rescue squad rushed to the pool. Neighbors who learned of the accident called the sheriffs That was your job. He would have raced, anyway.. Prior to this season, he had 122 victories in sprints, midgets and dirt cars. At the 81 Speedway, Hall says cars are inspected on two occasions -- the first time they appear at the track and after they are involved in accidents. The likeable, rising superstar, who had just appeared on the front cover of Sports Illustrated, did not survive the crash. Mike Harrington: His team looks good, even without Alex Tuch. Coming out of the 4th turn, the two cars started down the straightaway in front of the grandstand. 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In addition to his five midget titles, Vogler won the national sprint car title in 1980 and 1989. Newspapers.com makes these newspapers available for the purpose of historical research, and is not responsible for the content of any newspapers archived at our site. On Memorial Day, May 26, 1947 Sweikert ran his first race for prize money at the Oakland Speedway, and finished second. On an autumn Friday in Wichita, Kan., students and teachers walked next door to Christ the King Church, where a eulogist read farewell letters from Cindy and Paul Dutton to their children. Both boys were View local obituaries in utah. Such decisions are largely left up to speedways. their lives while wading in the pool behind Sweikerts house at 5301 Lancelot She married again six years ago, but in 1998 published Along for the Ride A Love Story. The book is a personal, poignant and sometimes painful look back on her time with Bob Sweikert. Search Provo obituaries and condolences, hosted by Echovita.com. And there were sad ones. Such is what Jeff Mayden believed before his daughter was killed. From age 16 Sweikert worked after school as a mechanic at the local Ford dealership in Hayward. LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Racing is returning to Salem, Indiana. "It kind of catapulted into the sky," Cindy Dutton remembers. His mother Eleanor started a college scholarship fund for aspiring Indiana students as part of Rich's concern over his sons, and the fund was started by USAC officials and sponsor Valvoline. Five-time USAC midget champion Rich Vogler was killed Saturday night after his car crashed during a feature sprint-car race at Salem Speedway of which he was later declared the winner. From The Third Turn, an online resource for all news and results stock car racing. "He would be going if it were me that died. [2] Major auto racing series that run at Salem are ARCA and USAC . Tomlinson and his wife, who is expecting her third child in As Baker left his seat for a drink from the concession stand, a wheel came loose from a car on the track. "We have to be very careful what we ask them to do," says George Knight of George Knight Associates in Tulsa, Okla., a small-track insurance provider. Usually, his mother and his sons appear at the annual fund-raiser. That car now resides in the Museum at the Indianapolis racetrack. "We don't want anybody killed, but we sure don't want our customers killed," says Lanny Edwards, owner of Devil's Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas, one of thousands of small tracks dotting the country. firemen drained it before leaving the scene. In a 1998 incident, an out-of-control race car climbed over a fence at a Phoenix speedway and came to rest just 15 feet from fan seating. [2] The ARCA qualifying record is 16.785 seconds/119.035mph by Gary Bradberry in 1994.[6]. I know that sounds corny, but thats the way it was. Five-time USAC midget champion Rich Vogler was killed Saturday night after his car crashed during a feature sprint-car race at Salem Speedway of which he was later declared the. Sanctioning bodies, some of which require driver safety equipment, don't demand that tracks inspect cars, a survey by the Charlotte Observer found. Now, he says softly, he doesn't know. Robert Charles Sweikert (May 20, 1926 June 17, 1956) was an American racing driver, best known as the winner of the 1955 Indianapolis 500 and the 1955 National Championship, as well as the 1955 Midwest Sprint car championship - the only driver in history to sweep all three in a single season. And with good reason; with 33-degree banking in the corners, Salem Speedway was built in 1947 with all out speed in mind. Drivers sit so low in modern cars, nestled safely into a protective cockpit, that you can hardly see them. There is also a Team Vogler Classic at the Indianapolis Speedrome. On September 26, 1953 Sweikert won the Hoosier Hundred, at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, a race which is chronicled by many as "the greatest race ever" run. He walked over to his father`s car, looked in and then walked away. He was about to take the white flag for the final lap at the alf-mile oval in a race televised