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Mechanics working on Howden Ganley's badly damaged Iso Marlboro FX3B run by Frank Williams after the driver from New Zealand lost his brakes during practice at the Nurburgring for the 1973 German GP. He was lucky to walk away with only bumps and bruises.

It was a tough year for Howden scoring only one point for 6th place.

Ganley took part in 41 races, qualifying for 35 and scoring 10 points with a best result of 4th in the 1972 German GP in a BRM. He also finished 5th in the closest GP finish ever at Monza in 1971, only 0.61 behind the winning car of team mate Peter Gethin. In '72 he also finished 2nd the Le Mans.

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Type in Tazio Nuvolar in YouTube and you will see wealth of vintage black and white racing film.

Tazio Nuvolari
Tazio Giorgio Nuvolari 16 November 1892 – 11 August 1953)

The first name on anybody's list of the greatest is Tazio Nuvolari, the legendary, lantern-jawed, ferociously intense man of Mantova. Nuvolari's racing career, which started with motorcycles, spanned the three decades from 1920 to 1948. The Italian drove during both the pre-war and post-war eras, and unlike most top-rank drivers, who taper off in their latter years of competition, Nuvolari was almost as much a threat at the end as he was at the start. He had already raced for 14 seasons when the golden era of pre-war racing - the 1934-39 period - began, and still he racked up 11.5 grand prix wins during that period (fractional points were given for shared drives). During his next-to-last year of racing, when he was 55 years old, he almost won the fabled Mille Miglia.

Nuvolari won almost 200 races during his incredible career. When asked if racing did not frighten him, he replied: "Tell me, do you think you will die in bed? You do? Then where do you find the courage to get into it every night?"
He died in bed in 1953.

Cisitalia D46
Before the Second World War was over, Italian entrepreneur and racing driver Piero Dusio formed Cisitalia. His goal was to get back to racing shortly after the War had finished with a one model single seater series. Although this type of racing is very common today, it was a completely new idea at the time. Using Fiat parts as a base Dante Giacosa designed the very economical racer, which make its successful debut in 1946.

Dubbed D46, the small racer featured a simple, but sturdy space frame chassis. Giacosa had vast knowledge of Fiat bits and pieces, as he had designed the legendary 500 Topolino before the War. The engine and suspension were directly derived from the small Fiat, but extensively modified for their racing purpose. The engine received dry sump lubrication and further tweak considerably increased the power output. Weighing under 400 kg the 60-70 bhp available was more than enough for competitive performance.

Dusio's dream of a one model series came to nothing, but instead his D46s started to dominate the voiturette series. Highly talented drivers like Tazio Nuvolari piloted the D46 to multiple successes against more advanced, but older racing cars. The successes led to a much more ambitious single seater project that would prove too much for the small company. Porsche's Design Studio was commissioned to design and construct a full Grand Prix racer, which had the overly complex, but very interesting Type 360 as a result.

Like so many small companies, Cisitalia went belly up and Dusio fled to Argentina. Carlo Abarth used the remains of the company to kick start his own company, which proved to be even more successful.

No Fatal and Non Fatal Crash Photos but defiantly worth seeing

Three minutes of nostalgia that will make you smile. ~ Push Play

[windowlicker]

Horrible image of the body of Eddie Sachs in his car after the second lap crash at the Indy 500 in 1964. Eddie couldn't avoid the flaming wreck of Dave MacDonald and there was a second explosion on impact. Both drivers died in the inferno.

Eddie Sachs had twenty-four top five finishes in sixty-one AAA and USAC single seater races from 1956 to '64. He won eight races during this time, with four poles and led 540 laps. He took pole at Indy in 1960 and '61 and finished second in '61 after pitting from the lead with three laps to go to change a tyre.

We can only hope Eddie was dead on impact, and did not have to endure the fire unlike MacDonald who initially survived the flames only to die very soon afterwards...Sach's racing overalls apparently stood up to the flames very well, but an open helmet gave him no chance of survival.

[FunkPumpkin]

Originally Posted by windowlicker ↗

Sepp Greger's huge crash during the Klagenfurt International airport races in 1960. His Porsche RS60 left the road at speed crashing into parked cars in a spectator area and the aluminium bonnet came through the windscreen severing Sepp's right arm. Greger recovered from his injuries and continued racing...

You hate to see Porsche-on-Porsche violence like that. An RS60 (718) hitting a spectator's 356 like that!

[AlvinKarpis]

Originally Posted by windowlicker ↗

Horrible image of the body of Eddie Sachs

I have never seen that image before

The first thought that popped into my head was the same thing that windowlicker said, " I hope he died on impact and didnt suffer"

[The Dark]

There's several comments from crowd & other drivers that Sachs was seen to be moving for a short period of time. I think as he was an extremely popular driver people do want to wish his death was quick & painless, his body was covered with a white sheet and the wreck towed to the pits.

MacDonald definitely lived for an hour or so (Wiki alleges 2 hours), he had no chance though. One of the other drivers in the crash - Johnny Rutherford iirc - commented on what he saw later.

Rutherford also spoke of finding a slice of lemon in his lap after his car came to a halt, Sachs had always carried a slice of lemon to give him a little "juice" throughout the race. Rutherford went on to become a 3 time 500 champion.

