Eddie Sachs Last Moment

[slidinsideways]

I found this on another board and was stunned. It is clear to me that the "rookies" (Rutherford, Duman and B. Unser) were following Sachs (the veteran) hoping he knew the way through...I share this for an historical insight, not to exploit the carnage that is taking place...


Warning! The photo depicts an accident in which two fatalities will occur!

(click on the link for photo to appear)


i137.photobucket.com/albums/q205/spoilerbreaker/SachsLastMoment.jpg

[2lapsdown]

That may be the most dramatic photo of Indy I've ever seen. You know what they say about one photo being worth a thousand words. There you have it.

[racerbrown]

here's another shot at a different angle. it's amazing these other guys were able to get through it all.
duane
i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff215/racerbrown28/indy64.jpg

[Deleted]

In 1989, I wrote an article on, "What Caused the Crash of 64."...I have spoken to many people that were there on the track and in the grandstands that saw that awful crash. I spoke to many on what was going on before that tragic day.

Carl Hungness called me a ghoul for writing it and turned it down. Well...I have bailed his rump out many times and Carl is a real piece of work! Well...it ended up part of an article about Eddie Sachs that was in Hungness' 95 program, so he it is......Hope this sheds some light on the subject in a historical vain...

During the weeks before the 1964 Indianapolis 500, the track was buzzing about Mickey Thompson's cars and his team. Backed by Sears and powered by Ford, he cars were lower and wider than any others...and they were unstable on the track. Many who worked at the track have said, "You could hear them skipping like a rock on a pond through the turns." After following MacDonald on carburation day, Jimmy Clark went up to Dave and said, "You tell Thompson you will not get into that car on race day! It's dangerous!" Dave MacDonald had signed a contract, was young and wasn't going to miss his big chance on driving in the Indy 500.

Well, many things need to go wrong to make an accident of this magnitude...and many things went terribly wrong.

First, IMS told Thompson that he couldn't have wings on his cars...and he had to run different tires than the car was designed to run on....Those were the first things that went wrong. Thompson, who had a ton of money to back the cars in the race, wasn't going to miss the race.

Second, Dave MacDonald was known as the "King of the Four Wheel Drift." Always sliding his Cobra Sports car sideways through turns.....Something you just can't so at Indianapolis.

Also, third......inside the turn four wall was angled in a manner that anything hitting that part of the wall...would be directed back onto the track. Just like what happened in 1973 with Swede Savage's car. Changes were not made here until after 1973's race....also, there was a rise in the track known to all the drivers known as "The Hump"....a section that cause cars to rise up a bit before the main straight away.

Well....The `1964 started with Clark going out to a huge lead. The first lap was over 150 mph.....and then came the second lap. Clark leading Marshman, Ward, Gurney, Jones and Foyt..

MacDonald, driving hard, lost control after going over the hump when exiting the northwest turn 4 and spins down the main straightaway. Always aggressive, MacDonald had gone from 14th place to t10th place and was challenging rookie Walt Hansgen for 9th when he spun. Air had gotten under his car and off it went on it's own, sliding down the track! MacDonald hit the part of the angled extension infield wall, rupturing the right side fuel tank. The cars gasoline explodes into flames and Caroms back onto the center of the track.

Eddie Sachs, does what any veteran driver would do and apparently tried to squeeze between the spinning, flaming Sears Allstate Special and the wall, but hits MacDonald's car broadside, killing him instantly. Both cars are engulfed in the inferno. Now, burning fiercely, MacDonald's car comes to a stop, in the middle of the track, burning.

Rookie Johnny Rutherford, Ronnie Duman and Bobby Unser were following Sachs hoping to get through the inferno. After barely missing the two cars in the main crash, rookie Johnny Rutherford goes under the back of Sachs' car and comes out the other side, on fire. His nose with a tire mark from Sachs car. He steers clear only to have his car come out, on fire, By accelerating away, Rutherford was able to extinguish the flames in the airstream. His car came to rest in between turns one and two.

Bobby Unser's Furguson Novi punts Ronnie Duman's roadster in the tail and veers toward the outer wall, where it comes to rest after losing a wheel. Spun by Unser's Novi hit to the rear of his car, Ronnie Duman's car spins around and comes to rest along the inner wall where it burst into flames. Duman, dazed jumps from his burning car and stumbles in the infield.

Behind the crash, Norm Hall loses control and spins into the inner wall while Chuck Stevenson's car was hit by flying debris. He escapes, unhurt but the car is too damaged to continue.

