Art Pollard, Salt Walther, Swede Savage and Armando Teran: The Tragic 1973 Indy 500

[AlvinKarpis]

The 57th Indy 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Wednesday, May 30, 1973. The race was held over three days due to rain and suffered two major accidents. After 133 laps (332.5 miles), rain halted the race, and Gordon Johncock was declared the winner.
Going into the month, the mood was bright and excitement was high for record speeds. Competitors, media, and fans were eagerly anticipating the possibility of breaking the elusive and daunting 200 mph barrier during time trials. By the end of the month, however, the mood had turned tragic after several incidents.
Miserable weather plagued the track throughout the month, and delayed the race for two and a half days. Accidents during the month and during the race took the lives of three competitors (two drivers: Art Pollard and Swede Savage; and one pit crew member). The terrible accident of Salt Walther on Monday May 28 left him critically injured, and several spectators were also injured, as burning fuel and debris rained into the grandstand.
Due to the tragic circumstances, weather problems, rain-shortened finish, and overall glum mood during the month, the 1973 race is widely considered the worst year for the running of the Indianapolis 500. The circumstances led to sweeping rule changes for 1974, involving wing sizes, turbocharger "boost" settings, fuel capacity, as well as safety improvements to the track itself.

The 1973 Indy 500 was an unimaginable horror show with series of nightmarish events that happened one after the other and got worse and worse and worse......

It got so bad that the first drop of rain that fell after Armando Teran was killed, the race was called at 332.5 miles and Gordon Johncock was declared the winner. No award dinner, no platform, no anything. Nobody wanted to celebrate. I wouldnt have wanted to either

I have a ton of old VHS tapes and many of them are the Mondo Documentary Style tapes, alot of them about auto-racing deaths.

Its kind of like the show "In Search Of..." with Leonard Nimoy. These Mondo Docs always have the same things in common

1. Dead pan, emotionless, spooky narration
2. Shocking deaths explained like its no big deal that the person lost their life
3. Horrifying synthy music that scares the living piss out of you whenever you hear it (The music that plays during Tom Pryces death in the Italian Mondo Doc "Formula uno, febbre della velocità" which I have ripped from my old VHS to my computer)

This clip that I made is from the documentary "Catastrophe" and fits my favorite doc style perfectly

It also gives a feel to how horrible the 1973 Indy 500 was

RIP to Art, Swede and Armando and I hope that Salt is taking it easy living life relaxing and managing his pain

EDIT: At the bottom of page one I added footage of Salt Walthers car spraying racing fuel and flames into the crowd as well as an amazing pic of Swede Savage trying to stand up with wreckage all over him

[LERK]

[docfr8]

[blacksun]

[AnaleFaust]

[docfr8]

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Wow. All I can say for this is at least they died doing what they loved.

[BLACKOUTx4500x]

:xyxth umbs: (I think I'm number 6 lol)

[AlvinKarpis]

I feel like a complete ass as I forgot about the dozen+ spectators who were injured in Salt Walthers crash

Here is footage from that day showing slo-mo replays of the racing fuel and fire spraying the crowd

Jim McKay is on the mic and describes the carnage

[AlvinKarpis]

Amazing pics of Swede Savage trying get up after his horrific crash

Even more amazing pics of Dayton "Salt" Walther upsidedown with his legs hanging out on fire