45 replies to this topic

[Reedy]

On the 10th September 1933 at Monza, Campari-Borzacchini and Czaikowski were all killed.
My question is on what other occassions have more than one top driver been killed on the SAME DAY.

[D-Type]

You could visit the Motorsport Memorial site and trawl through.

Three that immediately come to mind are the 1955 Dundrod TT (Jim Mayers, Bill Smith and Richard Mainwaring), the 1960 Belgian GP (Chris Bristow and Alan Stacey) and the 1957 Safari (Somak Raj and Charlie Safi). I am sure there are others, but it's not a topic I've ever wanted to investigate.

[RA Historian]

Add Jimmy Bryan to the same day as Bristow and Stacey.

Dave MacDonald and Eddie Sachs, Indianapolis, May 30, 1964.

Tom

[speedman13]

Laszlo Hartmann and Eugenio Siena at the 1938 GP of Tripoli.

[Quklis]

Le Mans '55..

[speedman13]

I believe only Pierre Levegh was killed that year.

[lustigson]

Originally posted by Quklis
Le Mans '55..

Although a sad, sad day in itself, wasn't there 'only' one driver killed, namely 'Levegh'?

[Cirrus]

Whilst they were not top drivers, "Geki", "Tiger" and Beat Fehr were all killed in the same F3 race at Caserta in 1967.

[Lotus23]

Depends on how one defines "top drivers", but 3 Indy 500 chauffeurs were killed on Black Sunday: two at Winchester, IN and one at Williams Grove, PA.

[Doug Nye]

Originally posted by speedman13
I believe only Pierre Levegh was killed that year.

Heaven preserve us from such blinkered vision - over 80 spectators also lost their lives and over 100 more suffered significant injury... Each one of them probably meant the absolute world to several more...

Circuit bridge collapses at Aix-les-Bains in 1960 and either in Portugal or Portuguese Africa - Angola? - spring to mind as multiple motor sporting tragedies, there was the Scandinavian or Baltic States multiple-death accident in the 1930s, the Auto Union catastrophe in the USSR in the 1950s, the Argentine Carretera crashes in the 1950s and '60s, 1903 Paris-Madrid, the Toivonen/Cresto Tour de Corse horror, the twin TVR accidents at Cadwell Park in recent years, the Tres Arroyos track disaster, etc etc etc. All bleak, black days...

DCN

[speedman13]

I was well aware of that fact but the post refered to drivers.

[Buford]

Jud Larson and Red Reigel in the same Sprint car wreck. Also Don Branson and Dick Atkins in the same one at Ascot.

[doc knutsen]

Originally posted by Doug Nye


Heaven preserve us from such blinkered vision - over 80 spectators also lost their lives and over 100 more suffered significant injury... Each one of them probably meant the absolute world to several more...

Circuit bridge collapses at Aix-les-Bains in 1960 and either in Portugal or Portuguese Africa - Angola? - spring to mind as multiple motor sporting tragedies, there was the Scandinavian or Baltic States multiple-death accident in the 1930s, the Auto Union catastrophe in the USSR in the 1950s, the Argentine Carretera crashes in the 1950s and '60s, 1903 Paris-Madrid, the Toivonen/Cresto Tour de Corse horror, the twin TVR accidents at Cadwell Park in recent years, the Tres Arroyos track disaster, etc etc etc. All bleak, black days...

DCN

In Scandinavia there was a horrid day in 1949, when the airport races at Gardermoen saw Swede Sture Selander
crash his F3 500cc car into the crowd, killing him as well as two spectators. In 1970, at the Cannon Race in Karlskoga, Sweden, a couple of saloon cars, an Opel and an Escort, hit each other and cartwheeled into the crowd. The drivers were not too badly injured, but five spectators lost their lives. The accident was widely reported in the media, and the anti-motor racing lobby in Sweden had a field day. Or several. Black days indeed.
Then, there was Monza 1961...

[Steffe Ornerdal]

Not the same date, but the same race, so to speak: Gran Premio San Marino 1994, Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger.

About the 1970 Cannon Race in Sweden, it was more tragic than the five spectators who lost their lives. The insurance company refused to pay out to the victims and to the organisers, a real scandal. I was there, 75-100 meters from the disaster but I do not know much what happened later. Maybe Tomas Karlsson or any other Swede-TNF’er can tell the full story?

Haven’t we discussed this in another thread, years ago?

I feel uneasy about a threads like this, but I suppose everything has to be discussed.

[962C]

Denis Dayan and Jean-Luc Salomon, both promising drivers, got killed in two separate accidents at the same F3 race in Rouen, on 28 June 1970.