It took almost two hours to clean up the carnage. The race restarted. Many didn't want to. "You can't go through something like that and not have it take something out of you. It did me.", stated two time winner Rodger Ward. "I didn't Foyt, who had ice water running in his veins." Foyt went on the win, after all the front running rear engine cars and Parnell Jones had dropped out.

Dave MacDonald died later that day due to burns in his lungs.

So what cause the crash of 1964? Many things. After the changes made to the Thompson cars by the IMS, they were aerodynamic turds! Thompson should have withdrawn his team, but didn't. Fords ran on gasoline, and it was the last time gasoline was used at the Speedway. The track was worked on before the next 500, thus "The Hump" was gone. A combination of corporate greed, aggressive driving, poor tires (The Allstate Special tires were made by Bridgestone), advancing speeds and dumb luck, cause this awful day in 500 History...The first time the race was stopped due to an accident.

Later, in his garage, one of Rutherford's Mechanic's found a lemon on a sting next to is engine. Sachs always wore a lemon around his neck tired with a string to suck on during the race, keep his mouth from getting dry.


The IMS Photo department has many unpublished photos of this accent, but refuses to let anyone see them for obvious reasons. Many film was shot that day, but few have angles that show everything that happened.

Look at the good things, many lesions were learned that day about safety. Gasoline was barred by the Speedway. It was made mandatory ford drivers suits to be fire resistant. Crash tucks and safety teams were put in each corner of the track and along the back straightaway. Cars were made safer as well.

Since that awful day, only a handful of drivers have lost their lives at Indianpolis...unlike the previous decade at the Speedway...but...if you look at drawings of the Thompson Cars, before they were forced to make changes in their body work, with all the aerodynamic parts on it. they look a great deal like the early 1970's Gurney Eagles.


Just part of a longer article Best to you

Russ

[mrindy77]

My dad was there in 1964 and this tradegy unfolded right in front of him. He recalls the heat from the flames was so intense that he felt it in the stands. Eddie was one of dad's favorites and I can hardly imagine how he felt that day. When my grampa and dad returned home the race, the Winona news interviewed them for a newspaper article about the race and accident. Obviously, my dad does talk about it very much he was 19 years old at the time and to this day is probably the most horrific event he has ever witnessed.
I recall in 1989 when Cogan crashed right in front of us and how the car literally disintegrated on impact....I thought for sure he was gone and it is the strangest feeling to actually see and hear something like that unfold right in front of you. I was visibly shaking and moved to tears...and he walked away.

[macsparty]

mrindy, talk about similar stories. My dad was there in 1964 too in the stands right behind the accident. He talks about people hunkering down between the seats to try to escape the heat. He had a friend with him - it was his first and last 500 after that. My dad also tells of a woman sitting near them who commented, "Well, I never liked Eddie Sachs anyway." He said it was one of the few times in his life he wanted to deck a woman. I'd say she would have deserved it. I really don't know how some people manage in life.

Then in 1989, we were in the Tower Terrace too. I remember Cogan sliding through pit lane on his side - all that was left was the tub and one wheel that just kept spinning. I actually managed to snap off a couple photos I need to dig up. But I remember the one thought in my head was, "I just watched someone die." I couldn't believe it when he got out of the car. I was on the grounds for the Gordon Smiley accident, but didn't see it. So that Cogan accident remains the most wicked hit I have actually seen at the Speedway.

And since I started to take my wife to the race, I really really hope I never see another. She has flat out stated if she ever sees a bad accident where someone is seriously hurt or killed, she is done. (She's missed the last two anyway, but that's another story...)

[mrindy77]

It's a special place for sure filled with triumph and tradegy...I always feel as though I'm standing on hallowed ground....much the same as any battlefield.
On so many levels I can relate to what Unser Jr. said......'you just don't know what Indy means...' and I can never describe it to non race fans.

[indy]

I know what your wife means. When I was leaving TMS after Kenny Brack's bad wreck, thinking he was dead, I started wondering about this sport I love..... for the record, I come for the racing - not the wrecks.

Things like this makes me appreciate all of the great drivers we are lucky to still have today that made it through this era!

Jordan

[Deleted]

Mr. Indy...I agree with you 100%!!!

I got the same feeling at Gettysburg and the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is indeed, hallowed ground. Many mean and dreams have died and been born there over the years. One of the reasons I love the place! The memories of past men and machines that raced there.

Many years ago, I was lucky enough to stand alone on the front straightaway. There was a slight breeze blowing down the track and I swear, you could hear the place breathing. It sounds weird, but I was video taping what I saw and heard and when I got home, it was on the tape as well. So I know I wasn't too crazy. At the time, I was working on a book about Eddie Sachs....I have since shelved it. Eddie was before his time, in many ways.

Best to you

Russ