1964 Indianapolis 500

48th running of the Indianapolis 500

The 48th International 500 Mile Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Saturday, May 30, 1964. The race was won by A. J. Foyt, but is primarily remembered for a fiery seven car accident which resulted in the deaths of racers Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald. It is also the last race won by a front engined "roadster", as all subsequent races have been won by rear engined, formula style cars. It was Foyt's second of four Indy 500 victories. Jim Clark, who finished second the previous year, won the pole position in the Lotus 34 quad cam Ford V 8. He took the lead at the start, and led for a total of 14 laps. However, a tire failure caused a broken suspension, and he dropped out on lap 47. Team manager Colin Chapman had chosen special soft compound Dunlop tires for qualifying, and the rules dictated that the same type of tires be used for the race, where they suffered from a high wear rate. Clark's Lotus teammate Dan Gurney was later pulled from the race after experiencing similar tire wear. Bobby Marshman led during the early stages of the race, at one point stretching his lead to as much as 90 seconds. During his aggressive charge in front, he became uncharacteristically obsessed with putting A. J. Foyt a lap down. On lap 39, he went too low in turn one, bottoming out the car, and dropped out with a broken transmission oil plug. Defending race champion Parnelli Jones later dropped out after a his car caught fire after he exited his pit box, crashing it into the outside pit wall. With Marshman, Clark, and Jones all out of the race, A. J. Foyt cruised to victory, leading the final 146 laps. Race winner Foyt drove the whole 500 miles without changing tires. Goodyear supplied tires for some entries, but participated only in practice. No cars used Goodyear tires during the race itself. Foyt's 1964 winning car remains the only car in the collection of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame and Museum, regularly on display, that has never been restored to pre race condition.

RowInsideMiddleOutside 16 Jim Clark51 Bobby Marshman2 Rodger Ward 298 Parnelli Jones 1 A. J. Foyt 12 Dan Gurney 318 Lloyd Ruby66 Len Sutton5 Don Branson 453 Walt Hansgen 56 Jim Hurtubise23 Dick Rathmann 588 Johnny Boyd83 Dave MacDonald 86 Johnny Rutherford 664 Ronnie Duman 25 Eddie Sachs14 Troy Ruttman 715 Bud Tingelstad16 Bobby Grim99 Johnny White 89 Bobby Unser54 Bob Veith84 Eddie Johnson 952 Jack Brabham28 Jim McElreath4 Bob Harkey 1077 Bob Mathouser 95 Chuck Stevenson3 Art Malone 1126 Norm Hall68 Bob Wente 62 Bill Cheesbourg

Dave MacDonald was driving a car owned and designed by Mickey Thompson, the #83 Sears Allstate Special. It was a rear engined car that first raced in 1963, updated with a streamlined body for 1964. The car utilized Allstate tires, manufactured by Armstrong Tire and Rubber Co. Due to rule changes by USAC for 1964, the car was required to utilize tires (it previously used ones). Gregory suffered a crash on May 6, and quit the team due to what he believed was a terribly handling car. Dave MacDonald managed to qualify his car without incident. Eddie Johnson qualified the second team car. On Carburetion Day, MacDonald tested the car, with conflicting accounts on whether he ever drove with a full load of fuel. Other drivers in the paddock were known to be concerned about the car, Eyewitness accounts and film footage are inconsistent about the exact details of MacDonald's first two laps, but it is generally agreed he was attempting to pass many cars. Another response to the crash was the 1965 introduction of the Firestone "RaceSafe" fuel cell, with technology used in military helicopters. The Sachs/MacDonald crash came just six days after the fiery crash of Fireball Roberts at the World 600. Roberts would succumb on July 2. The sense of gloom within the American racing community was further compounded when, just a week after the tragedy at Indianapolis, popular driver Jim Hurtubise was critically burned at Milwaukee.

The crash deeply disturbed the MacDonald family. Members of MacDonald's family avoided visiting the Speedway. Closure was not met until son Rich MacDonald began researching his father's career, with the DaveMacDonald. net Web domain since 2003 a tribute to his father's accomplishments and a family diary to the modern era, meeting Sachs's son Edward Julius III (known as Eddie Jr) on social media. Curt Cavin, an Indianapolis Star reporter, was able to contact MacDonald first, and shortly afterwards, contacted Sachs. Along with other contacts, most notably Angela Savage, daughter of Swede Savage, killed in the 1973 race, whose first visit to the 500 was celebrated in 2014 and has become an annual visit, the MacDonalds were able to meet at the Speedway again. At the 2016 Indianapolis 500, Sherry MacDonald, Dave's widow and son Rich MacDonald appeared for race day, and were joined by Eddie Sachs III. All three took a photo near the site of the fatal crash, the wall which had been heightened and where track boxes had been removed in time for the 1974, that at the time was marked by the series fuel supplier sign behind the wall, which since 2000 has been the pit lane exit for clockwise road course events. Earlier in 2016, Rich MacDonald appeared in a podcast presented by Angela Savage, the posthumously born daughter of Swede (killed at the 1973 race), which struck a friendship between the two children of the fallen racers. Rich and Angela have appeared together at events.

For the first time ever, the race was shown live, flag to flag, on closed circuit television in theater venues across the county. Charlie Brockman served as the anchor. A few minutes of filmed highlights appeared a week later on ABC's "Wide World Of Sports"

During the live radio broadcast of the race, IMS Radio Network anchor Sid Collins drew critical praise for an impromptu on air eulogy for Eddie Sachs. During the red flag, track public address announcer Tom Carnegie made the official announcement of the death of Sachs (MacDonald had not yet expired, and his death was not announced until later). The announcement was simulcast on the radio feed. Silence was heard on air for about five seconds, and at that point, Collins chimed in with a solemn, unprepared eulogy: Rebroadcasts of the speech in subsequent years have generally omitted Collins's reference to Sachs's consecutive pole positions, due to his accidental misattribution of their being won a year later than they actually were, in 1960 and 1961.