Eddie Sachs and Dave Mcdonald Fatal crash at Indy '64

[3338MAN]

I was at the race. The crash happened to our left, maybe 100 feet away. The heat as intense! Several in our area were hurt. The radiant heat was awful. I could see Sachs attempt to push himself up out of the car, but it was distorted by the flames. He sat back down, gripped the steering wheel, and you could tell he was screaming. The smoke blocked him out of view within seconds and that was the last we saw of him. MacDonald's car was closer to us. He was slumped over hte wheel. Blackened.

[Crackers2549]

When I was around ten or so, Eddie, Jimmy Bryan and Jimmy Davies stayed in a cottage right next door to us at Bass Lake, Indiana one weekend and they treated me great...I remember Eddie looking skinny in his tan bathing suit... Jimmy Bryan, fixed my rubber band powered model airplane, and they gave me Roman Candles to shoot across the lake in the evening... I remember them asking my Dad if it was ok.. What great guys and what a sad day this was for me..! Eddie , "The Clown Prince" of racing!

[Kingnitro2845]

I know a 74 year old man who was sitting in Turn 4 and said several fans got 2nd degree burns from the Heat!

[hduvall2]

I was in the middle of the outer grandstand after the 4th turn. It all blew up right in front of us. I was 11. I will never forget that day, and the smoke-smelly clothes I wore on the train ride back home to Detroit. Everyone was so horrified and muted the rest of the day.

[bertha59935]

I was a kid watching at the Movie theatre we were so proud of my Uncles' car..The Red Ball Special...The day ended so tragically ...One must never forget these moments in life......Pop's said this is the life......no changing that for these brave drivers...

[bertha59935]

Tragic ending to a great man's life.......RIP Eddie ....Dave also...

[SWERRINGGEN]

rest in peace!

[bluevirgo19]

I don't want to go in a blaze of glory..Let me die in my sleep. I'm a coward and I'm okay with that.

[PRIVATEAYEIEYE]

In '64 I was 8yrs old and living in Detroit. Eddie Sachs was appearing at my older brother's Boy Scout Troop, so my father took me along to see him. He talked of his history as a racer, showed pictures of the cars he had driven, and told of the races he had run. Many of the details are lost to me now, but I remember him as a nice unassuming guy.

A week or two later, I heard of his death.

This is the first time I've seen this.

I sure am glad I missed it at the time.

[mango66666]

CART didn't exist then and thankfully it doesn't today. That day I was in the first turn snake pit.

[montechester]

Had I witnessed this in person, I might never be able to watch another race. Fortunately, safety equipment and rescue capability has come so far in 50 years.It's terrible that it took deaths like these to push those safer technologies. Dragsters and Aircraft saw the same type of horrific loss of life motivating drastic changes to them as well.

[Invader010]

@montechester my grandpa did too

[JettRink50]

I have never seen such horrid black smoke, I can't imagine being in the stands, my better half was at that race, growing up in Indianapolis, never went to another race

ever. I can hardly watch it though I was a race fan much later.

[SmellsLikePSU]

dayum~~~~

[Demock]

amazing just how massive those fireballs and smoke plumes were

[ShawnVanAngle]

racing was hot back then...

[RHO1953]

MacDonald did not die immediately in the crash. His still living body was extracted and he went to the hospital in the same ambulance as Johnny Rutherford. JR said he was NOT burned beyond recognition at all. It was the inhalation of flame that destroyed his lungs and killed him. He would almost certainly have survived the burns otherwise. Sachs was likely killed instantly by his steering column. You can read Rutherfords' comments about the crash at Atlas Racing Forum.

[ikshields]

Why is this captioned "CART Series Indianapolis"? Don't you know that CART didn't even exist until 15 years after this?

Indy was still governed by USAC in 1964.

[buckzx12r]

I was in 8th grade when this happened.There was no live tv back then unless you saw it in a closed circuit theatre.It was pon Wide World of sports a week later,and it was very shocking to me.Also,Sports Illustrated had color pics.Eddie Sachs was really a crowd favorite.It was the beginning of the end for the roadster era,but fuel bladders,fire proof racing suits,and lots of other safety equipment was developed much quicker because of this.

[tigrehombre]

just read Johnny Rutherfords comments in Sprint Car and Midget magazine April,2011 issue he said in there that he received burns on the back of his neck but the eeriest part was that Sachs had a lemon with a shoestring through it around his neck which he sucked during the race to quench his thirst, and the lemon wound up inside Rutherford's car on the belly pan

[marcmatheny]

@tigrehombre Yea, and Macdonald's intake headers ended up there too.. Scary thought.

