Talk:1964 Indianapolis 500

"Fuellish" redux copy/paste to the `64 & '73 Indy 500 Talk pages

In fact, tanks indeed hold a maximum of 75 gallons at the time: You can check the race rules that year in any Indy 500 printed program in the `60's & 70's. Also, I know for a fact that (at least) Dave Macdonald's car had a rubber-lined fuel cell, because the late Dave Zieger, who was my late father's co-worker at the RCA color TV plant on Sherman Drive and also family friend, told me he was the one who installed the bladder in the tank — Something which haunted him until his grave.

What happened is that most of the cars were running methanol to get more horsepower; but Smokey Yunick and a few others ran high octane racing fuel, produced at the refinery on the north side of Indy. The problem is, you're "damned if you do and damned if you don't," because while gasoline burns best at about a 12:1 air-fuel ratio, methanol burns best at about 7:1, necessitating more pit stops.

Indeed, gasoline was banned; but kerosene was also allowed, as that is what fueled the turbines starting in 1967.

It was after the 1973 crash at the start of the Indy 500 when starter Pat Vidan, whose day job was running his barber shop on Georgetown Road west of the track, threw the green flag a lap early (he was fired and replaced by Shim Malone) when Salt Walther was hit by AJ charging through the field (some accounts said it was Mike Mosley), spraying 75 gallons of flaming methanol into the Track Boxes about 50 yards past our family's seats in Paddock Box 10, Row J, about 100 yards past the start/finish line — The track boxes where we had extra seats in 1971 or `72 (I forget which year we had them for cousins in town. I was not quite 13 at the time; but I'll never forget the blast of heat and the flaming blue fireball to this very day. The crash into the catchfence was so violent, two of the steel stanchions were broken; and as they were repairing them, the rains mercifully came and the race was postponed until the next day.

Incidentally, the 40 gallons of methanol was fun: at the 1977 Domino's 500 at Pocono (which I was at), AJ got caught cheating when, in post-race tech, he was caught with a 45 gallon fuel tank. He argued (I forgot if he was successful) that the rules stated "a maximum of 40 gallons of methanol," but he claimed that 5 gallons of that was water! I don't know how much after that occurred that they started testing the fuel; but I know when I was a photojournalist 2001-2004 that when I went to photograph the room in the Speedway infield where they tested it, I was quickly shoo'd away. However, from a full-page ad in the race program, Perkin-Elmer bragged that "once again, we are proud to supply the gas/liquid chromatograph [GLC] for the Indy 500."

If you have any further info specific to the fuel issues related to the `64 or `73 Indy's, please contact me via e-mail at Brakeshoe4515T@gmail.com to discuss it. Dan Schwartz, now in Atlanta. Discpad (talk) 20:10, 19 September 2021 (UTC)

Rufus/"Parnelli" pit lane crash

The pit lane crash details was related to me by RaceFax/RaceFaxDotCom's Forrest Bond, who covered the 1964 Month of May as a photojournalist for Car & Driver magazine. Discpad (talk) 19:08, 19 September 2021 (UTC)

Untitled

What does "FS" mean? It's listed several times in the chart showing how the drivers finished, but there's no explanation for "FS". Jtyroler (talk) 03:51, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

Front-Straightaway or Frontstretch. Likewise BS would be Backstretch Doctorindy (talk) 17:39, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Bizarre vandalism

Someone had changes Macdonalds and Sachs' names for some reason, I fixed it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.23.193.172 (talk) 04:54, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Schedule

• Opening day friday
• Time trials May 16-17, 23-24
• http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LQ9KAAAAIBAJ&sjid=dh4NAAAAIBAJ&pg=1962,5043781&dq=indianapolis+500&hl=en
• Paul Goldsmith article - http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8TAaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=dycEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5190,4576998&dq=indianapolis+500&hl=en

Fuellish

I deleted this:

"in his fuel tanks (up to 45 US gallons)<ref name="sportsillustrated.cnn.com"/>"

as a non sequitor, & because it's unclear there was actually 45USgal in the tanks at the time. If somebody can figure out how to work it into a description of the tech spec of the roadsters, re-add it? Also, can somebody confirm the type of fuel used? IIRC, it was still methanol, then, not gasoline. TREKphiler ^{any time you're ready, Uhura} 02:10, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Gasoline was most certainly the fuel used in 1964. There was the option to use methanol (and other fuels), but gasoline was the fuel of choice for a number of reasons. The Sachs/MacDonald was the impetus for the "banning" of gasoline for Indy starting in 1965. I say "banning" in quotes because it was not specifically prohibited by USAC yet. However, rules were put into effect that essentially made using gasoline a competitive disadvantage. They started with an effort to discourage it, and eventually ban it. Within another year or so, it was prohibited outright. I'll look into the other statements...I;m quite sure the tanks were holding upwards of 75 gallons at the time. The article's prose is a bit unorganized. Doctorindy (talk) 17:29, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Sid Collins eulogy

Upon further review of the original radio broadcast, the quoted eulogy that Collins recites did have a factual error. He said "...This boy won the pole in 1961 and 1962..." But that is not 100% true. He should have said 1960 and 1961. It was an honest mistake during an impromptu segment off the top of his head. I restored it to its original quote, but added [sic] to illustrate there was a slip up in the quote.  Doctorindy (Talk) 19:14, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

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