[markpde]

Originally posted by Doug Nye

...the Auto Union catastrophe in the USSR in the 1950s...

DCN

Doug, what was that about? Never heard the story.

Also, re. the aftermath of the 1955 Le Mans disaster, you'll know this, but I didn't until recently, and it may not be common knowledge - probably academic, given Swiss environmental politics, but...

http://en.wikinews.o...on_motor_racing

[Tim Murray]

Originally posted by markpde
Doug, what was that about? Never heard the story.

I think he's referring to this accident:

Originally posted by .ru in the 'Auto Union: mysterious history' thread
On June 9th, 1946 Leonid Sokolov, test driver of the GAZ automobile factory, drove the 1938/39 Auto Union Grand Prix car (so-called Typ D) on the public road from Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) to Moscow, trying to set new national speed record at a distance of 1000 m (with flying start). When he was at full speed, some spectators went on the road right in front of the car. Sokolov braked hard, the car went off the straight into a ditch, turned over several times and finally crashed into a lorry. Sokolov was pulled out and badly injured, the car was fully damaged. Twelve spectators died immediately, six more – at hospital a bit later. This was the most horrific and tragic accident occured during a motorsport event in the USSR and became one of the reasons for the resolution, that was passed on December 27th, 1948 and disallowed foreign cars in Soviet races.
(Source: interview with another GAZ test driver, Mikhail Mokeev, taken by Lev Shugurov in 1985)

[markpde]

Thanks, Tim.

[Vitesse2]

George Robson and George Barringer (and several other drivers injured) - Lakewood, 1946.

[Barry Boor]

Fon de Portago and Ed Nelson in the '57 Mille Miglia.

[lil'chris]

Are we including bike racers ?

If so, Andrew Mclean and Gary Dynes died following a multiple pile up during the first lap of the 250cc race at North Monaghan ( Glaslough ) during August 2000, with Denis McCullough very badly injured.

[Rob G]

Gaston Chevrolet and Eddie O'Donnell were killed in the same accident in the autumn race at Beverly Hills in 1920. This accident also claimed the life of O'Donnell's mechanic, Lyall Jolls.

[motoholic]

At the 1973 Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hours Hans-Peter Joisten (BMW) Roger Dubos (Alfa) and Massimo Larini (Alfa) were all lost during the night.

[Elford68]

Chambost and Lehoux at GP Picardie, 1936

[wildman]

The crashes that took Mark Donohue and Tiny Lund both occurred on 17 August 1975, though Donohue passed two days later. It was a particularly grim week for U.S. racing, as F5000 phenom B.J. Swanson had died on 13 August, from injuries suffered at Mid-Ohio the previous weekend.

Originally posted by lil'chris
Are we including bike racers ?

Renzo Pasolini and Jarno Saarinen come to mind - both on 20 May 1973 at Monza.

[Racer.Demon]

Originally posted by Barry Boor
Fon de Portago and Ed Nelson in the '57 Mille Miglia.

As well as Dutch driver Jo Göttgens.

[ZOOOM]

Indy 1961........ Eddie Sachs and Dave Mac Donald.

ZOOOM

[GIGLEUX]

You seem to forget:
-von Delius German GP 1937, and two horrible deaths:
-Bandini Monaco 1967
-Williamson Holland 1973

[GIGLEUX]

Jo Schlesser GP de France 1968 and the same year Scarfiotti and Clark. A very black year.

[Lotus23]

ZOOOM, can you make it Indy 64 for Eddie and Dave? (I was there...)

[Vitesse2]

Originally posted by GIGLEUX
Jo Schlesser GP de France 1968 and the same year Scarfiotti and Clark. A very black year.

... and Mike Spence But we are talking of single days, rather than years: in which case 1970 was probably the nadir

(O/T: @ Jean-Maurice - check your PMs @ Autodiva SVP. Merci!)

[TrackDog]

May 30, 1933 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Mark Billman was killed in an accident on lap 80, and Lester Spangler and his riding mechanic, G.L. Gordon were killed in another accident on lap 133. It was a particularly bloody day.


Dan

[Russ Snyder]

1919 Indy 500 - Louis LeCocq & Robert Bandini were killed in turn 2 on lap 97. Arthur Thurman lost his life on lap 45 coming out of the back stretch.

[fines]

Chick Barbo and Tommy Mattson were killed in the same accident, don't recall the exact date but it was 1949, and Salem (IN) I think. One of them may have died the following day, however. There were more multiple fatalities in US racing, but I'll have to look them up. I want to say Woody Woodford and Zook Harton in 1942 at Greenville (OH)? I'll get back to this when I have a little more time.