[bigike7661]

I was 16 years old and sitting on the other side of the track in turn 4. I received first degree burns from the fire and I still go to the race . I've seen a lot of race accidents since then,but none affected me like that one. I vividly remember the horror in the face of the security workers as they tried to extricate McDonalds charred body from the wreckage.

[marcmatheny]

@bigike7661 I was further north of the accident, but we could see the fire, but not the cars or drivers... I was 8, my mother and dad were with me. My mother still to this day, gets sick at the smell of burning gasoline. I remember it like it was yesterday. The beautiful sunny day, the plane spelling out STP in sky writing, Clark's green car - Eddie animately waving to the fans on the parade lap.

[neilfan1971]

yeah I'm not a race fan but I don't see why anyone would find that funny.

[1957thack]

Johnny Rutherford was on the outside of the the 5th row nxt to MacDonald that dreadful day. E Sachs was a row back. He knew that Sachs being a Veteran would move up quickly through traffic so he followed along. Once they came outta the 4th turn. They could see the fiery carnage rolling across the track just in front of them. JR could see Sachs observing the crash up ahead and they both guessed wrong & went high right into MacDonald. JR's car luckily went over the top of Sachs & MacDonald's cars

[biscayne63]

Sad end to 2 very talented drivers.

[1978R100RS]

That crash was what made Indy switch to Alchohaul from gasoline....

[thevmanvj]

@1978R100RS That was just the first of many gas fire related accidents in 1964, but the accident that was "the Last Straw" over Gasoline as a fuel was when Bobby Marshman was killed in an accident while testing @ Phoenix on Novembver 27, 1964.

[SaintBEEP]

Beeroosterm, Whitefalcone. SHUT THE FUCK UP! It's a video. and one of 2 men dying. show some god-damn respect. This isn't a game kiddies

[cgdale]

Thumbs up if you think the Beeroosterm-whitefalcone "debate" is the most infantile thing you've ever read.

[whitefalcone]

Hey Beeroosterm! No more Comebacks Tonight? Oh well lets see its after 10:00 It must be Night Night Time. Mom found you still on the Computer? Make sure you Brush your Teeth.

[altfactor]

I believe the race was taped (in black and white) and edited down to 75 minutes (excluding commercials) for the following week's "Wide World Of Sports".

Is there any chance their footage of the crash could also be posted??

[spencerific93]

My grandfather was friends with Eddie Sachs. He was crushed when he heard the news. RIP Dave & Eddie!

[Joejam2845]

There is a Man here in Albuquerque named Bud Leonard who was sitting in Turn 4 just where that happened! Several spectators suffered 2nd degree burns from the heat!!

[whitefalcone]

Rutherford who was also involved in the accident, got out of his car and saw Mcdonald struggling to breath " He had a Pink Substance coming out of his mouth, i asked an official what that was", He said it was his Lungs.

[beeroosterm]

@whitefalcone No. The pink substance was blood. no need to sensationalize these deaths...

[whitefalcone]

@beeroosterm Sensationalize? I was Quoting Rutherford, who was involved in the accident, and saw the Body, He said the Body was Burned beyond Recognition. A charred Body Does not have Blood. But I guess You Know best, Another Driver who WAS THERE, would not! Freaking TROLL!!!

[beeroosterm]

@whitefalcone Fuck off, asshole! Rutherford is my uncle! And anybody "struggling to breath (sic)" does not have his lungs outside his body. Dick. Fool. Idiot. Cunt.

[beeroosterm]

@whitefalcone The "attendant" was incorrect in the Rutherford story although Rutherford assumedly quoted him correctly. There is no manner in which the lungs could be ejected through the mouth due to inhaling fire/burning. And just because the body is charred on the outside does not imply the inside is damaged and tissues are destroyed - including blood. Douchebag.

[whitefalcone]

@beeroosterm WOW! Real Mature Of you, what are you 12?  Yea I remember when i learned my first Dirty words. HEY Rutherford's your Uncle Yeah Right! Tell your MOM!!! To Put a Nice thick COMPLETE, LEAVE ALL ORGANS INSIDEJuicy Raw Chicken, Turkey, Steak Whatever, in the OVEN AND COOK THE EVERLIVING SH&$ OUT OF IT TILL ITS CHARRED, AND TELL ME HOW MUCH BLOOD IS LEFT INSIDE JUNIOR!

[beeroosterm]

@whitefalcone First, McDonald's attendant was not a doctor, nor was Rutherford. Secondly, while McDonald it seems was badly burned (does a photo exist of his corpse?), he was not left in the fire to roast until he was well-done and completely burned to a crisp. His "chest was heaving as his system tried to continue breathing", meaning he was still alive, with blood pumping through his body. So, asshole, tell me that couldn't have been blood instead of his lungs. Dick.

