1973 Indianapolis 500, Part 2 (Pre-Race and Salt Walther Crash)

No copyright infringement is intended with this, or any other video I upload. The purpose of uploading this video is for the viewing pleasure for those that watch it.

This is part 2 of the 1973 Indianapolis 500. This video focuses on the pre-race coverage from the sppedway's official film of the race, which was festive as always, even in this tragic year, as well as the huge crash involving Salt Walther, most notably, though a total of 12 cars were involved in the crash. Also included is the interview that Dave Diles of ABC Sports did with Jerry Grant, one of two such interviews he did with Grant following horrific accidents.

If you watch very carefully, the car of Steve Krisiloff, which started on the inside of the third row in the seventh starting position had mechanical problems on the initial start, which was officially aborted. Krisiloff moved over to lets everyone go by him, but his car was a rolling road block, which caused a bottleneck, narowing the track, which resulted in Salt Walther veering into Jerry Grant at about the time they were about to pass Krisiloff, but at that time, if you watch carefully, the cars are just about FIVE abreast at that portion of the field.

Credits for the beginning of this video belong to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, for it is their official film of the race that particular footage comes from, SPEED [known as SpeedVision then], which broadcast that in the 1973 episode of "Indy 500: The Classics", with the host segment left in. Credits for the race broadcast go to ABC Sports and ESPN Classic, which re-broadcast the race for the very first time on Augst 12, 2011.

Of note, the car that snuck through the accident, which Jim McKay incorrectly identified as that of Lee Kunzman, was actually the car of Sam Sessions. Kunzman's car was wrecked and lying on the track apron.

Car involved in the crash: 6-Mike Hiss, 16-Lee Kunzman, 28-Bob Harkey, 30-Jerry Karl, 35-Jim McElreath, 44-Dick Simon, 48-Jerry Grant, 62-Wally Dallenbach, 73-David Hobbs, 77-Salt Walther, 89-John Martin, and 98-Mike Mosley.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• 1973
• Indianapolis
• 500
• pre-race
• Salt
• Walther
• crash

[TrekkiELO]

Did the ABC footage from ESPN Classic or their original broadcast frrom 1973 have any pre-race festivities like "Back Home Again in Indiana" as sung by Jim Nabors or somebody else?

[cjs3872]

@TrekkiELO

As far as I know, they did not have show any of the pre-race on the original race date in 1973, because of all that happened. Remember that they had to cover three days of activity in a two-hour broadcast. They had to cover the crash on the 28th, they did the analysis of the crash, as well as Dave Diles' report on the controversy regarding the start on the 29th (which was recorded to run the following day), then the race on the 30th. There was just too much to cover.

[Rintin07]

ESPN Classic AND Speedvision! Thanks for the edit! There's quite a lot of old Indy 500 stuff on Youtube, so thanks for improving its store.

Terrible race though. Indy was a very different place by the time the cars got near the 200mph mark again.

[cjs3872]

@Rintin07

Well, I wanted to try something different with my first video uploads [I can't do any more for a while, since my DVD drive no longer works], so I wanted to give as complete a look at this race as any that can be found anywhere, so I included the qualifying coverage and the pre-race from Indy 500: The Classics, as well as the ABC broadcast of the race, which nobody had yet uploaded, as well as parts of the race missing from the ABC broadcast, and combine them into one presentation.

[LMCMInterloper]

Was any spectators killed in that crash?

And also, what is that white powdery looking stuff that was coming from the cars?

[cjs3872]

@LMCMInterloper

No spectators were killed, though I believe 13 were injured, some very seriously, and I believe all the injuries in the stands were burns. As for the white thing you saw, that was the puff of smoke from Steve Krisiloff's car that really instigated the crash. Something happened to his car, and it became a rolling road block. As I mentioned in the info box, the cars were about five abreast in the part of the field where Walther was, because that's where Krisiloff's car was.

[cjs3872]

@NicksEvilTwin1

Remember that the host segments from SPEED's Indy 500: The Classics were done 15 or 16 years ago.

And please, be respectful when you comment, because that statement, whether you truly believe it, is not respectful of any human being. Constructive criticism is welcomed, but please, no nasty personal attacks on my videos, please.

[NicksEvilTwin1]

Mike King is such a gay-wad

[cjs3872]

@altfactor

Actually, Roone Arledge's ABC Sports team was involved in several controversies involving replaying horrific incdents. One was the Don McTavish crash in the 1969 Permatex 300 at Daytona, in which McTavish was killed. Another example occurred in 1985 when Joe Theismann's leg was broken on MNF. ABC kept showing replays, but while in commercial, Frank Gifford told the production truck not to show another relpay of that incident, and they didn't. But MNF was never the same again.