SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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One of the problems with auto racing is that the races are often decided by crashes and mechanical breakdowns. The winner is more of a “survivor”. Although that takes great skill, it’s more of a hidden skill. Occasionally, though, a race becomes a real “race”. That was the story at Indy in 1960. Roger Ward and Jim Rathmann continued their wheel-to-wheel rivalry of the previous year. This time it was Rathmann who came out on top. An extra bit of drama came from the fact that neither wanted to pit and concede the race to the other, so they tried to run to the end on tires that were gradually wearing down to a dangerous level. In the very late going, Ward decided he couldn’t catch Rathmann and backed off, allowing Rathmann to win his first Indy 500 in his 12th try.
Jim survived his racing career to open a Cadillac dealership in Florida where all the astronauts got their cars. Per Wikipedia, “they got a family car for their wives and corvette for themselves”. Rathmann began his career after the war by lying about his age, taking his older brother’s identity, to race. Jim was born Dick Rathmann and his older brother was Jim. But they switched names for their racing once Dick decided to join Jim on the track. Jim was the oldest living Indy 500 winner at age 83 when he died on November 23rd 2011.
Roger Ward also survived his career but passed away in 2004 at the age of 83, (1960 was a long time ago, it seems, although I remember it). His stretch from 1959 to 1964, when he finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 4th and 2nd, is the greatest such stretch in Indy history and establishes him as one of the greatest drivers of all time. He won 26 AAA/USAC races in his career and was national champion in 1962.
Eddie Sachs was one of the top contenders, briefly owning the qualifying record. He was a real Cinderella story, having previously worked in the Speedway restaurant as a dishwasher before becoming a top driver and fan favorite. Here his steering locks up and Eddie exited the race “while he could still smile”. He did the same thing a year later, (although this clip says it was 1962):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adZyBsVjrn4
It’s possible that this is the reason he never won at Indy- in the end he wanted to survive the race more than win it.
I have a tape of a TV documentary on the speedway, (different from this highlight film), from 1960 that features Eddie as a “typical” Indy driver, although a very good one. It’s called “On the Pole With Eddie Sachs” It’s not on U-Tube, (you can send for it from several websites- It is available here:
http://www.torrentcrazy.com/865/torrents/indycar-on-the-pole-with-eddie-sachs-1960-cbs-tv
I just re-watched it. We see Eddie in the family car, driving to the Speedway and then around it, talking to the camera and describing the techniques of racing, including how he intentionally skids into a turn and then, with a slight movement of the steering wheel, avoids the wall and accelerates out of it so as not to lose speed. He never changes the positions of his hands on the wheel and never turns it to where his hands are beyond 10 of or 10 after the hour if you look at it like a clock. He also explains his philosophy of avoiding crashes: “I aim right at the accident because when I arrive at the accident, the cars will be on another part of the track”. It’s like a quarterback leading a receiver- except here you want the “pass” to be incomplete so you don’t lead him- you “throw it” to where he is right now. He says “it really isn’t all that dangerous“.
They then interview his wife, who remembers all the accidents Eddie couldn’t avoid in detail. She says “If you’re going to get hurt, Indianapolis is the best place to do it” because of all the available medical care there, including plastic surgeons. She describes when Eddie got badly burned and they had to reconstruct his face. They even left pinholes in his eyelids for the eyelashes to grow back through. They did a good job because you can’t tell any of this to look at Eddie. The documentary takes him through race day where he admits to being “more nervous than I ever have before” and said that he wanted to go to Mass, (they hold one there for the drivers where they pray that they will all be safe), but “you can‘t do everything“. We see Eddie in his car, crying as Dennis Morgan sings “Back Home in Indiana”. It’s a nice song but I’ll bet to Eddie it means that he gets to relive the greatest day of his life over and over again- every May.
We see some great shots of the start as the cars come roaring down the stretch, (there’s a brief shot of the collapsing scaffolding- see below- which occurred during the pace lap but did not affect the race). He takes the early lead and then vies with Roger Ward to keep it. Eddie explains after the race that Ward, at the top of the first row, pinched down on Jim Rathmann’s space and Eddie had to go low to avoid a crash. You get the impression that Ward wasn’t universally beloved among drivers.
Later, he’s philosophical when the has to quit because his steering went bad and cheers Rathmann’s car as it heads toward victory circle. He and Jim were old friends and we see them talking over a meal both before and after the race. Jim would outlive Eddie by 47 years. In the post race banquet, Eddie says that he’ll keep racing at Indy until he wins it, then quit. He doesn’t know what else he’ll do with his life but “It’s a dangerous profession” and once he’s achieved his goal of winning the world’s greatest race, that will be it. His wife tells him “Maybe next year, Eddie.” His year never came.
Four years later, Eddie Sachs would drive toward the gap and not toward the moving car and it cost him his life:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPinI7idHV8
I remember a Sports Illustrated article on Jim Hurtubise, painting him as the typical grizzled, (and burned- he had a some fingers welded together with scar tissue from a fire he had survived), Indy veteran. After his accident, the doctors ask him how he’d like his hands reconstructed. He told them: "Just make 'em so I can hold a steering wheel."
Here he’s a rookie, proving himself by breaking Sachs’ qualifying record. Jim died of a heart attack at age 56 in 1989.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1093654/index.htm
Don “Fresh Outta Brains” Branson recovered from his pit mishap to finish 4th , his best finish in 8 Indys. He was killed in a race at Ascot, California in 1966.
This was the race where the practice of fans constructing their own makeshift scaffolding to watch the race produced a tragedy as one of them finally collapsed. Of the 125 people on the scaffolding, (probably way too many), 40 were injured and two killed. That proved the end of an era as all scaffolding was banned after that.
http://indymotorspeedway.com/scaffold.html
“On the Pole With Eddie Sachs” shows this incident. Apparently the scaffolding fell away from the track, not toward it and it had no impact on the race.