nationally by ESPN. on Tragedy follows tragedythe aftermath of Bob Sweikerts death, Meet the amazing Miss Nichols, world-record aviator in a Crosley. His mother had married his stepfather, an electrician for the state of California, when Bob was an infant. Weeks later, Sweikert's fatal sprint car crash occurred on June 17, 1956, at Salem Speedway. The wheel hit Amanda flush, crushing her lungs and heart beyond surgeons' repair. TOLEDO, Ohio (Feb. 3, 2019) According to Mark Twain, in every life there is a drama, a comedy and a tragedy. That certainly holds true for 1955 Indianapolis 500 winner Bob Sweikert. It will be a process of getting those done over the next several years. I saw him coming out of the fourth turn, he and Ed up so high, Dorie Sweikert said. She never saw danger coming. The .555-Mile oval that features imposing 33-degree banked turns was built strictly for speed. Find the History Mystery Man on social media! Your email address will not be published. Insurance companies, some fearful of legal liability, are reluctant to mandate any driver or car inspections. Find the History Mystery Man onFacebookandYouTube. Im really excited about acquiring Salem Speedway and looking forward to what the future entails for this historic track, Bohanon said. "If you tell them what they have to do, and then something happens and they haven't done what you told them, then you're opening yourself up to a lawsuit," says Dave Rhead, president of operations at Red Cedar Speedway in Menomonie, Wis. A small-track Saturday night: mid-September at the Lancaster (S.C.) Speedway, and the season has taken its usual toll. On February 12, 1949 Sweikert won the first BCRA Indoor Midget Race Track championship, in Oakland, on the new 1/12 mile oval track. He was leading the race at the time, when his car crashed with just over a lap to go. Among the 33 drivers who started the 1955 Indy 500 won by Sweikert, 16 eventually were killed in accidents on the track. That year the family moved briefly to San Francisco, then across the bay to the rural town of Hayward, California. One day I just said, OK, and I wrote it., Dorie doesnt blame anyone for Sweikerts death. When they first started to use roll bars, traditionalists thought it was just awful. [4], The ASA National Tour ran six races at the track, from 1998 through 2003 and the winners were Scott Hansen (twice), David Stremme, Tim Sauter, Gary St. Amant and Robbie Pyle. Perhaps in part because Bob Sweikert refused to accept fear, Dorie convinced herself he was safe from harm. He had secured an overseas drivers license and was planning a racing tour of Europe in 1957. The following paragraphs have been transcribed from the Indianapolis Speedway. The series has visited Salem more than any other track in its almost 70-year history. A racecar moves around the track at Salem Speedway. hunting for them, to call them to supper. In May 1952, Sweikert ran his first "Indy 500" race. Veda wrote many racing articles. Yard of Sweikert Home. [2] Major auto racing series that run at Salem are ARCA and USAC. [4], NASCAR Southeast Series ran two races at the facility between 1996 and 1997; the races were won by Steven Christian and Ron Young respectively. "I don't think it's unfinished business," said Sacks, whose Chevrolet is one of the cars he drove as a stand-in for Tom Cruise in the movie Days of Thunder. Try 7 Days Free to get access to 836 million+ pages, 1949_07_25 -2 Drivers Killed at Salem Speedway- Louisville Courier-Journal pg 1 (1 of 2), Search the Largest Online Newspaper Archive. This page was last edited on 23 December 2014, at 08:46. It is too late, he thinks. The track has 33 degrees of banking in the corners. The bodies were taken to the Conkle West 16th Michigan Speedway raised its fences from 14 1/2 to 17 feet after its 1998 CART crash. Waltrip, preparing to make his 500th NASCAR start in that July 7 race, sustained a slight concussion and broke his left leg the day before in a crash in practice and couldn't start. Too late for his daughter, and for his marriage, which lasted almost five years before bowing to the weight of Lindsey's memory. SALEM, IND. He learned to race on go-karts at age 9, graduated to stock cars as an adult. Nobody planned this tragedy, he told them. When Vogler got word of Fittipaldi's penalty, he went up to USAC to testify for him, calling the penalty "unjust." Bradway died from injuries suffered in a tragic sprint car crash during the Super Dirt Cup at Skagit Speedway in Washington State on June 21, 1987. But I'm doing therapy every day.". Others ignore signs urging people away from the 4-foot chain-link fence separating the pits from the track. There was kind of a machismo attached to it. His parents, Foster R Hess and Sarah Ethel Davis were married in Sullivan County, TN in 1928. [2] A thunderstorm had ripped the roof off the grandstands and fences were damaged. In 