56 replies to this topic

[HistoricMustang]

A search of the topic failed to identify any previous threads.

As we continue to research the local circuit a discovery was made of the lady that was killed while attempting a parachute jumb during one of the early events on September 4, 1960. Theresa Ann Morgan's parachute simply failed to open and she landed in the lake area at the three mile road course.

Just wondering of other tragic events that preceeded racing activities around the globe. Others?

Henry

[Twin Window]

A bloke called Bernd Rauschenwald died whilst attempting to land his Uniroyal-sponsored hanglider prior to the 1973 German GP at the Nurburgring, if that's the kind of thing you mean Henry.








(But it's not very 'Christmassy', matey...)

[theunions]

I assume we're only talking about events once the race weekend commenced, or once individuals were en route to said weekends.

Alan Kulwicki and the October Hendrick Motorsports plane crash would be two very obvious examples.

[canon1753]

Al Holbert's plane crash also was on the way to a [CART?] race, so that would fit.

edited.

[theunions]

Originally posted by canon1753
Al Holbert's plane crash also was on the way to a CART race, so that would fit.

I don't think so - he died on Sept. 30, 1988 in Columbus, 5 days after the Nazareth race. The next race in Laguna wasn't until Oct. 16. I seem to recall this was more testing-related, presumably at Mid-Ohio.

[Ray Bell]

Wasn't James Dean driving to a race?

John McCormack was badly injured heading for the 1980 AGP, IIRC. I'm sure there have been other fatalities en route to races involving entered drivers. And, of course, there was Farina's fatal crash heading for the French GP...

[Manfred Cubenoggin]

Al Holbet(Jr.)was winging his way back to Columbus, Ohio for an IMSA race, lads. He was scheduled to compete in his famous Lowenbrau Porsche 962. Nothing to do whatsoever with CART.

[teegeefla]

Bob Wollek's being hit by a vehicle (camper?) while riding his bike prior to the Sebring race...

[thomaskomm]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
Wasn't James Dean driving to a race?

John McCormack was badly injured heading for the 1980 AGP, IIRC. I'm sure there have been other fatalities en route to races involving entered drivers. And, of course, there was Farina's fatal crash heading for the French GP...

Farina was killed on his way to Rheims, French GP 1966 as his Lotus-Ford Cortina collided (wet conditions) with an telegraph mast in the Alpen. Nino Farina, 60, was immediately killed!

Thomas

[theunions]

Originally posted by Manfred Cubenoggin
Al Holbet(Jr.)was winging his way back to Columbus, Ohio for an IMSA race, lads.

Wasn't he taking off FROM Columbus?

[bigears]

What about David Coulthard's plane accident in 2001 before the Spanish GP?

Was the plane on the way to Barcelona at the time?

[D-Type]

Wasn't Frank Williams' accident on the way to a race meeting? I know it wasn't fatal, but it wa still tragic.

[Twin Window]

FW and Peter Windsor were leaving Paul Ricard at the time, Duncan...

[Doug Nye]

...after a test session...

DCN

[Twin Window]

Indeed! A silly omission on my part.

A pre-season test, in fact.

[HistoricMustang]

Henry

[Henri Greuter]

Indy 1960: A selfmade grandstand within the infield collapsed (there are pictures of it going down), 2 spectators killed.
The till then tolerated scaffolding was banned from then on at the speedway.


henri Greuter

[Phil Harms]

One of the most unusual and tragic accidents at Indianapolis involved a driver by the name of Johnny Hannon. Johnny started racing in the early 1930s, driving the dirt tracks of the East Coast. Johnny had the reputation of being fast, cocky and a little wild --- a common attribute.

Finally Johnny got his big chance, an opportunity to drive in the 1935 Indpls 500. He didn't waste any time, went out on the track and wrecked before completing his first lap. Hannon was fatally injured. But it doesn't end there.

Leon Duray, Hannon's car owner, rebuilt the car and driver Clay Weatherly qualified the car and started the race. Weatherly lasted only nine laps before wrecking in the north-west, the same turn that took Hannon's life. Weatherly's results were the same --- a fatality, one of five that year at Indianapolis.

[Ray Bell]

Wow, that was fast...

It took the 2-litre Ballot over 23 years to accomplish something like that... 1935 to 1958. Of course it had a different engine, a new body and so on, but it was the same car.

Not only that, both of the drivers were ex-motorcyclists and they both crashed half way down a long straight.

