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Swede Savage

Started by beyondnascar , Feb 06 2002 17:12

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13 replies to this topic

#1 beyondnascar

New Member

15 posts
Joined: February 02

Posted 06 February 2002 - 17:12

Hello all. My name is Scott Bennett. I am here to spread the word of a Swede Savage Tribute Site which I have created with the help of his friends and family. I would like to take this opportunity to invite you all over to take a peek, maybe leave a memory of Swede on the memory book, and if you have a website, please add it to the links page. As always I am looking for any scans of photos, newspaper or magazine articles, or personal stories to add to the site, with all due credit given to the contributor. Thank you very much for the read. Hope to hear from you soon.
sincerely,
Scott Bennett

http://swedesavage42.tripod.com

http://swedesavage42....com/stats.html

www.swedesavage42.com

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#2 Vitesse2

Administrator

41,869 posts
Joined: April 01

Posted 06 February 2002 - 22:41

Hi Scott - welcome to TNF! Nice to see you here as well as TrackForum - I always enjoy your posts there. If you look around, you'll see a few other familiar faces ...

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#3 beyondnascar

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15 posts
Joined: February 02

Posted 06 February 2002 - 23:31

Thanks for the welcoming comittee! WOW! Does this place have some members or WHAT! Very COOL!
Thanks again!

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#4 Mike Argetsinger

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948 posts
Joined: April 00

Posted 07 February 2002 - 00:01

Quite a coincidence. I was just now looking at a Balfour Walker photo of Swede Savage and Peter Revson with the Ferrari 512M they drove at Sebring in 1971. Welcome - we hope you will linger at TNF and enrich us all with material on Swede Savage.

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#5 FEV

Member

909 posts
Joined: May 01

Posted 07 February 2002 - 01:29

Scott ! Glad to see you over here too ! As V2 said your posts at TF are always pertinent and interesting ! And your tribute site to Swede is probably the best site dedicated to a driver I've seen : complete, accurate, sincere, touching - great !
FORZA SAVAGE (Sorry for the plagiarism Keir ;) )

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#6 Rainer Nyberg

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1,768 posts
Joined: October 00

Posted 07 February 2002 - 12:08

Swede Savage counts high on my list of cool names in motorsport.....

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#7 pancho

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95 posts
Joined: March 01

Posted 07 February 2002 - 20:16

I'm ashamed to say my only knowledge of this man is his death following the terrible accident at Indy in 1973. I'll look at this site with great interest.

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#8 beyondnascar

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Joined: February 02

Posted 08 February 2002 - 01:42

Thats why the site was created! Welcome! Scott

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#9 Ray Bell

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80,259 posts
Joined: December 99

Posted 09 February 2002 - 06:47

Very nice indeed... but tell us, please:

What kindled your interest in Savage, what is it that takes him to a greater height in your mind than so many other drivers?

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#10 beyondnascar

New Member

15 posts
Joined: February 02

Posted 09 February 2002 - 22:32

It is all detailed out at http://swedesavage42...d.com/hero.html
In a nutshell.... I was 9 first time I saw him drive, 10 the 1st time I met him, then wrote to him after his crash in the Questor GP, got a reply and autograph. met him again in 71 Sept. He asked me my name, then the next time I saw him, he remembered my name and he said "Hi Scott" to me. I was age 11. Thats all it took, he was an idol. Not to mention he grew up in the same county as me, so he was the most remote of the drivers of the era. Pretty simple, he remembered me, now I am helping the world remember him. The least I can do.

But please read the page, and if you do have even the smallest memory of Swede, please do sign the memory book, as you may or may not know, his wife was pregnant that May of 73. His daughter which he never held reads the site often and it helps heal knowing so many people loved her Dad so. Pretty cool huh? More than I ever dreamed of. Everybody was remembering Dale Earnhardt and I thought it was time they started remembering my hero too.
Thanks again!
Scott

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#11 Don Capps

Member

5,933 posts
Joined: May 99

Posted 10 February 2002 - 00:49

Scott,

First welcome to the Forum.

Second, I was fortunate enough to be able to have a very good chat with Swede at Lweisville, Texas in April 1970 when the Trans-Am race was rained out. I am not sure what I expected, it was the first time we met, but I was really impressed. A very nice person and someone who made a follower out of me as a result of taking a few minutes to just chat. We had both used the facilities at one of the track restrooms (in the paddock), and since he didn't have a towel to dry his hands (as a veteran of many races, such items as paper towels and toilet tissue were standard items in my rucksack) so I gave him some and a conversation ensured.

I am delighted that you have chosen to do something for an underrated and too-often forgotten driver.

:up:

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#12 beyondnascar

New Member

15 posts
Joined: February 02

Posted 10 February 2002 - 02:43

Hello Don. Thanks for the welcome. I ahve a couple questions for you.
Were you a competitor of his back then or just a race fan and also is there anyway you would be kind enough to write up a little story along those lines to put as a permanent fixture on the site? I would love it as would his fans. I am looking for not only the racer Swede stories, but the person Swede stories as well, that one seems to cover them both. ALWAYS looking for photo scans as well.
Thanks again. I really like this place!
Scott Bennett

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#13 Jim Thurman

Member

7,275 posts
Joined: February 01

Posted 10 February 2002 - 04:40

Originally posted by Ray Bell
Very nice indeed... but tell us, please:

What kindled your interest in Savage, what is it that takes him to a greater height in your mind than so many other drivers?

The question was for beyondnascar, but let me add...

"Swede" Savage was rare for the time. A very young driver when average ages were much older, and someone who was a true prodigy.

He had raced motorcycles (flat track and Speedway) and somehow came to Dan Gurney's attention. Everything he tried, he ran more than respectable in.

I only saw Savage, unfortunately, at the Questor GP where he had his serious accident (I saw the huge clouds of dust and a wheel flying off). But, he was truly an impressive young driver.

Until the highly suspect top flight rides made instantly available for Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, Savage is the only case either my brother and I could come up with from U.S. racing where a driver from a different form of racing got opportunities in good equipment right away...and that was because Gurney took him on as a protege.

Somewhere, in an old racing paper, I have a picture of Savage - on his Speedway bike in his leathers with Gurney next to him - that was taken at the 1/8 mile dirt Trojan Speedway in South Gate, California. It was basically announcing that Savage would be soon be devoting his time to driving for Gurney.

Jim Thurman