Reflections of a Novice Driver
Kevin Carlson

Remembering Indy and Eddie

In my previous article on Reflections of a Novice Driver, I mentioned that I had a hidden passion for race car driving. This article will explain why.

I grew up on a farm, about 40 miles north of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. As a youth, there were four special days in the year that I treasured: Christmas, last day of school, my birthday, and the Indy 500. During those years, I witnessed the race twice. Why not more? Two reasons: Dad was a farmer and if the soybeans were not planted, you worked that day getting them into the ground. Also it was a tough ticket to get at least in the grandstands. You would think out of 350,000 seats there would be tickets available, but in those days this race was usually sold out.

Most years I listened on the radio as the TV broadcast was delayed for later in the evening since we were so close to track. WIBC out of Indianapolis. Sponsored by Stark and Wetzel Weiner Company. They would have about ten guys stationed around the track. Describing the action from their station as the cars passed by, passing the broadcast off to the next guy down the track, then the next guy until you had the complete circuit. Pretty cool.

Dad did take me a couple of times to the Pole day qualifications two weeks before the main race. Each car would do four solo laps around the track. The driver with fastest four lap time won the pole position. There would be about 100,000 fans just for qualifications!

In those days you could get right up to the fence surrounding the track. I would stand there and when an 800 hp Novi-powered race car roared by, my whole body would tremble. One of my greatest memories involved the track announcer Tom Carnegie. He would announce each of the four lap times for the driver after he crossed the start/finish line. We all knew who had fast cars from the practice sessions. As each of these drivers finished their lap, we waited intently for Tom’s announcement-would it be fast? Booming out the loud speakers Tom would slowly exclaim” It’s- a-new- track -record” (the crowd would go berserk!) “59.88 seconds, at a speed of 151.847”! I still goosebumps to this day thinking about it.

Big time drivers included Roger Ward, Parnelli Jones, Dan Gurney, and AJ Foyt. But my childhood hero was Eddie Sachs. He was known as the clown prince of racing. A serious and great driver with a comical personality. He also most won the 1961 500, if it wasn’t for a tire going bald that forced him to slow down and relinquish the winning lead to AJ. He was described as a driver who knew very little mechanically about cars, but he could drive the wheels off of them.

I can sort of resonate with that with my limited MGB knowledge. How comical? In one race his car lost a wheel, but safely stopped in the infield. About ten minutes after the checkered flag dropped, the crowd started to hoot and howl for Eddie Sachs was strolling down the straight, rolling his wheel across the finish line waving to the crowd! There is other stuff like that contained in a book by Dennis Miller called The Crown Prince of Racing. (Amazon).

Don McLean wrote a song about the day the music died, referring to the plane crash the killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper. Racing almost died for me at the May 30, 1964 Indy 500. On the second lap coming out of the turn four, Dave McDonald’s car started to skid, hit the concrete wall and exploded in flames. Eddie Sachs car collided with Dave McDonald’s car and it too erupted in a ball of flames. Both were full of gasoline with no rubber bladders in the fuel tank (next year they did). My cousin was in the stands and took a picture. It’s hard to look at. Eddie died in his car. McDonald died later in the hospital. Their deaths were announced later in the race. My hero had died.

57 years later I still have a passion for Indy Car racing. My kids got me tickets to the 100 anniversary race in 2016 and I watch it religiously on TV. Once in a while I have a thought of instead of racing my MGB to try open wheel racing like with a Formula Ford.

But I’m starting to forget where I left my keys, so maybe not. Still think about Eddie Sachs.

~~ Kevin Carlson