[Lotus23]

Henry, there's something about that tragic story which strikes me as odd.

My skydiving dates back to that same year (1960). We were required to complete a minimum of 5 static-line jumps (from 2500 ft) before being considered for any free-falling. And yet this young lady is free-falling from 10K feet on only her third jump. Sounds like a lack of proper training may have been a factor in this accident. (FWIW, those old WWII era T-10 parachutes didn't always open as reliably as today's models do.)

[Falcadore]

Lotus: the article says her husband was a pilot for the same company of the place she leapt from. Whether that explains your question or not is sometihng I can't answer.

[1920sracing]

At a Thankgiving Day (November) race in 1923 at the board speedway in Beverly Hill, California Fred Wagner, starter extraordinaire, gave Harry Hartz permission for a fast lap prior to the start of a 250 mile race to test his engine. The only problem was that the rest of the cars were lined up for the start with a crowd milling around the start area. Hartz came through at about 50 mph, killed two people and injured one. Killed were George Wade, a car owner (Harlan Fengler, driver) and William Hughes, the official photographer.

Hughes was hit dead-on and thrown 100 yrads down the track, loosing both legs and tumbling through the air, dead at impact with the track... grafically shown in great detail in the local newspaper. Wade tried to scramble out of the way and was hit a glancing but fatal blow. A Duesenberg mechanic fractured his leg. To quote Hartz "seeing that I did not have a clear track, I slowed down. I was not going over forty or fifty miles an hour at the time I hit the photographer. He stepped directly in front of my machine and I did not know that I had struck either Wade or Lee (the mechanic). Wow! Wonder what would happen today?

The race went on after everything was cleaned up and the bodies removed, including treating many people in the stands for shock and upset stomachs at the infield hospital... Tom Mix, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin among them. It happened right in front of the good seats and within 5 yards of the grandstand.

There was no official investigation and no one reprimanded or punished for their stupidity.

A good discription is in Peter De Paolo's "I drove the Boards" series in Speed Age and my book on Murphy. The fullest account is in the November 30, 1923 Los Angeles Examiner newspaper.

1920sracing

[doc540]

For those interested, the NTSB summary of Al Holbert's crash:
NTSB Report

We lost a great one that day.

[HistoricMustang]

Lotus, I have re-read the newspaper story several times and am not sure if that was her third jump ever or the third jump at just the track. I remember reading somewhere that she had made two previous jumps at the track complex. Could be a mix-up in reporting so further investigation is in order.

Interesting that she landed where we now take our track walks in the "Alligator Hollow" area.

Another mystery we will have to solve from this very interesting place.

The potential husband's involvement is also somewhat interesting. Perhaps our next lunch discussion can shed some light on the event.

Henry

[Hugo Boecker]

Originally posted by Twin Window
A bloke called Bernd Rauschenwald died whilst attempting to land his Uniroyal-sponsored hanglider prior to the 1973 German GP at the Nurburgring, if that's the kind of thing you mean Henry.

(But it's not very 'Christmassy', matey...)

High Twinny

Do you have some more on this incident. I found nothing in the german magazins reporting the 1973 F1 Grand-Prix ?

so long
Hugo Boecker

[Buford]

At the 1966 USAC Champ Car race at the Illinois State Fair Joe Leonard had just gone out to qualify when I was standing on the stage in the infield toward the turn 1 end. Right next to me was a tow truck with a wire extended across the track way up to the top of the 110 foot grandstand. The Green Berets were going to have a demonstration of riding the wire to publicize their Vietnam War show they were having in Southeast Asia and they wanted to impress late teenagers like me to go kill with them.

I heard the sargent say to the truck driver, "Pull it taut." So they cranked the winch and pulled off the top of the grandstand a small photographer stand with two guys on it. The debris and the men fell the 110 feet into the packed grandstand. People used to actually go to Indy Car races before Tony George decided to fix it all. But fortunately there was a stage on the outside which extended a few rows into the stands. The metal and wood hit there, decapitating the state fair stage manager and killing one of the fallers. The other faller landed on the rail in front of the first grandstand row and bent it into a V shape.

Three men were killed and a few injured in the stands. One of the photographers killed was a well known Dick Wallen photographer. I think his name was Mueller. They got Joe Leonard slowed down and he had to duck the wire to keep from getting his head cut off too as he went under it as it extended across the track.

So they started playing some weird ooompa band music to get the crowd to stop screaming and stuff and they cleaned up the mess and went back to qualifying. Just another day at the races in the 1960s.