2018, Kody Swanson broke the all-time USAC Silvercrown record with his 24th series win at Salem. which Sweikert was building of tall cedar stakes when he was killed at Salem, If you are experiencing difficulties logging in or are a subscriber getting a paywall, please try one or more of the following steps. Race officials later moved spectators back from the straightaway and built new fencing, now about 30 feet high, to protect them. Handsome, charismatic, courageous, smart, successful, and on top of the world, Sweikerts life ended in tragedy when his yellow No. "It was," he said, "nobody's fault.". James Tomlinson, 5 years old, and Anthony Tomlinson, 3, lost The challenge for speedway owners: How do you balance the counterweights of safety and intimacy? They entered the pool area through a gap in the high fence Floyd said plans were being made to fly Vogler to Humana Hospital in Louisville, Ky., before he was pronounced dead. Salem Speedway. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. History [ edit] The other thing that was really noteworthy about him is most drivers then were hands-on, technically, but he more than most. Karl & Veda Orr built & operated their own race cars. He actually maintained his sprint car, even after he won (Indy).. But he liked to race on them.. a ride on their tricycles late in the afternoon. He said, I still cant relax. He said this was just one race. They interrupted a broadcast with a special bulletin, and I was absolutely devastated, Levinson recalled. Death. Of course, it saved a lot of lives.. Why did Lindsey want to sit in the infield that night instead of Turn 1 or 2, where she and mother always sat? Fencing, maybe, or car safety. Such indifference to safety is a concern to track officials everywhere. "When it came down, it came down on us.". As the field favorite going for his third consecutive Nobody covers Columbus, Indiana and the surrounding areas like The Republic. Mrs. Tomlinson ran behind the Sweikert house. In May 1956, at his final return to the Indianapolis 500, Sweikert began in the 10th starting position and came in for a 6th-place finish, with the team's D-A Lubricant roadster. Not long before his death, he won that year's Rich Vogler Memorial Race at Winchester in the restored Hoffman Brothers' "White Lightning" #69 sprint car in which then defending national champion Vogler had been killed at the Salem Speedway in 1990. Now his dream was not just to win Indy, but to be the best in the world. Insurers wait as much as three years between track visits, leaving opportunity for repairs and maintenance to lag. After a complicated, sometimes off-and-on courtship, they were married in 1953. With the deaths have come questions -- about track fencing, about uninspected cars, about supervision in restricted areas. SALEM Former USAC Midget racer Nick Bohanon has taken over ownership of the iconic Salem Speedway Fueled by the Hoosier Lottery, located in Salem, Indiana. left their home at 5241 Will Scarlett Lane, a block from the Sweikert home, for win at Indy, Vuky, who was leading when he crashed, would have been tough to "I always thought she was probably in more danger driving to the racetrack than being in the infield," he says. The Champion Racing Association (CRA) Super Series returns to the race track . Keep reading with unlimited digital access. IRS delays tax deadline for Bay Area, but California hasnt followed: What should you do? Last year he won 16 of the 33 races en route to his fifth championship. Find an obituary, get service details, leave condolence messages or send flowers or gifts in memory of a loved one. In the 1950s, talent won races, but luck decided who lived and died on the track. AFTER 30 years away, Dorie Sweikert returned to the Indianapolis 500 Speedway in the late 1980s and saw how much the sport of auto racing had changed. There, Dawn Mayden and her daughter had left their lawn chairs for some barbecued chicken at a concession stand. But there are those who think he adapted to the track as well as anybody. (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). "My stamina's not what it should be. This year's Fall Classic at the .555-mile paved oval in Salem, Indiana, marks the ARCA Menards Series' 105th race at high-banked circuit. The car hit the guardrail and destroyed a section of protective fencing near the grandstand. A good Sunday was when every driver cheated death and went home alive.. Six days before, on Sept. 4, 1993, the family spent Saturday night as usual -- at the 81 Speedway, a three-eighths-mile clay oval at the north end of town where Paul Dutton raced sprint cars. Log In. That wasnt what qualified him as an early victim of the SI jinx. At their funeral, the Rev. Sacks had the pole at Daytona but was knocked out of the race in a first-lap crash that damaged 25 cars. Toll Free: (800) 876-7811, Salem Speedway has new ownership