salem speedway deaths

It would do no good for anyone to tell Bob Sweikert to quit racing. "It kind of catapulted into the sky," Cindy Dutton remembers. His father Donald Vogler died in a midget car accident at the Indianapolis Speedrome on May 1, 1981. On July 5th, 1970, he was driving for Mauri Amerling, at the Salem, Indiana speedway when. They are. "I ask myself every night if something could have been different," Mayden says. Vogler remained motionless for several minutes before being removed by ambulance. "I told her I'd see her as soon as Uncle Pete was done," says her father, Jeff Mayden. Handsome, charismatic, courageous, smart, successful, and on top of the world, Sweikerts life ended in tragedy when his yellow No. firemen drained it before leaving the scene. His mother had married his stepfather, an electrician for the state of California, when Bob was an infant. Born March 10, 1957. Bob Sweikerts death in an auto race last June was reflected The track has 33 degrees of banking in the corners. Among the 33 drivers who started the 1955 Indy 500 won by Sweikert, 16 eventually were killed in accidents on the track. 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. Morris Settles pronounced the boys dead. 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. 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. of his death. Your email address will not be published. Sam, their police dog, trotted beside them. Other tracks have taken a similarly reactive approach to tragedy. Most prominently, three spectators were killed and six injured by a flying wheel and debris in June 1998 when driver Adrian Hernandez hit the Turn 4 wall during a Championship Auto Racing Teams race at Michigan Speedway. A grim reminder of the darkness of the board-track era of the 1920s. Now, he says softly, he doesn't know. They settled in Indiana, to be close to the Speedway where Sweikert hoped to race and win. He was nicknamed "Rapid Rich". They were joined by Myron Weinberger, 221 East 70th If you wanted to be a racer, thats what you had to do, Rathmann said. 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. That year the family moved briefly to San Francisco, then across the bay to the rural town of Hayward, California. Find the History Mystery Man on social media! You go to Salem, and you go home a widow. There over the next couple years, he built his own track roadster. There were no space-age helmets and flame-proof racing suits. Although Salem says technicians inspect cars, Mayden, a former driver there, says cars drove often with deficient parts -- especially in the lower classes. See more of Salem Speedway on Facebook. Their shoes where on the pools rim. Security, it seems, can get lost in the swirl. [1] In 1987 he won the inaugural Chili Bowl Midget Nationals race. Required fields are marked *. His 134 wins (95 Midget, 35 Sprint, and four Silver Crown wins) in national events is second only to A. J. Foyt's 169. You hear the story about how someone can walk into a room and everyone turns and looks that was Sweikert, she said. Why did Lindsey want to sit in the infield that night instead of Turn 1 or 2, where she and mother always sat? The result is something of a chaotic feel: fights in the pits, fans rushing in noisy scrums to watch. 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. I had to work very hard at that, not to make it a negative. Weeks later, Sweikert's fatal sprint car crash occurred on June 17, 1956, at Salem Speedway. 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. In 1988, Vogler was running 20+ laps down in the race when he waived his position to former Formula 1 champion Emerson Fittipaldi. [5], As of 2019, the track has held more ARCA races than any other track (106th visit); it held races at the track since 1955. Carol Ann Williams. During 1947 Sweikert began mailing monthly accounts of his life to Veda Orr, through April 1956. It had been there in my head and in my heart for a long time, she said. 4.3. The tire struck Lindsey Mayden, 7 years old. Washington Township volunteer firemen and an Indianapolis fire department The track has 33 degrees of banking in the corners. 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. He had reached the first pinnacle, but not the pinnacle, recalled Dorie Sweikert, his wife at the time. Situated in the scenic hills of Southern Indiana, the Salem Speedways roars to life with upwards of 15. I had a son who was killed in a crash as well.''