[beeroosterm]

@beeroosterm Just located McDonald's cause of death: "Acute pulmonary edema of the lungs". Doesn't mention that his lungs were outside his body at the time. Dork. Douchebag. Asshole.

[whitefalcone]

@beeroosterm Keep Going your arrogance is Fascinating for such a young lad.!!

[beeroosterm]

@whitefalcone Arrogance? Nothing arrogant about my facts - it is your arrogance in the face of my logic that fascinates. Now go drink your beer, sonny...

[whitefalcone]

@beeroosterm I knew It!!! Your Arrogance will keep you responding, its something that just forces you to keep it up! RIGHT? I've always wondered what made people like you keep going on and on and on!!! Is it low self esteem? Did you mother shun you as a child? were you picked on alot? I see by your channel you like watching Porn on youtube. Is there some link to Porn and Arrogance or is it self loathing? Please Enlighten me.

[mesmeriffic]

Noticed the classy use of Heat's main theme at the end there.

Becomes slightly less classy when you realize these drivers died by heat.

[reefshark46]

is that eddie shachs' car in 0:11?

[thevmanvj]

1964 was a bad year for Champ Car Racing (as it was called in those days) as a whole. Sachs and MacDonald killed at Indy, Parnelli Jones had moderate burns from a fire during a pit stop that same year. Jim Hurtubise was badly burned from a fiery accident at Milwaukee a week later. Finally, Bobby Marshman died in another fiery crash while testing at Phoenix in November of 1964. That was "the last straw" over using Gasoline as a fuel.

[reefshark46]

@thevmanvj in this video Ronnie Duman also got badly burned and Johnny Rutherford, and Bobby Unser got burned too

[thevmanvj]

@reefshark46 1964 was a very bad year for the Champ Cars as a whole. Parnelli Jones also had minor burns from a fire leaving the pits in '64,Jim Hurtubise was severely burned a week later in an accident @ Milwaukee,but survived and was able to keep racing until 1971.Then lastly, Bobby Marshman had a fiery accident while testing @Phoenix and died a few days later.He was 28 years old. For USAC, Marshman's accident and subsequent death was"the Last Straw" for "Big Cars" using Gasoline as a fuel.

[MonacoLager1]

Is Eddie the pink car that spins out of the flames at 0:13 ?

[PihaSandDunes]

@MonacoLager1. The pink car facing in the reverse direction was Ronnie Duman. He survived this crash. Eddie Sachs' car is seen only momentarily at the head of the line of cars that crashes into McDonald's burning car, in the film angle from the outside of the track.

[JSStryker]

My dad was one of the security guys work down in turn 4, till the day he died when I would ask him what happened all he would do was tear up and walk away from me

[rpm324]

That was a bad one to say the least. To lose one driver is bad but two is terrible.

[cstull]

I was there in 64 just behind the view of the camera behind the wall in the stands. That tree was to my right and actually caught on fire from the flames. I remember after they stopped the race and announced the driver's death, everyone thought it was McDonald who died and there was a huge groan as they announced Sachs had died. I was 13 then and it didn't deter me from attending races. Next year I go for my 50th year of Indy 500 watching.

[EarthNightIcedWish]

I first saw this on a Crash Impact video, and it was disturbing, it still is. Racers are a different breed of people. They really live, love, and as in this video and several other cases, die for their sport. Thankfully though, there have been so many safety improvements over the years, fatal accidents rarely occur nowadays.

[voutoreenie]

I was at the 64 Indy race. My dad and I drove down from Milwaukee and left shortly after the accident. As a kid, I'd go to the races, be awed by the spectacle, and look for some crashes. I went to the 64 Rex Mays Classic in Milwaukee, a 200 mile Indy Car race held in early June. At that race Jim Hurtubise was in another flame engulfed accident. That was the last race I ever went to. This is the first I've seen this crash since the 64 Indy 500. I've got a knot in my stomach from watching it.

[erasetoimprove]

@voutoreenie as terrible as this wreck must have been to see in person, it stinks you haven't made it out to another race since. There's been a lot of legendary races since '64, and not just at Indy.

[urugodeiv]

Excuse me, It's a an little bit silly question. How many cars did crash? Eddie Sachs' car hit the wall and explode. Did Dave Mac Donald than crash in Sachs' wreck? In the scenes who would give the reveal information, there are spectators standing in front of the camera!

I hope you can undeceive me.