Oh, and of course Ernie Triplett and Swede Smith at Imperial/El Centro in March 1934, together with mechanic/car owner Hap Hafferly (sp?).

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by fines
Oh, and of course Ernie Triplett and Swede Smith at Imperial/El Centro in March 1934, together with mechanic/car owner Hap Hafferly (sp?).

Hafley. Thanks to newspaper and wire service errors at the time and re-iterating since, it only took 70 years to straighten it out, which I did by checking state death records. The poor man's name was listed as Hapley, Happerly, Hafferly...almost anything but what it was - Hafley.

No one has mentioned California's worst day - October 25, 1970 during the U.S. Open Competition race for Sprint Cars and Super Modifieds at the California State Fairgrounds in Sacramento. Walt Reiff, Ernie Purssell and Jimmy Gordon died in two separate incidents. The first driver fatalities in track history occurring in the program slated to be the final event.

[Barry Boor]

I know that two F.1 drivers died in the one weekend at Imola in 1994 but something tells me that a multiple fatality nowadays at any major motor sporting event would have a calamitous effect on much of the motor sport in the world.

I just hope I'm wrong.

[Doug Nye]

On a more cheery note - it occurs to me that it was a black day in motor racing when 'The News of the World' published its celebrated expose of Max Mosley...

DCN

[D-Type]

Originally posted by Doug Nye
On a more cheery note - it occurs to me that it was a black day in motor racing when 'The News of the World' published its celebrated expose of Max Mosley...

DCN

I'm not so sure. It has driven a bit of a wedge between Max and Bernie which can't be a bad thing.

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by fines
Oh, and of course Ernie Triplett and Swede Smith at Imperial/El Centro in March 1934, together with mechanic/car owner Hap Hafferly (sp?).

Oh, and it was George "Swede" Smyth.

They even got that wrong!

Someone posted here to TNF that they were visiting their father's nearby grave in a Seattle cemetery and spotted Smyth's headstone. That's what it took to correct that.

[fines]

Originally posted by Doug Nye
On a more cheery note - it occurs to me that it was a black day in motor racing when 'The News of the World' published its celebrated expose of Max Mosley...

DCN

I still regard the day MM was elected FIA president as the 'blackest day'!

And thanks, Jim, for the corrections! I knew you had corrected that years ago, but didn't have the time to look it up. As you quite rightly say, neither Smyth nor Hafley were ever spelt correctly in period, so it's hard to recall the correct form. And they're not alone...

[Doug Nye]

Originally posted by fines

I still regard the day MM was elected FIA president as the 'blackest day'!

...and the day the story broke was the day most of us came to realise it.

DCN

[fines]

Originally posted by Jim Thurman

Hafley. Thanks to newspaper and wire service errors at the time and re-iterating since, it only took 70 years to straighten it out, which I did by checking state death records. The poor man's name was listed as Hapley, Happerly, Hafferly...almost anything but what it was - Hafley.

Interestingly, "Hap Hafley" continued to show up as a car owner in 1935, they year after he died! In fact, Hafley was the registered owner of the car in which Onyx L. "Bud" Snavely crashed fatally on March 31 of that year - the car was so thoroughly destroyed, it probably wasn't rebuilt after that.

[F3Wrench]

As black days in recent motor racing goes, and as far as I am concerned the day that modern F1 racing died, was 19th June 2005. The day that 6 cars lined up for the USA Grand Prix after Michelin could not guarantee the safety of their tyres on all the other cars. The day that the pits were full of capable drivers in perfectly good cars but weren't allowed to race.

Those real heroes that have lost their lives during earlier part of the 20th century, battling with other cars in ludicrously dangerous conditions, must have been turning in their graves. Nobody died that day, but the sport took a lethal blow to its reputation.

[cpbell]

Originally posted by F3Wrench
As black days in recent motor racing goes, and as far as I am concerned the day that modern F1 racing died, was 19th June 2005.

A ludocrous day, but the death had already happened - Austria 2002 was the event.

[Henk Vasmel]

I am a bit surprised that there is no mention yet of the Swiss Grand Prix 1948. Both Achille Varzi and Christian Kautz and motorcycle racer Omobono Tenni (what a beautiful first name) in one meeting, though possibly on different days, just like Imola '94.

[lustigson]

Originally posted by Henk Vasmel
I am a bit surprised that there is no mention yet of the Swiss Grand Prix 1948. Both Achille Varzi and Christian Kautz and motorcycle racer Omobono Tenni (what a beautiful first name) in one meeting, though possibly on different days, just like Imola '94.

Wow, I'd never heard of that tragic race. There were both motorcycle and car races at the same meeting, I understand.