[Twin Window]

Which reminds me of the incident at Indy when the guy - was he an astronaut? - driving the pace car lost it and took down a (press?) grandstand. Was that 1971?

[Buford]

No he was a local car dealer named Eldon Palmer. The most seriously injured was our family friend Dr Vicente Alvarez from Argentina. When we heard he was one of the injured we rushed down to Methodist Hospital right after the race and found he was near death with bleeding in the brain and they would not operate because there was nobody to sign the papers. So my father signed the papers saying they were not to blame if he died or whatever it was they wanted and they saved his life. It took him about 4 years to recover but he eventually lived a full life for another 25 years. He however was never able to go back to being a surgeon himself which he was before the accident.

We spent all night at the hospital and also there was Alice Mosely and a lot of racing people because Mike Mosely was also very near death after an accident in the race. Much much worse than ever reported in the papers, but he also recovered. Just another day at the races in the 1970s.

[Twin Window]

Thanks, Buford. Lord knows where I got the thought that an astronaut was involved! :

And like you say, just another day at the races...

Originally posted by Hugo Boecker

High Twinny

Do you have some more on this incident. I found nothing in the german magazins reporting the 1973 F1 Grand-Prix ?

Hugo

All I have is this photo published in Grand Prix Guide 74 on page 105...

[Buford]

Originally posted by Twin Window
Thanks, Buford. Lord knows where I got the thought that an astronaut was involved! :

And like you say, just another day at the races...

I think John Glenn was in the back seat of the pace car but was not driving.

[FrankB]

Very vague memories here - perhaps someone can fill in the gaps... an official from the RACMSA (very high up in the organisation IIRC) was killed while riding a motorcycle to the British GP... early 80s?

[Ray Bell]

Oh yes, I knew there was one...

Colin Dunne and I think his wife died driving around the Phillip Island road course between races in 1940. That would have been the triangle course.

Colin was a pretty quick operator in his K3... perhaps John Medley can add more to this?

[Buford]

One unique thing about auto racing is it offers multiple ways to kill yourself.

[Twin Window]

Originally posted by FrankB

Very vague memories here - perhaps someone can fill in the gaps... an official from the RACMSA (very high up in the organisation IIRC) was killed while riding a motorcycle to the British GP... early 80s?

Yes - I can't think of his name off the top of my head - but IIRC he was leaving Silverstone on his motorbike. His wife was following in her car...

EDIT: Peter Hammond, Chief Exec of the RACMSA.

[Hugo Boecker]

Hugo
All I have is this photo published in Grand Prix Guide 74 on page 105...

Twinny thanks

[Manfred Cubenoggin]

Here's one for the 'Post-race Tragedy' section.

I cannot recall the year but it was probably the early 1970's. For some inexplicable reason, the officials at Mosport did little to discourage spectators from driving on the track after a major race event. Numerous times, I witnessed spectators taking their road cars out onto the track for a lap or two. Just how they managed to gain the track surface I do not know.

As for the incident in particular, it was following one event that a spectator took to the track and was speeding up the back straight...to be met by a likewise speeding Jag XKE heading in the reverse direction! A near-headon crash resulted with the passenger in the Jag being fatally injured. The driver of the Jag was none other than XXXXX XXXXXXX, known most recently for heading a series of XXXX XXXXXX teams. Way to be, XXXXX!

Edit: A moment after hitting the submit key, I thought that I'd better jump back in here and cover the identity of the Jag driver involved. There's a slim chance that I may have been mistaken in fingering him(but not likely). More to the point, I'd rather not face a law suit from him since he was 'King of Prostestors' in FF racing here in Ontario in the early '70's.

[ggnagy]

Part of the lore of the SCCA Cumberland MD Nationals is that one year some spectators were drag racing on the runway after the track had gone "cold" for the day, and a Jaguar continued on past the right turn at the end of the pit straight and down a very steep embankment killing the occupants. The guy who runs one of the Cumberland retrospective websites has posted to TNF and might have more details.

[Jerry Lee]

Originally posted by Buford


I think John Glenn was in the back seat of the pace car but was not driving.

I think he was on the mobile stage that the pace car hit. I've got a tape somewhere, I'll see if I can find it.

[Chubby_Deuce]

Does John Walton's death prior to last years British GP belong in this thread?

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Manfred Cubenoggin
Here's one for the 'Post-race Tragedy' section.

