When they built the Daytona International Speedway, They knew they were building the fastest racetrack in the world They tried to build the safest track in the world designed for unlimited speed But the drivers... Wondered if this were possible This chilled the drivers bravery. There was almost nothing they could do once it got away (Tires screeching) Now they know, the drivers and the fans, that no track is unlimited The construction of Daytona International Speedway began on November 25th 1957 Built by Bill France Sr, the 2.5 mile circuit with steep 31 degree banked corners was certain to become the fastest track in the United States And on par with the Oval in Monza, Italy as the fastest in the world In 1957 and '58, Indy cars raced at the fast Monza Oval against some of the best drivers in Europe it was in '58 that Tony Bettenhausen set a closed course world record with an average lap speed of 177.03 MPH Because of USAC's willingness to race at fast tracks, Bill France hoped they would race at his new super speedway As early as august 1958 france met with USAC competition director dwayne carter to attract IndyCar races to Daytona Finally the announcement was made in November that Indy cars would race at Daytona not just once but twice in 1959 Including the season opener on April 4th a 100 mile race The series would return to Daytona on the 4th of July for a 300 mile event in 1958 the Indianapolis track record stood at 146 point five miles per hour It was predicted that Daytona lap speeds would be near 180 miles per hour which was already beginning to intimidate drivers In the weeks leading up to the first Daytona 500, Bill France scheduled a series of exhibition runs for USAC cars just to see how fast they could go and try to brake speed records This created a controversy As USAC objected to their cars running during NASCAR activities and banned their drivers from taking part In response, France threatened to cancel the USAC races unless the exhibition runs were allowed USAC relented and allowed their drivers to compete With a looming deadline, construction on the Speedway was completed with no time to spare Metal guardrails with wooden posts were finally installed around the track at the beginning of February On February 9th the exhibition speedruns began The first driver to arrive was Marshall Teague, a 37 year-old native of Daytona Beach Teague was one of the 35 men who met at the Streamline Hotel in December 1947 to lay the groundwork for NASCAR In fact, when the organization began he was NASCAR's first treasurer As a driver, Teague won races on the beach in 1951 and 1952 driving his "Fabulous Hudson Hornet" NASCAR rules banned its racers from competing in other series Teague left NASCAR in 1952 to compete in the Indy 500 Almost exclusively a stock car driver, Teague made two starts in Indy cars, both in the Indianapolis 500 For the new USAC race in his hometown, Teague got a ride with businessman and team owner Chapman Root, also a Daytona resident Teague planned to drive for the team at both Daytona and Indianapolis The car Marshall Teague drove in the exhibition runs was known as the Sumar Special It had finished ninth in the 1955 Indy 500 and had since been covered in streamlined body parts to make it more aerodynamic The Sumar Special was built to go fast and Teague wanted to set a world record speed with it On the first day of testing Teague's top speed was 171.82 miles per hour, the fastest lap ever run on a track in the United States While it was over 25 miles per hour faster than anything at Indianapolis, the team believed they could go quicker with a different gear in the car and a lower stance and So on day two of the tests Teague escaped from a close call As he raced at over 170 miles per hour on a windy day, Observers noticed the tube sticking out at the left rear tire Teague was waved into the pits and he escaped from a close call averting a crash the next time out, however, Teague wouldn't be so fortunate On February 11th Teague arrived to break the 180 mile per hour mark An unthinkable figure for 1959. But chasing that record, he paid with his life Just after noon, the Sumar Special hit the track. With a movie camera mounted on the rear of his car filming the run, Teague ran three laps conservatively, building up his speed As he entered turn one on the fourth lap, the back of the car started to spin and then the car flipped Eyewitnesses said the streamliner flipped five times, digging pieces of asphalt out of the track as it tumbled In the violence of the roll, the seat brackets broke and Teague was thrown from the car Still strapped to the seat, Teague died instantly Teague's death was the second in nine months for the Root team following Pat O'Connor's death on the first lap of the 1958 Indy 500 O'Connor's death inspired USAC to require roll bars on all Indy cars to protect if a car flipped upside down Investigators couldn't find a cause for Teague's crash but did discover that the seat belts had been mounted to the seat itself? And so from that point forward, rules required the seat belts to be mounted directly to the frame In the days that followed, a handful of other drivers attempted to beat Teague's top speed Brothers Dick and Jim Rathmann drove an Indy roadster prepared by Smokey Yunick No one went faster than Teague's 171 mile per hour record The runs ended on February 19th the first Daytona 500 was held days later The checkered flag! The race is over Ten straight days of practice and time trials for the IndyCar race began on Wednesday, March 25th In addition to the 100 mile USAC race, a second 100 mile "Formula Libre" race would be held immediately after it This was an exhibition event open to nearly every type of car while almost all entrants were expected to be Indy cars, Reports stated that Marshall Teague had planned to enter his special streamliner before his death On the first day of practice, Jim Rathmann drove an Indy Car with a special Pontiac motor in it to test tires for Firestone With a lap speed of 172.8 miles per hour, He broke the unofficial track record After two days of practice, Tony Bettenhausen claimed that a car using a Novi engine could average 185 miles per hour around the track Only Offenhauser engines were entered in the race Still, some estimates predicted the fastest qualifying speed would be over 180 miles per hour Driving the Root car Marshall Teague planned to race, Dick Rathmann broke the track record on the third day of practice After running a lap of 173.01 miles per hour, Rathmann spun while entering pit road, but suffered no damage Like Indianapolis, qualifying was held over several days with the run for the pole on Saturday March 28 Dick Rathmann won the pole with a speed of 173.210 miles per hour Improving his lap from the previous day His brother Jim would start second. Only the top eight cars qualified on day one The week leading