Indianapolis 500 Memorial

RACING IS A SPORT

BUT ITS NOT A GAME

The Indianapolis 500

This is a list of race car drivers
who did not make it out of Indy in May.

Year	Driver	Hometown
1909	William Bourque +	Springfield, Mass.
1910	Tony Kincaid +
1911	Harry Martin +
1919	Louis LeCocq +	Iowa
1919	Arthur Thurman +	Washington, D.C.
1926	Herbert Jones +	Indianapolis
1929	Bill Spence +	Los Angeles
1931	Joe Caccida	Bryn Mawr, Penn.
1932	Milton Jones	Cleveland
1932	William Denver	Audubon, Penn.
1933	Mark Billman +	Indianapolis
1933	Lester Spangler +	Los Angeles
1934	Peter Kreis	Knoxville, Tenn.
1935	Clay Weatherly +	Cincinnati
1935	Johnny Hannon	Morristown, Penn.
1935	Stubby Stubblefield	Los Angeles
1939	Floyd Roberts +	Van Nuys, Calif.
1940	George Bailey	Indianapolis
1947	Shorty Cantlon +	Indianapolis
1948	Ralph Hepburn	Van Nuys, Calif.
1949	George Metzler	Indianapolis
1953	Carl Scarborough +	Clarkston, Mich.
1953	Chet Miller	Glendale, Calif.
1955	Bill Vukovich Sr.	Fresno, Calif.
1955	Manuel Ayulo	Burbank, Calif.
1957	Keith Andrews	Colorado Springs, Colo.
1958	Pat O'Connor +	North Vernon, Ind.
1959	Jerry Unser	Long Beach, Calif.
1959	Bob Cortner	Redlands, Calif.
1961	Tony Bettenhausen Sr.	Tinley Park, Ill.
1964	Eddie Sachs +	Detroit
1964	Dave MacDonald +	El Monte, Calif.
1966	Chuck Rodee	Indianapolis
1968	Mike Spence	Maidenhead, England
1972	Jim Malloy	Denver
1973	Art Pollard	Medford, Ore.
1973	Swede Savage +	Santa Ana, Calif.
1982	Gordon Smiley	Grapevine, Texas
1992	Jovy Marcelo	Phillipines
1996	Scott Brayton	Coldwater, Mich.
2003	Tony Renna	Deland, Fla.

+ Drivers who died during the Race itself.

"These men are not wild and wooly characters who
do not care if they live or die, nor are they clowns
or speed-happy maniacs.
They are men with a special skill which they have 
developed over a hazardous few years.  They survived 
the development period and became great in their 
profession.
Having survived and become champions, they lived on
an exciting plateau alone with their own kind, above 
other men, envied by many who were not gifted with the 
daring spirit and the ability to live life to the 
fullest possessed by them."
~ Johnnie Parsons, 1970

"To race is to live. But those who died while racing knew, perhaps, how to live more than all others."
~ Juan Fangio

23 others have died at the track.
Mechanics killed during the race:
1909-Harry Holcomb, Springfield, Mass., and Claude Kellum, Indianapolis.
1911-Sam Dickson.
1919-Robert Bandini, Los Angeles, and Nicholas Mollinard, France.
1930-Paul Marshall, Indianapolis.
1933-G.L. Gordon, Lafayette, Ind. Mechanics in Practice (7)
1931-Clarence Grover, Haverford, Pa.
1932-Harry Cox, Indianapolis.
1933-Bob Hurst, Indianapolis.
1934-Robert Hahn, Chino, Calif.
1935-Leo Whitaker, Los Angeles.
1937-Albert Opalko, Gary, Ind.
1939-Lawson Harris. Track Personnel in Race (2)
1961-John F. Masariu, Danville, Ind. Volunteer Fireman
1973-Armando Teran, Santa Monica, Calif.

Spectators killed at the race:
1909-Homer Joliff, Franklin, Ind., and James West, Indianapolis.
1923-Bert Shoup, Lafayette, Ind.
1931- 1930 winner Billy Arnold is 5 laps ahead on lap 162 when his rear axle breaks and Arnold crashes. His wheel flies over a fence and hits and kills 12 year old Wilbur Brink who is sitting in his garden on Georgetown Road. Arnold and his mechanic were injured.
1937- George Warford, Indianapolis, and Otto Rhode,Toledo, Ohio.
1938- Everett Spence from Terre Haute Indiana was killed by a tire.
1960-Fred Linder, Indianapolis, and William Craig, Zionsville, Ind.
1987 - Lyle Kurtenbach from Rothschild, Wisconsin was a spectator in the top row of the old K-East stands, located where the east North Vista is now. A wheel from Tony Bettenhausen's car came off and was knocked high into the air by the car of Roberto Guerrero. The tire was bounced all the way up and killed Kurtenbach.
Track workers killed at the speedway:
Friday, 08/06/2004 7:30 a.m. - Arthur Morris, 64, a 20-year safety patrol worker lost control of his scooter and ran into a concrete wall on Hulman Blvd (in the infield.) This accident happened while he was working during the Brickyard 400 weekend. He was pronounced dead at Methodist Hospital at 10:30 a.m.
1965 - A 17 y/o Decatur Central H.S. boy who was working in the infield sought refuge in a shack with a few others during a thunderstorm. Lightning hit killing the boy.

Indianapolis News photographer, J. Parke Randall, captured the scene when tragedy struck during the pace lap of the 1960 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race. A privately owned makeshift scaffold collapsed, killing two people and injuring 40. About 125 people, who had paid $5 to $10 for vantage spots on the scaffold, tumbled to the ground. Upon hearing screams behind him, Randall turned away from the track to see -- and shoot -- the wood-and-metal tower tumbling to the ground under the weight of jostling spectators, spewing them out onto the infield turf.
Scaffolding henceforth was banned.

(11/28/2001) A recent Charlotte Observer investigation revealed 270 people, including 29 spectators, have died in racing accidents in the U.S. in the past 10 years. Most of the fatalities occurred on short tracks, which are one-half mile or smaller. Short tracks make up most of the venues in Indiana.

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