I cannot recall the year but it was probably the early 1970's. For some inexplicable reason, the officials at Mosport did little to discourage spectators from driving on the track after a major race event. Numerous times, I witnessed spectators taking their road cars out onto the track for a lap or two. Just how they managed to gain the track surface I do not know.....

Getting back to pre-race issues...

The Australian Grand Prix at Leyburn in 1949 brought the organisers a similar worry. It was a big, fast airstip circuit with three straights of a mile or more apiece.

So they put a wire across the straight... maybe it was visible in the daylight, but not in the half-dark or dark.

One competitor, out for a final tune-up or something, hit the wire. His name was 'Cappy' Wood, and as Graham Howard mentions in the AGP book, he was nearly de-cappy-tated. Of course, he survived, but Alf Bowers drove his car (a Hudson 6 powered midget with oversized wheels...) in the race the next day.

Cappy's son, incidentally, turned out for the 50th anniversary celebrations at Leyburn in 1999.

[rlnorton]

Since the thread seems to have broadened out from the original pre-race tragic events, I have to add the spectator fataility that occured during the running of the December 6, 1959, event at Riverside Raceway in California. Following is a quotation from MotoRacing, Volume 5, Number 4, Page 2:
"Tragic aftermath of the recent CSCC races at Riverside was an accident on the parking area behind turn 6. Here, the victim, John E. Campbell, 46, a spectator from Los Angeles, is seen about eight feet in the air after he was hurled from his flipping car. He died shortly after arrival at a Riverside hospital. Witnesses said he was 'draggin,' or engaging in 'acceleration tests,' went over a small embankment and flipped several times. At right is what was left of the victim's British-made Triumph TR3."

[T54]

And Buford thinks that us bike racers are nuts.

[Twin Window]

I saw that post too... (but where's it gone? : )

[Ray Bell]

Isn't that in the Rouen thread?

[Buford]

Originally posted by T54
And Buford thinks that us bike racers are nuts.

I am a former Sprint Car driver. I can call anybody nuts I want to!

[T54]

I am a former Sprint Car driver.

Buford,
That definitely qualifies you as a certified nutcase. Welcome to the club!

[Nikos Spagnol]

Originally posted by Ray Bell


Getting back to pre-race issues...

The Australian Grand Prix at Leyburn in 1949 brought the organisers a similar worry. It was a big, fast airstip circuit with three straights of a mile or more apiece.

So they put a wire across the straight... maybe it was visible in the daylight, but not in the half-dark or dark.

One competitor, out for a final tune-up or something, hit the wire. His name was 'Cappy' Wood, and as Graham Howard mentions in the AGP book, he was nearly de-cappy-tated. Of course, he survived, but Alf Bowers drove his car (a Hudson 6 powered midget with oversized wheels...) in the race the next day.

Cappy's son, incidentally, turned out for the 50th anniversary celebrations at Leyburn in 1999.

I've read somewhere about a Brazilian Formula Ford (?) driver who died in similar conditions, in Jacarepagua: to avoid ordinary people racing in the track, the organisers put a big fallen tree sideways in the main straight. Well, this poor driver went out for some testing in his Formula Ford, unaware of it, and crashed the tree.

Maybe Muzza knows better about the details.

[Muzza]

Originally posted by Nikos Spagnol


I've read somewhere about a Brazilian Formula Ford (?) driver who died in similar conditions, in Jacarepagua: to avoid ordinary people racing in the track, the organisers put a big fallen tree sideways in the main straight. Well, this poor driver went out for some testing in his Formula Ford, unaware of it, and crashed the tree.

Maybe Muzza knows better about the details.

Hello, Nikos,


The accident you refer to involved Nélson Balestieri - a wonderful fellow who I had the chance of meeting in Interlagos a few times.

Please check this posting: http://forums.atlasf...589#post1662589.

Incidentally, I have been working on a short biography of Antônio de Castro Prado (deceased in very similar circumstances, and also mentioned in the posting above cited), and any information on him would be much appreciated (and properly credited, of course).

Abraços,


Muzza

[Nanni Dietrich]

I've found a short article on an old Italian magazine about an accident which happened at Indianapolis in 1961. Before the start of the Indy 500, during the "Golden Anniversary of the 500" ceremony an air balloon crashed on the Snake-Pit at Turn 4, several spectators were injured, possibly someone died.
No other detail.

[Nanni Dietrich]

Nobody knows?