This was spoken over the PA just after the announcement that Eddie Sachs had died:


"You heard the announcement from the public address system. There's not a sound. Men are taking off their hats. People are weeping, over three hundred thousand fans, here; not moving; disbelieving. Some men try to conquer life in a number of ways. These days of our outer space attempts, some men try to conquer the universe. Race drivers are courageous men who try to conquer life and death, and they calculate their risks. And in our talking with them over the years, I think we know their inner thoughts in regards to racing: they take it as part of living. No one is moving on the race track. They're standing silently. A race driver who leaves this earth mentally, when he straps himself into the cockpit, to try what for to him is the biggest conquest he can make, is aware of the odds; and Eddie Sachs played the odds. He was serious and frivolous. He was fun. He was a wonderful gentleman. He took much needling and he gave much needling. And just as the astronauts do perhaps, these boys on the race track ask no quarter and they give none. If they succeed they're a hero, and if they fail, they tried. And it was Eddie's desire, I'm sure, and will to try with everything he had, which he always did. So the only healthy way perhaps we can approach the tragedy of the loss of a friend like Eddie Sachs is to know that he would have wanted us to face it, as he did: as it has happened, not as we wish it would have happened. It is God's will, I'm sure, and we must accept that. We're all speeding towards death at the rate of sixty minutes every hour. The only difference is that we don't know how to speed faster, and Eddie Sachs did. So as since death has a thousand or more doors, Eddie Sachs exits this earth in a race car. And knowing Eddie, I assume that's the way he would have wanted it...

...Byron said 'who the gods love, die young.' Eddie was 37. To his widow Nancy we extend our extreme sympathy and regret. And to his two children. This boy won the pole here in 1961 and 1962, and was a proud race driver. Well, as we do at Indianapolis and in racing: as the World Champion Jimmy Clark I'm sure would agree, as he's raced all over the world: the race continues. Unfortunately today, without Eddie Sachs. And we'll be restarting it in just a few moments."

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"The Alternate, A Chronicle of 20th Century Motor Racing History" published April 2007 gives a very accurate account of the facts leading up to that fateful day and the actual incident(s).
They are being presented with approval of the author, Bob ******.

_______________

Makes good reading. Towards the bottom of the page.
Johnny Rutherford, The fact that he was running methanol was probably all that had saved him from being torched. At the infield hospital, his stretcher was placed beside MacDonald's. MacDonald was burned beyond recognition
and goes into detail of what Rutherford saw.

_______________
LINK:
http://www.historicmustang.com/DaveM...hsIndianapolis

CART 1982 DOMINO'S PIZZA 500 (JOHNNY RUTHERFORD CRASH)

LINK:

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Ronnie Duman's fatal crash on lap three of the Rex May 150 mile race in 1968. Duman tangled with the cars of Norm Brown and Bay Darnell, suffering fatal injuries in the wreck which also caught fire. Duman was dragged from the burning car unconcious with his crash helmet shattered. Brown had also been trapped in his burning car, Darnell had managed to jump clear. Brown suffered burns and did not race a USAC car again.

Ronnie took part in 63 starts from 1961 to 68, with 27 top ten finishes and a best result of 3rd in 1965. He took part in the Indy 500 from 1964 to '68 with a best result of 6th in his last year. He had crashed through the flames of the 1964 Indy '500 crash after which he was hospitalized and missed over two months of racing.

Norm Brown took part in 11 USAC races from 1966 to '68 with four top ten finishes and a best result of 4th at Springfield in 1967.

Bay Darnell took part in three USAC single seater races, one in 1965 and two in 1968. His first race was his only finish with 9th at DuQuoin. He failed to qualify for Indy in '67. He also took part in three NASCAR races from 1954 to '67. He was successful in the ARCA racing series.

Track workers can be seen trying to get Ronnie out of his car in the newspaper photo.

[Buford61]

Actually that is MacDonald not Sachs. The photo originally appeared in the Indianapolis papers incorrectly identified as Sachs but it is not as can be seen from the photo below. Sach's car was in the background and his body was covered by a sheet because they knew he was dead. The photo shown above is of them pulling MacDonald out because he was still alive at that time.

Eddie Sachs was a family friend and always delighted in embarrassing me when I was a early teen by saying he was my "former babysitter." This came from the days when I was an infant and my parents would drop me off at his midget after races and leave me in the seat while they circulated the pits visiting friends and Eddie would watch over me.

Unfortunately I believe the reports that he did not die instantly are accurate. I used to on race weekend stay at a house on 15th St. near the use USAC office. I parked in their driveway and everyone at the house would go to the race except the wife. She stayed and watched the cars. I casually mentioned one time why didn't they trade off so some years somebody else could watch the cars. She said she would never go to the race again. She went one year in the 1960s a driver burned to death in front of her eyes. She said "I'll never forget that poor man waving his arms and flopping in the car right in front of me as the flames engulfed him." I began to ask questions and it was clear she was talking about Eddie Sachs. I said "There were two cars, one was further towards turn one pointed toward the infield and one was behind it pointed towards the grandstand. "Which driver are you talking about. She said it was the one pointed towards the grandstand the one behind the other she was talking about. Here's the photo that shows it is MacDonald's car in the post above not Eddie Sachs.

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Wow, thanks for sharing the info.
Eddie Sachs was a family friend [What a fabulous memory to have]
I feel for your wife witnessing that event. But interesting to read her recollection of the racing accident and its sad outcome.