Benzin getränkt !!!
That car looked more like a sports prototype not an open wheel Indycar.
I remember this😊
Riheaven Dave and Eddie
O carro do speed racer e inspirado nestes carro eu acredito
great video... next time, dont edit the footage. we are adults.
Sad story but I don’t think this is the worlds greatest race track , Le Mans is
If you think 1964 was bad, what about 1973??????
Dave McDonald was 6 of the Top 7 to die after racing the Augusta 510 within 15 months