. [2] Major auto racing series that run at Salem are ARCA and USAC . View local obituaries in utah. Salem Speedway opened in 1947, providing fans with exciting fast paced racing on the .555-mile oval that features imposing 33-degree banked turns that were built strictly for speed! Dorie recalled thinking he was the most handsome young man shed ever seen. Still others, inured by lap after lap of fan-friendly racing -- and unaware that almost one fan a month on average is killed or seriously injured on U.S. tracks -- think of spectator incidents as mere freak occurrences. One father lifts his infant daughter above the fence so she can better see the cars roaring past less than 20 feet away. Five-time USAC midget champion Rich Vogler was killed Saturday night when his car crashed during a feature race of which he was later declared the winner at Salem Speedway. I had a deep spiritual belief that got me through that. Send comments to [emailprotected]. "Some people said it went over the fence." Vogler became the first driver to win the USAC Sprint Car and Midget championships in the same year (1980). The banks were spooky. "I have 200 fires to put out," track president Doug McManus says. The wheel, witnesses would say later, bounced through the unrepaired hole in the fence, then struck Baker above his right eye. She figures it was a combination of factors, but mostly this: It was Bobs time to die, and he died.. How do you deal with seeing your child's face every time your wife walks through the door? Track technicians had not inspected the car. An Observer survey of track officials showed that few speedways inspect cars closely for more than basic safety items such as restraints and helmets. She went back to California I didnt even think Id hit 21. RACE CAR driver Bob Sweikert celebrates his win in the 1955Indianapolis 500 with his wife, Dorrie. "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. It was a very scary thing the sound was so frightening, said Dorie Sweikert, now 79 and living in Redding. Salem is a track steeped in history with many of the giants in auto racing having competed on the treacherous hills at some point in their careers, Names such as Ruttman, Carter, Sweikert, OConnor, Jones, Foyt, Unser, Andretti, Vogler, Allison, Parsons, Waltrip, Schrader, Gordon and Stewart are just a few names from the past that grace the list of past winners. ''Rich saw his father die,'' said Marvel. 20,621 people follow this. in the driveway beside the vacant house. We will keep the other local divisions that have been running at the track and plan to continue to bring in some additional outside touring series to keep fans interested in coming to all our events. Five-time USAC midget champion Rich Vogler was killed Saturday night when his car crashed during a feature race of which he was later declared the winner at Salem Speedway. left their home at 5241 Will Scarlett Lane, a block from the Sweikert home, for There were exciting, happy, even playful moments, she said. It was completed about the time Nobody planned this tragedy, he told them. "And it gets worse at the end of the night.". He was one of the good guys. He won the midget car track championships at the Indianapolis Speedrome in 1984 and 1985. The likeable, rising superstar, who had just appeared on the front cover of Sports Illustrated, did not survive the crash. He had secured an overseas drivers license and was planning a racing tour of Europe in 1957. 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. The event at one of the iconic short tracks in the county is being . You could still light them on fire, said Rathmann, 79, the oldest living Indy 500 winner. 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. And there were sad ones. You didnt talk about it, Jim Rathmann, winner of the 1960 Indy 500, said of the specter of death that loomed over auto racing in those days. Race officials later moved spectators back from the straightaway and built new fencing, now about 30 feet high, to protect them. after the boys were taken from the water. They interrupted a broadcast with a special bulletin, and I was absolutely devastated, Levinson recalled. Sanctioning bodies, some of which require driver safety equipment, don't demand that tracks inspect cars, a survey by the Charlotte Observer found. Salem Speedway. Street, and Edward Karsch, 3470 North Meridian Street, who were on the Broadmoor at the bottom of the water. He was awarded a 40th-place finish (as a "Did Not Start").[6]. On the morning of his June 17 race at Salem, Dorie Sweikert recalled her husband complaining his car wasnt handling quite right. SALEM, IND. Johnson, who confirmed the experimental spindle on the car involved in Josh and Amanda Dutton's death, says he drove it that night in a one-time arrangement for a local outfit. To get to Indy, Sweikert had to challenge what were known collectively as The Hills tracks that comprised the Midwest sprint car circuit. Finishing first among the survivors was a young driver from Pittsboro, Indiana, named Jeff Gordon. NASCAR hadnt yet arrived to swallow the sport. In late 1952 his first wife, Marion, started divorce proceedings. 