[erasetoimprove]

@urugodeiv after Eddie Sachs hits the wall you see the flaming fireball go across the track? That's his car, just engulfed. Once his car got almost to the outside wall, he was hit by several cars however Dave Mac Donald's car was the one which was also engulfed in flames. I believe there was also a couple other drivers injured to a lesser extent from this accident. The 60s and 70s was a very dark time for fatal accidents at Indy.

[chas227]

@erasetoimprove you have the wrong car being sachs.. the red car hitting the wall and bursting into flames is MacDonald, when MacDonald gets close to the outside wall, the pink car hitting emerging from the flames, is Duman, red #9 is Bobby Unser, (at .10 on the tape) Sachs is behind Duman, and is the cause of the 2nd explosion you see in real time.

[chas227]

@urugodeiv Dave MacDonald is the red car that spins out of turn 4, hits the inside wall and bursts into flames. The 2nd explosion you see on the tape, is when Sachs hits MacDonald, As I said above, if you try to stop the tape at .10, you'll see a pink car and car number 9, in the wreck also, the number 9 is Bobby Unser, the pink car is Ronnie Duman.

[RimRiderQC]

0:39 I think I've seen some footage from even closer than this. All you could see was fire then a yellow car zoom in and a big explosion.

I've also read a story claiming that McDonald started the race with smaller tires than in qualifying but never got more sources to confirm this.

[fearbeforefearbefore]

Poor bastards.

[GregMooreCorpse]

lol Eddie Nut Sachs!!!!!!!!!!

[brrrlak]

Zippos, very fast ones....

[MrHartfordHockey]

holy crap did any one else feel that

-Peter Griffin

R.IP Eddie and Dave

[ratmotor396]

Well, you could say this was a precursor to the Pinto, as Dave's car was Ford powered. Dave was a sports car racer, at Indy way over his head, Eddie was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and gasoline power was no longer the fuel of choice, for many reasons. This was a very tragic race.

[Mikey300]

@ratmotor396 Point of information--the four-camshaft Ford engines including those in Sachs' and MacDonald's cars burned gasoline instead of methanol in an attempt to increase fuel mileage and reduce the number of pit stops required. The Meyer-Drake (Offenhauser) engines in the field were methanol burners.

[AjMannpieWeekly]

omg holy shit

[brtaylor20]

CART series?

CART was formed in 1979, 15 years after the 1964 Indianapolis 500.

At least you didn't say NASCAR.

[ma55aracin9]

well ,being that this clip came from a different source.....

[smcnew97]

this is the first time i've seen this video. made my stomach quiver seeing that car catch fire

[llscout51]

Notice the track safety guy spraying white foam from just beyond the outer wall in the first take.

[MLB89]

Bad place for a camera man to be at the area where the car ignites, huh.

[VanHoorelbeke]

It is said when they got Sachs out, his hands were melted to the wheel.

[jettt111]

damn ,was that a pinto ?

[MrXMGS]

I lol'd

[DailyTerror666]

qwell, driving bombs

[007700887]

wow

That was very disturbing . Man i am sad now :(

R.I.P

[thegreatbasher]

@007700887 Hey mate I feel for you. I think that these videos serve as a valuable education into the lives of great courageous racing drivers and their extraordinary world. Hope you are better now. Have a beer and relax to some cool jazz!

[Gordomaster27]

hostia que mal rollo

[Azrael2o12]

Terrible, horrific, unbelievable, tragic. Only words I can think of to describe this crash.

[wilki31]

I think what's remarkable is that only 2 died in this.

[kirrus17]

i think 1 man is too many

[whaduzitmatr]

what he meant to say was it could have easily been much worse. 1 man is too many but 2 is not as bad as 7.

[DragonNile7]

I can't stand to see 1 man die from a crash.

[jacopman]

@wilki31 When this crash happened Ronnie Duman was also presumed dead...and paniced race officials threw a sheet over top of him in the car while they attended to the others..........a few minutes later the sheet started moving and they pulled him from the car and performed a trachiodomy on him in the infield grass area to keep him alive....

[thunderroad66]

MacDonald had one left side tank confimed by those who did the fueling as not being filled to full capicity, it did have 45 gallons.

Sachs car had 9 seperate tanks, 2 main on the sides and 7 smaller ones. Only the small crossover tank above sachs legs exploded, all the other tanks on his car remained intact. They drained 30 gallons of fuel from his car after the crash

[thunderroad66]

The infamous picture of Sachs hunched over the car burned was mislabeled at the time, that was MacDonald just before he was removed from the car.

.

[thunderroad66]

Indy did not ban gasoline after 1964. They did change the rules to favor methonol over gasoline but they did not outright ban gasoline as fuel until after 1973, and that was part of wholesale rule changes that more to do with the entire car than just the fuel.