for 2023, Two conservation uses for live-cut Christmas trees, Family Of Coaching: Hausers Moorhead is third generational coach in his family, Hall-of-Famer, NFL executive talks to North students, Prep sports notebook: Stahl named to IBCA Supreme 15. So what does Sabres GM Kevyn Adams do this week? [1][3] Vogler had 170 total USAC wins, and won over 200 "outlaw" (non-USAC) midget races. On September 11, 1954 Sweikert became the first driver ever to average 90mph (140km/h) in a 100-mile (160km) race, with his win in the Lutes Truck Parts Special #17 car at the Eastern Speed Dome in Syracuse. Tony Floyd, an ambulance medic for the hospital, described the 39-year-old Vogler as having a "severe head injury." Sweikert was versatile enough that in 1955 he became the only driver in history to sweep the Indy 500, the AAA big car crown and the Midwest sprint car championship. Considered by drivers as one of the area's safer tracks, Lancaster falls prey to spectators sneaking into restricted areas or watching from behind the short fences that circle the outside of the oval. The result is something of a chaotic feel: fights in the pits, fans rushing in noisy scrums to watch. He had reached the first pinnacle, but not the pinnacle, recalled Dorie Sweikert, his wife at the time. Sweikert finished sixth at Indianapolis the following May, but then died weeks later, at age 30, in 1956 after crashing a Sprint car at Salem Speedway. There are improvements that I want to make to the pavement, the pit area, lighting, infield concessions, infield restrooms and the scoreboard. The wheel, witnesses would say later, bounced through the unrepaired hole in the fence, then struck Baker above his right eye. It would do no good for anyone to tell Bob Sweikert to quit racing. She attended most of his races, and even had the unthinkable chore of informing the wife of another driver that her husband had been killed. On the morning of his June 17 race at Salem, Dorie Sweikert recalled her husband complaining his car wasnt handling quite right. Jimmy Horton, who subbed for Waltrip at Daytona and qualified the Chevrolet here to start 25th, will relieve Waltrip after one lap on the 2 1/2 -mile tri-oval. "Some people said it went over the fence." Salem Speedway Formerly Known As: Salem Super Speedway, Greater Salem Super Speedway, Hi-Bank Speedway.555 mi./0.893 km. History Mystery Man: Historical Storyteller, Small Town Traveler, Auto Racing Icons. No other cars were involved and no other injuries reported. [1] The track closed in May 1995 when he declared bankruptcy. One of his frequent local competitors on the streets was Ed Elisian, a teenage boy from nearby Oakland, California. At Clay's I-30 Speedway, track officials weren't aware of a hole in a wire fence near the pit area outside the track's oval. Sweikert fought for custody of their young daughter. The Obituary Pam Williams, age 65, of Salem passed away Tuesday, November 22, 2022 at Kindred Hospital Central in Indianapolis. Gil was a popular Cincinnati, Ohio driver who ran regularly in the area before joining the United States Auto Club sprint car circuit. Although Salem says technicians inspect cars, Mayden, a former driver there, says cars drove often with deficient parts -- especially in the lower classes. Tragically, Reece would lose his life on the last lap of the 100 Mile USAC National Championship race at Trenton Speedway on September 28, 1958. She searched for nearly an hour before finding the tricycles He is remarried now, and he's even found himself back at the track, racing a truck some weekends at Indianapolis Raceway Park. A year later, on June 17, 1956, Sweikert, just turned 30, was killed when his sprint car shot over the edge of the high-banked, half-mile track at Salem, Ind. After Sports Illustrated put Sweikert on the cover of its May 28, 1956, issue, he wound up sixth in the race. About See All. Please subscribe to. Salem Speedway is a .555 miles (0.893 km) long paved oval racetrack in Washington Township, Washington County, near Salem, Indiana, United States, approximately 100 miles (160 km) south of Indianapolis. Racing close with Elisian, both cars pushed high. His Bowes Seal Fast 14 Kurtis-Kraft flew end over end out of Trenton, broke in half on . Speedway infield. He ran seventy-two races that first BCRA season, finishing 14th out of 130 active members in the annual point standings. Eugene Gerber, bishop of Wichita's Roman Catholic diocese and a family friend, tried to console the mournful. At least 70 have been injured, some suffering life-altering afflictions, including a Florida father of three now living in a New Jersey home for people with brain damage. The two often raced together, and Boyd qualified for entry in the 1955 Indianapolis 500 when Sweikert helped him overcome mechanical handling problems in Boyd's car.
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