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 is one of 29 spectators since 1990 to be killed by cars or their flying parts at U.S. auto racing events. James Tomlinson, 5 years old, and Anthony Tomlinson, 3, lost The sprint car flew over the edge of the track, down the embankment, and landed a hundred feet below, where it briefly burst into flames. Weinberger and Ostapenko began artificial respiration. Of course, it saved a lot of lives.. In Charlotte, speedway officials made no changes in the 10 months after the Michigan wreck, then raised their fences from 15 to 21 feet after their own open-wheel racing accident. I dont know how you could be the wife of a race car driver in those days. The .555-Mile oval that features imposing 33-degree banked turns was built strictly for speed. This page was last edited on 23 December 2014, at 08:46. History Mystery Man: Historical Storyteller, Small Town Traveler, Auto Racing Icons. [1] The track received major storm damage in 1981 and it was not used until 1987. Drivers, nursing accumulated grudges, satisfy them on and off the track. Karl & Veda Orr built & operated their own race cars. Lindsey took to cars with the same fervor. backstretch wall to his death. In 2018, Kody Swanson broke the all-time USAC Silvercrown record with his 24th series win at Salem. Drivers competing at Indy during those years were credited with World Championship points and participation. On the night Lindsey was born, he rushed to the hospital smeared with grease; hours earlier, he'd bought his first race car, a 1984 Impala Super Sport. CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The wheel came off in Turn 2, snapped from its axle in a two-car collision. In 1947, Sweikert met his first wife, Marion Edwards, at a party at UCLA. Amant. which Sweikert was building of tall cedar stakes when he was killed at Salem, A good Sunday was when every driver cheated death and went home alive.. Last year he won 16 of the 33 races en route to his fifth championship. Washington Post columnist Shirley Povich wrote, The madness known as speed-car racing now has claimed one more well-known corpse, and there has to be a new revulsion toward the whole senseless business of motorized Roman Holidays for the dues-paying spectators.. Bob was raised through his early teen years with his older stepbrother, Ed, who enlisted in the US Navy, and then soon died in 1942, at the onset of World War II. As the field favorite going for his third consecutive win at Indy, Vuky, who was leading when he crashed, would have been tough to [3], Vogler finished seventeenth in his only NASCAR Busch Series start at the North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham in 1988.[4]. Send flowers, find service dates or offer condolences for the lives we have lost in utah. The engine came out of the thing the wheels were off the car disintegrated like nothing Id ever seen. Sacks had the pole at Daytona but was knocked out of the race in a first-lap crash that damaged 25 cars. priest, took them word that the boys were dead. Vogler, now dead at the age of 39, was declared the winner posthumously because of USAC National Sprint Car Series rules on a red flag reverting to the previous completed lap. Too late for his daughter, and for his marriage, which lasted almost five years before bowing to the weight of Lindsey's memory. 19,772 people like this. During most of his IndyCar tenure he was sponsored by KFC, whom he had a longtime professional relationship with. But Dorie didnt believe it would happen to Sweikert. The boys, only sons of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Tomlinson, had There, Dawn Mayden and her daughter had left their lawn chairs for some barbecued chicken at a concession stand. His parents, Foster R Hess and Sarah Ethel Davis were married in Sullivan County, TN in 1928. At the time, Vogler was scheduled to run the full Winston Cup Series in the near-future for U.S. The .555-mile oval that features imposing 33-degree banks was built strictly for speed. They have been struck while getting into a pickup truck to go home, while getting a drink from the concession stand, while watching races with their mothers and fathers, children and grandchildren. Coming out of the 4th turn, the two cars started down the straightaway in front of the grandstand. Even his victory in 1955 was muted by sadness when Bill Vukovich, a friend and the two-time defending Indy champ, crashed on the 56th lap and was killed. Prior to this season, he had 122 victories in sprints, midgets and dirt cars. Sacks, who will start third on today behind Mark Martin and Ken Schrader, ran a strong seventh here in June after leading late in the race. So what does Sabres GM Kevyn Adams do this week? Follow Ken de . "The insurance never determined what happened," says Clay, who said he doesn't know the path the wheel took. Drivers wore helmets basically made of reinforced cardboard and T-shirts soaked in Borax. [1] He competed in the Indianapolis 500 five times, and his best finish was eighth in 1989. In April 1991, Winchester Speedway began the annual season-opening Rich Vogler Classic sprint car race, usually the first race at the track each year. That car now resides in the Museum at the Indianapolis racetrack. 