Here is the U-Tube Highlight film. Again, you can expand it to full-screen by clicking on the box with the arrows in it.
Part One:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA7qqdNsqpw&NR=1
Part Two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU9H9fouXss&feature=related
Jim survived his racing career to open a Cadillac dealership in Florida where all the astronauts got their cars. Per Wikipedia, “they got a family car for their wives and corvette for themselves”. Rathmann began his career after the war by lying about his age, taking his older brother’s identity, to race. Jim was born Dick Rathmann and his older brother was Jim. But they switched names for their racing once Dick decided to join Jim on the track. Jim was the oldest living Indy 500 winner at age 83 when he died on November 23rd 2011.
Roger Ward also survived his career but passed away in 2004 at the age of 83, (1960 was a long time ago, it seems, although I remember it). His stretch from 1959 to 1964, when he finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 4th and 2nd, is the greatest such stretch in Indy history and establishes him as one of the greatest drivers of all time. He won 26 AAA/USAC races in his career and was national champion in 1962.
Eddie Sachs was one of the top contenders, briefly owning the qualifying record. He was a real Cinderella story, having previously worked in the Speedway restaurant as a dishwasher before becoming a top driver and fan favorite. Here his steering locks up and Eddie exited the race “while he could still smile”. He did the same thing a year later, (although this clip says it was 1962):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adZyBsVjrn4
It’s possible that this is the reason he never won at Indy- in the end he wanted to survive the race more than win it.
I have a tape of a TV documentary on the speedway, (different from this highlight film), from 1960 that features Eddie as a “typical” Indy driver, although a very good one. It’s called “On the Pole With Eddie Sachs” It’s not on U-Tube, (you can send for it from several websites- It is available here:
http://www.torrentcrazy.com/865/torrents/indycar-on-the-pole-with-eddie-sachs-1960-cbs-tv
I just re-watched it. We see Eddie in the family car, driving to the Speedway and then around it, talking to the camera and describing the techniques of racing, including how he intentionally skids into a turn and then, with a slight movement of the steering wheel, avoids the wall and accelerates out of it so as not to lose speed. He never changes the positions of his hands on the wheel and never turns it to where his hands are beyond 10 of or 10 after the hour if you look at it like a clock. He also explains his philosophy of avoiding crashes: “I aim right at the accident because when I arrive at the accident, the cars will be on another part of the track”. It’s like a quarterback leading a receiver- except here you want the “pass” to be incomplete so you don’t lead him- you “throw it” to where he is right now. He says “it really isn’t all that dangerous“.
They then interview his wife, who remembers all the accidents Eddie couldn’t avoid in detail. She says “If you’re going to get hurt, Indianapolis is the best place to do it” because of all the available medical care there, including plastic surgeons. She describes when Eddie got badly burned and they had to reconstruct his face. They even left pinholes in his eyelids for the eyelashes to grow back through. They did a good job because you can’t tell any of this to look at Eddie. The documentary takes him through race day where he admits to being “more nervous than I ever have before” and said that he wanted to go to Mass, (they hold one there for the drivers where they pray that they will all be safe), but “you can‘t do everything“. We see Eddie in his car, crying as Dennis Morgan sings “Back Home in Indiana”. It’s a nice song but I’ll bet to Eddie it means that he gets to relive the greatest day of his life over and over again- every May.
We see some great shots of the start as the cars come roaring down the stretch, (there’s a brief shot of the collapsing scaffolding- see below- which occurred during the pace lap but did not affect the race). He takes the early lead and then vies with Roger Ward to keep it. Eddie explains after the race that Ward, at the top of the first row, pinched down on Jim Rathmann’s space and Eddie had to go low to avoid a crash. You get the impression that Ward wasn’t universally beloved among drivers.
Later, he’s philosophical when the has to quit because his steering went bad and cheers Rathmann’s car as it heads toward victory circle. He and Jim were old friends and we see them talking over a meal both before and after the race. Jim would outlive Eddie by 47 years. In the post race banquet, Eddie says that he’ll keep racing at Indy until he wins it, then quit. He doesn’t know what else he’ll do with his life but “It’s a dangerous profession” and once he’s achieved his goal of winning the world’s greatest race, that will be it. His wife tells him “Maybe next year, Eddie.” His year never came.
Four years later, Eddie Sachs would drive toward the gap and not toward the moving car and it cost him his life:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPinI7idHV8
I remember a Sports Illustrated article on Jim Hurtubise, painting him as the typical grizzled, (and burned- he had a some fingers welded together with scar tissue from a fire he had survived), Indy veteran. After his accident, the doctors ask him how he’d like his hands reconstructed. He told them: "Just make 'em so I can hold a steering wheel."
Here he’s a rookie, proving himself by breaking Sachs’ qualifying record. Jim died of a heart attack at age 56 in 1989.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1093654/index.htm
Don “Fresh Outta Brains” Branson recovered from his pit mishap to finish 4th , his best finish in 8 Indys. He was killed in a race at Ascot, California in 1966.
This was the race where the practice of fans constructing their own makeshift scaffolding to watch the race produced a tragedy as one of them finally collapsed. Of the 125 people on the scaffolding, (probably way too many), 40 were injured and two killed. That proved the end of an era as all scaffolding was banned after that.
http://indymotorspeedway.com/scaffold.html
“On the Pole With Eddie Sachs” shows this incident. Apparently the scaffolding fell away from the track, not toward it and it had no impact on the race.
Here is the U-Tube Highlight film. Again, you can expand it to full-screen by clicking on the box with the arrows in it.
Part One:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA7qqdNsqpw&NR=1
Part Two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU9H9fouXss&feature=related