[parkman35]

Absolutely horriffic....this happened the day before Glenn "Fireball" Roberts crashed at the Charlotte Speedway and would die less than 2 months later from burns...again the fuel cells were different and NASCAR changed them teh following season...

[nederlandsepizza]

That was a heavy accident.

That camera man must be shockt when the car spins and hit the wall in front of him!

And the explosion was so big, it was definitely a horror crash.

[Cowman25million]

it looks so much worse in different angles

[VanHoorelbeke]

Its sad that people like you actually exist!

[LashBridges]

This, of course, is not CART. CART wasn't even thought of at the time. It was USAC. Anyways, thanks for the vid. In a day where racing has become a sissy sport (with the exception of the NHRA which is becoming more and more dangerous every day...gonna miss you Scott), it still boggles the mind at the toughness of these guys back so many years ago.

[jlgbgky]

I think I remember seeing a program about this particular race where some of the spectators had to be taken to the hospital for second and third-degree burns (it's been several years since I saw this program, so I'm not 100% certain on this, though).

[jon24gies]

thats so sad, and I hate people who laugh at the death of a famous driver. I'm not much of an Indy fan, more for NASCAR and when Dale Earnhardt died and people thought it was funny it pissed me off. I mean come on, just because you don't like the sport dosen't give you the right to laugh at a racer's death, there is some cold-hearted people out there, RIP Eddy and Dave.

[NialoF1]

Music really suits the fact that it seems so tragic

[VanHoorelbeke]

being from detroit, my dad was involved in midget racing,i saw Eddy race sprint cars as a child. He had a garage on 9 mile and mound road, he would take his sprinter out on the road and roar down mound road. I watched this race at cobo hall in Detroit. Eddie promised his wife if he won Indy he would quit. He was leading indy in 61 with 2 laps to go,when his tire became worn,he pitted much debate whether he should have. many think he should have stayed out and won.maybe this would not happen.

[Rondemoi1]

Ohmygod, this is su fcking bad crash! OMG

RIP Eddie and Dave

[atonnion]

I heard Sachs was killed instantly from a broken neck when he hit MacDonald and he was dead when his body burned. Could anyone confirm?

[PW140282]

Wouldn't that make him YOUR dad??

[sbmrunning]

last time for gasoline

[glimmer2158]

Did anybody in the crowd get hurt?

[TJ665]

The amount of black smoke that filled the air quickly was unbelievable!

[Swerve01]

Not sound effects- the real thing.

[Johnsonfan45]

the cars where not saftly at this time

[gcrav]

The MacDonald ride was a radical design by Mickey Thompson, with fuel for the entire race stored in a tank along the left side. Graham Hill and Mario Andretti turned down the Thompson rides because of dangerous handling. Masten Gregory bailed after a practice crash convinced him it wasn't safe. Drivers including Jim Clark were convinced that the Thompson cars shouldn't run in the 500.

[jerryaltman]

Extremelly sad accident. RIP

[RCmack]

This was just a totally horrible and awful crash. It's too bad Indy cars already didn't have methanol fuel and that it took this horrible wreck for USAC(I think that's the organization that ran Indy cars at the time)to change from gasoline to methanol fuel.

Eddie Sachs and Dave McDonald are missed by all the old time Indy car fans, all the newer Indy car fans, and everyone else involved with any type of racing.

[brtaylor20]

USAC was the samctioning body. CART wasn't even formed until 1979 and, believe it or not, NEVER WAS the sanctioning body of the Indy 500.

[18babbfan]

My grandpa was at this race. He has the Indianapolis Star paper with Eddie Sachs, burnt to a crisp, hunched over, ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE SPORTS SECTION!!! My great grandpa actually was burnt on a small spot under his eye. Thank you very much for posting this, as it is very valuable in a historical sense. Truely a gruesome wreck, claiming 2 very talented and personable drivers in Eddie Sachs(The Clown Prince) and Dave MacDonald.

[ss4gg092]

I don't doubt what your saying, but do you have it online anywhere? A very gruesome site I could imagine, but a powerful picture to show how much 1 could love his sport and the sacrifices of drivers in early auto racing.

[gandhglass]

Also, IMS imposed limits on the amount of fuel onboard. MacDonald and Sachs had all their fuel aboard when the crash occurred.

[dpate23]

They limited to 75 gallons after this..later, they switched to a 40 gallon limit after the 1973 debacle and the Salt Walther and Swede Savage Crashes

[Swerve01]

Whoops, changed it now. Sorry!

[FLYING57]

Obviously this was at Indy and not Daytona as is stated in the video title.