Danny Ongais crash

Danny Ongais crashes heavily against the wall in the 1981 Indy 500. He was severly injured but survived.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Ongais
• Indy
• 500
• Indy500
• Indycrash
• crash

[inescapegoat]

Charlotte Motor Speedway held an Indy event around 1981 or so, and Ongias started at the back of the field in a jet black car with no sponsorship decals. He methodically (and maniacially) worked his way through the field passing at least one car or two on every lap. The crowd of NASCAR fans could not believe what we were seeing - it was surreal. He crashed with very few laps to go, and we all stood around asking "how did he make it this far". He was/is an intense driver with incredible talent.

[anthonystuart69]

he stayed in the sport because racing was his life. it's hard to explain really, but he knows nothing else, just like most if not all great race car drivers. i think he would have preferred anything in the world to sitting back and watching the racing world continue without him, to many that would be a worse fate than dieing in a horrible crash such as he was watching here.

[mohawkman251988]

According to Steven Olvey's book "Rapid Response" Olvey says Ongais was lucky because he had a hideous compound open fracture on his right leg and there just happened to be an orthepedic surgeon on hand that day. If not for that, they would've had to amputate.

[brazil111]

@Plan9Kart bragging about winning a club championship in go karts is like winning the special olympics brah.

[jadedlake]

I was there as well helping Wayne Baker with his BMW 2002 TII injected 914.  Ted Fields, owner of the car Danny was driving, had started the race. Danny flew in after qualifying for the Indy 500. The best race I have ever seen. Unbelievable to watch Danny drive.

[utheman01]

Lucky he kind of slid towards the back end of the car when he hit the wall avoiding a direct impact. He wouldve been killed if he went head on.

[MageofDarkness1984]

0:13 Holy Shit

[gypsyqueen64]

I was there when it happened. I was seated at the 4th turn. He crashed just after the 3rd turn. The downwind carried the black fiberglass and debris my way and I went home with a small layer of that fiberglass on my skin. That incident scared the crap out of me and will be something I'll never forget.

[manthing43]

I don't see anything broken on the car. The slow-motion pretty clearly shows Danny making a shallow entry and understeers out of the groove. As soon as he's out of the groove he's in trouble. He tried to save it but over-corrected. Lucky he didn't hit the same angle as Gordon Smiley did a year later.

[Plan9Kart]

@Caveman4860 I concur with mellilore. Castor / camber seem to be within reason as the car slides sideways and the whell is still firmly connected to the spindle (upright). The diagnosis seems to be a broken tie-rod / steering joint on the right side.

Happy karting. I'm a retired multi-time karting champion myself. :)

[Caveman4860]

Thank You All!, that have posted, as to my findings.  I've Yet to get a reply, from USAC.

[mellilore]

@Caveman4860 Really hard to tell, however rather than a loose wheel, it looks to me as the right connecting rod of the steer (I apologize, I really don't know how to call it in english, all I know is in italian we call it "braccetto dello sterzo") broke down allowing the R.F. wheel to steer freely... not nice in such a context