Salem Speedway is a .555 miles (0.893km) long paved oval racetrack in Washington Township, Washington County, near Salem, Indiana, United States, approximately 100 miles (160km) south of Indianapolis. Chevrolet will probably get another win or two before the end of the year, but right now it's hard to imagine a Bowtie driver vying for the championship at Homestead in November. Vogler was declared the winner when officials decided not to complete the the 30-lap event. 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. Read More. Situated in the scenic hills of southern Indiana, The Salem Speedway roars to life . 19,772 people like this. Roger Bruce Hassing. Weeks later, Sweikert's fatal sprint car crash occurred on June 17, 1956, at Salem Speedway. Vogler was the National Alliance of Midget Auto Racing (NAMAR) midget champion in 1973. 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. to Indianapolis and listed the house for sale. LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Racing is returning to Salem, Indiana. "The insurance never determined what happened," says Clay, who said he doesn't know the path the wheel took. Sweikert returned to Hayward and opened his own small business, Sweikert Automotive, an automotive repair shop based out of his parents' garage. Greg Sacks had his fill of those in the last race, the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, Fla., where accidents ruined the weekend for both drivers. Days before his 40th birthday, Vogler was competing in a nationally broadcast ESPN Thunder Joe James / Pat O'Connor Memorial sprint car event at Salem Speedway. (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). 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. "I have 200 fires to put out," track president Doug McManus says. Bohanon, a Southern Indiana native, has raced on the famous High Banks of Salem Speedway and looks forward to shaping the tracks future. No other cars were involved. 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Ostapenko, 38, who was working in his yard at That car now resides in the Museum at the Indianapolis racetrack. When I hit 30, I figured Id better quit.. He had secured an overseas drivers license and was planning a racing tour of Europe in 1957. Sheriff Robert A. ONeal ordered the pool be drained. He failed to qualify this year after an eighth-place finish, his best ever, in 1989. As the field favorite going for his third consecutive win at Indy, Vuky, who was leading when he crashed, would have been tough to Dr. Dan Anderson pronounced Vogler dead at 11:40 p.m. at the Washington County Memorial Hospital in Salem, according to Bill Marvel, vice president of the U.S. Auto Club. About See All. [5], Because of USAC rules on a red flag reverting to the previous completed lap, he was declared the winner of the event following his death, which was his 170th win. Mrs. Sweikerts last order before leaving Indianapolis, the neighbors said, was that the fence be completed at once. Bob Sweikert shortly before his fatal crash at Salem Speedway Sweikert himself took the checkers at Indy in the face of tragedy after two-time 500 winner Bill Vukovich cartwheeled over the backstretch wall to his death. Vogler became the first driver to win the USAC Sprint Car and Midget championships in the same year (1980). Lindsey took to cars with the same fervor. Please subscribe to. 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. A dozen years later, Elisian and Sweikert were engaged in the racing duel that led to Sweikert's fatal crash at Salem Speedway. At the time, Vogler was scheduled to run the full Winston Cup Series in the near-future for U.S. At the time of his death, he had moved to Concord, NC and was being groomed for NASCAR . Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. 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. He was only 30, leaving behind his wife Dolores and four children. Mrs. Tomlinson ran behind the Sweikert house. All Access Digital offer for just 99 cents! Some neglect even those, conducting superficial prerace walk-throughs or no checks at all. 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. 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. We are in the process of finalizing our 2023 schedule and will have that out next week.. Built in 1946/47, the. 47K views, 969 likes, 76 loves, 119 comments, 367 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from History Mystery Man: Salem Speedway is one of the most iconic race tracks in America. "And it gets worse at the end of the night.". Now his dream was not just to win Indy, but to be the best in the world. priest, took them word that the boys were dead. He said, I still cant relax. He said this was just one race. NASCAR hadnt yet arrived to swallow the sport. "There's no way to stay ahead of these drivers.". Required fields are marked *. "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. The event at one of the iconic short tracks in the county is being . He died a week later. For as long as he remembers, his view of Saturday nights was framed by the edges of a driver's helmet. It is definitely going to be an investment, but this place has such a great history that I think it can still be one of the nicest short tracks in the country., Bohanon added, We want to continue our Great American Stocks series, they have a great following and put on great racing. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. I never talked about how brave I was. Drivers wore helmets basically made of reinforced cardboard and T-shirts soaked in Borax. [3] Former driver Nick Bohanon bought the racetrack in December 2022. The same year, Sweikert moved up to midget cars, and won his first training race with the Bay Cities Racing Association. Racing but was replaced posthumously by Ted Musgrave. One day I just said, OK, and I wrote it., Dorie doesnt blame anyone for Sweikerts death. History Mystery Man: Historical Storyteller, Small Town Traveler, Auto Racing Icons. Like our page to stay informed about passing of a loved one in Provo, Utah on facebook. Donald Davidson, historian for the Indianapolis 500, said Sweikert is highly regarded among those familiar with the sports heritage. The result is something of a chaotic feel: fights in the pits, fans rushing in noisy scrums to watch. But Dorie didnt believe it would happen to Sweikert. CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The wheel came off in Turn 2, snapped from its axle in a two-car collision. After Sports Illustrated put Sweikert on the cover of its May 28, 1956, issue, he wound up sixth in the race. "My stamina's not what it should be. Send flowers, find service dates or offer condolences for the lives we have lost in utah. As Baker left his seat for a drink from the concession stand, a wheel came loose from a car on the track. In the winner's circle, Sweikert and Dorie celebrated with singer-actress Dinah Shore. [1] In 1987 he won the inaugural Chili Bowl Midget Nationals race. Vogler's helmet flew off his head and he suffered severe head injuries that proved to be fatal. ", But: "Everywhere I go, I check out their fence.". There was kind of a machismo attached to it. He ran seventy-two races that first BCRA season, finishing 14th out of 130 active members in the annual point standings. Now, he says softly, he doesn't know. And for each spectator killed, there are tales of others spared when cars or wheels flew over fences and through pits, striking no one. In May 1999, three died and eight were injured in Concord when a wheel and parts from a three-car wreck flew into the grandstand during an Indy Racing League event at Lowe's Motor Speedway. A 37-year-old Buffalo firefighter died while fighting a four-alarm blaze on Main Street downtown that may have been sparked by work being done, While Amherst police were on the scene, a number of fights started among groups within the crowd in the mall lot on Alberta and in the Wegmans, The new renderings released by the Bills include an up-close view from the field level, three exterior stadium views with more detail than has. [1][3] Vogler had 170 total USAC wins, and won over 200 "outlaw" (non-USAC) midget races. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. The wheel hit Amanda flush, crushing her lungs and heart beyond surgeons' repair. Marjorie Ann Bitter. (key) (Bold Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Vogler's helmet flew off his head and he suffered severe head injuries that proved to be fatal. On July 21, 1990, during the Joe James / Pat O'Connor Memorial sprint car event at the Salem Speedway, which was nationally broadcast on ESPN Thunder, sprint car driver Rich Vogler sustained fatal head injuries due to a crash in turn 4. He actually maintained his sprint car, even after he won (Indy).. two months, went home while firemen worked. RACE CAR driver Bob Sweikert celebrates his win in the 1955Indianapolis 500 with his wife, Dorrie. From age 16 Sweikert worked after school as a mechanic at the local Ford dealership in Hayward. Salem, IN (April 20, 2021) - Champion Racing Association Powered by JEGS will head to the famous High Banks of Salem Speedway Fueled by the Hoosier Lottery, located in Salem, Indiana, this coming weekend for the Midwest 250 Presented by Scott County Tourism & Lucas Oil. Country Club golf course behind the Sweikert home. Bob Sweikerts death in an auto race last June was reflected Weeks later, Sweikert's fatal sprint car crash occurred on June 17, 1956, at Salem Speedway. He won numerous major national events: the Hut Hundred eight times, the 4-Crown Nationals midget car event four times, the Copper Classic twice, the Hoosierdome Invitational twice, the WWRA Florida Winter Nationals in 1983, and the Night Before the 500 once. She figures it was a combination of factors, but mostly this: It was Bobs time to die, and he died.. Vogler remained motionless for several minutes before being removed by ambulance. If you wanted to be a racer, thats what you had to do, Rathmann said. . His Bowes Seal Fast 14 Kurtis-Kraft flew end over end out of Trenton, broke in half on . 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. Eugene Gerber, bishop of Wichita's Roman Catholic diocese and a family friend, tried to console the mournful. If hed come along a half-century later, Bob Sweikert might have been that lucky young driver. Find an obituary, get service details, leave condolence messages or send flowers or gifts in memory of a loved one. and the winner of the 1955 Indianapolis Motor Speedway classic and had built Speedway. Nobody planned this tragedy, he told them. We want all of our events to be big shows. Not now. You have permission to edit this article. Its like Iraq its that kind of grief.. I had a son who was killed in a crash as well.''. 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.. Get Morning Report and other email newsletters. 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