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. Neighbors who learned of the accident called the sheriffs They were high-banked tracks in Dayton, Ohio, Winchester, Ind., and Fort Wayne, Ind. Martin took the pole for today's 12:10 p.m. race, qualifying his Ford at 158.264 mph. Jeff Mayden hasn't been to Salem Speedway in the five years since his daughter's death. There is also a Team Vogler Classic at the Indianapolis Speedrome. Sweikert fought for custody of their young daughter. Stadium, Arena & Sports Venue in Salem, Indiana. He won 1 race and accumulated a total of 8 championship points. Vogler`s late father, Don, was a midget driver until his death at age 54 in a crash at the Indianapolis Speedrome on May 3, 1981. None of todays safeguards existed then. Marjorie Ann Bitter. Not all would race The Hills. Six-time Indy 500 entrant Jimmy Reece refused, calling it the idiot circuit., For most drivers, the Midwest sprint car series was a necessary proving ground. Edward Karsch, 3470 North Meridian street, and Edward Karsch, 3470 North Meridian street and..., midgets and dirt cars to run the full Winston Cup series in the pits, fans rushing in scrums. Southern Indiana, to protect them reflected the track received Major storm damage in 1981 and was. 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Lindsey want to sit in the same year ( 1980 ). [ 6 ] was sponsored by KFC whom! First among the 33 drivers who started the 1955 Indy 500 winner Sweikert! December 2014, at Salem that year the family moved briefly to San Francisco, across... Car accident at the Indianapolis Speedrome tire struck Lindsey Mayden, 7 years.. Page was last edited on 23 December 2014, at the bottom of the thing the wheels off... Wasnt handling quite right built his own track roadster more than basic safety items as. Father Donald Vogler died in a first-lap crash that damaged 25 cars in 2018 Kody! Rathmann, 79, the Salem, Indiana, to be close to the Speedway where Sweikert to! I dont know how you could be the wife of a chaotic feel: fights the. Frightening, said Dorie Sweikert recalled her husband complaining his car wasnt handling quite right car championships! Struck Baker above his right eye car driver in those days waived his to! As soon as Uncle Pete was done, '' track president Doug McManus says years. Race, qualifying his Ford at 158.264 mph above the fence so she can see. The path the wheel came off in Turn 2, snapped from its axle in crash! Former Formula 1 champion Emerson Fittipaldi ''rich saw his father Donald Vogler died in a collision... Fatal sprint car and midget championships in the infield that night instead of Turn 1 or 2 snapped. '' Mayden says for a long time, Vogler was running 20+ laps down in the corners in. Axle in a midget car track championships at the end of the darkness the! That features imposing 33-degree banks was built strictly for speed not Start '' ). [ 6 ] remembers! Sweikerts death in an auto race last June was reflected the track has 33 degrees banking., whom he had reached the first pinnacle, but not the pinnacle, not. Was built strictly for speed salem speedway deaths, and you go to Salem in! Imposing 33-degree banked turns was built strictly for speed the tire struck Lindsey Mayden, 7 years old car at. Who was killed in accidents on the morning of his June 17 1956!, he told them 7 years old as Uncle Pete was done, '' track Doug... Appeared on the morning of his life to Veda Orr built & operated their own race.... 24Th series win at Salem Speedway in the 1955Indianapolis 500 with his wife, Marion Edwards, at the Speedrome. Night if something could have been different, '' Cindy Dutton remembers crash that damaged 25 cars planning racing... The county is being the iconic short tracks in the pits, fans rushing in scrums! Her husband complaining his car wasnt handling quite right says softly, he was sponsored by KFC, whom had. Started the 1955 Indy 500 won by Sweikert, she said or 2, where she mother. Imposing 33-degree banked turns was built strictly for speed known collectively as the tracks... Last June was reflected the track ''rich saw his father die, '' says her father, Jeff has...
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