up to the race was plagued with rain Sunday's track activities were delayed by moisture and practice finally began late in the afternoon The first serious accident of the week occurred when Bob Veith flipped in the middle of the backstretch At over 150 miles per hour, his car began to lose control on a wet part of the track Veith hit the wall with the right front and slid on top of the rail for 50 feet the car flipped upside down and slid for around 250 yards before rolling back onto its wheels into the grass Veith's helmets had been ground down where his head slid across the asphalt But despite the violence of the crash he survived with only a bruised forehead and shoulder abrasions He credited as survival to the roll bar, which USAC mandated the year before It was later discovered than a mechanic forgot to remove the starter shaft from Veith's car But both the driver and owner denied it had any effect on the crash Day two of qualifying was rescheduled for Monday Driving a car built by George Bignotti, 1958 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year George Amick ran a lap of 176.88 miles per hour The speed was just shy of the world record Tony Bettenhausen set at Monza the year before Amick won a $500 bonus for being the fastest driver in qualifying but would start ninth because his run came on day two of time trials Rain and high winds canceled activity for the next three days Qualifying finally resumed on Friday Of the cars that made runs, AJ Foyt was fastest with the speed of 168.9 miles per hour two drivers crashed on Friday Jerry Unser spun entering turn three and hit the guardrail with his left rear the damage kept him out of the race Later, Al Keller spun into the grass entering the tri-oval He destroyed the electronic beam used to time runs, but suffered minimal damage to the car itself The IndyCar race began at two o'clock on Saturday An estimated six thousand people were in attendance Far less than the 40,000 spectators at the Daytona 500 One of the fans who did show up was Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony Hulman Dick Rathmann led a field of 20 cars to the green flag and when the race began, Jim Rathmann quickly passed his brother to take the lead Rodger Ward took the top spot on lap 7 and led for five circuits before Jim Rathmann drafted back past But the race soon began to take its toll After six laps, Tony Bettenhausen fell out of the race with an oil leak after brushing the wall After 28 laps, Dempsey Wilson spun out in turn 2 Despite the short 40 lap distance, driver fatigue was higher than expected Up at the front of the field, Jim Rathmann pulled away for an easy win just as he was crossing the finish line, a terrible crash occurred in turn two Exiting the corner, George Amica attempted to pass Bob Christie for third As Amick moved towards the inside, his car started to spin and he overcorrected his car crashed head-on into the guardrail shearing off the front wheels and flipping upside down Reports stated that the car flipped ten times before it came to a stop halfway down the backstretch in the infield grass Bill Cheesborg spun his car and ran over to check on Amick's condition before realizing that Amick was dead, killed instantly in the crash Fellow drivers debated whether the crash was caused by high winds or if Amick's reflexes were slowed by fatigue The tremendous force of the crash destroyed the guardrail and tore out eight wooden support posts The Formula Libre race was delayed over an hour while repairs were made Concerned about safety, race officials decided to cut the distance to only 50 miles, A mere 20 laps Despite this race being open to other exotic cars, No one else entered and only 14 remaining Indy cars filled the field The starting order was the same as the lineup for the first event, but six cars didn't take the green flag Mechanical problems in the first race kept drivers like AJ Foyt and Eddie Sachs from competing in race two Shocked with everything he saw in race one Tony Bettenhausen refused to ever drive at Daytona again and Dempsey Wilson drove his car instead at the start Jim Rathmann led lap 1 then lost the lead to Rodger Ward on lap 2 On lap five, Ward spun from the lead and brought out the caution for six laps When the race restarted Jim and Dick Rathmann drafted nose to tail for the win over the last nine laps Jim Rathmann won his second race of the day, beating his brother by a few car lengths Hours after the races ended and the crowds were gone A drunk spectator borrowed his friends passenger car and drove onto the track hitting speeds of over 100 miles per hour While this was going on, Bill France Jr And several workmen were on the track making further repairs to the rails damaged in the Amick crash France signaled the 48 year old man to stop and he crashed into a truck parked on the track Both vehicles were destroyed and the man faced charges of DUI, reckless driving, causing an accident, and trespassing Immediately after the race Daytona was declared unsafe for IndyCar one of the biggest concerns was that the angle between the track and the apron was too severe Three days later, the 300 mile IndyCar race on the fourth of July was canceled A NASCAR race was scheduled in its place a race that evolved into today's Firecracker 400 Indy cars never returned to Daytona Still hoping for high speed records, Bill France offered a $10,000 prize for the first car to run a lap of over 180 miles per hour In August 1961 a modified Indy roadster with a wing claimed the prize Since then, no Indy Car has tested on the oval However a pair of tests in 2006 and 2007 on the road course are the only times that Indy cars have returned to the Speedway To mark the 50th anniversary at the race in 2009, Daytona hosted a small reunion of cars Race winner Jim Rathmann returned to the track and eight restored Indy roadsters made ceremonial laps once again on the high banked oval
My wife thinks I watch porn after she goes to sleep. In reality, I watch racing videos. Then porn.
I love that the automatic subtitles has Eddie Sachs named "Eddie Sexes".
Great documentary, will sit down and watch it proper later tonight.
This was fantastic, thank you so much for sharing!
Is no one going to comment on the drunk guy that took his friends Pontiac out on the track after the races were over and hit over 100 mph on street tires before hitting a truck that was helping repair the track after another driver DIED? WTF???
One death in practice and one in the race proper sounds like about par for the course for USAC.
I forget the exact number but in Black Noon they said that it wasn’t until the seventies that there had been more Indy 500s than there had been people who died at Indianapolis.
I contend they could safely run there now, in the modern cars. Safety has come a long way since 1959. And I think the length of the track, a mile longer than Texas/Vegas/Atlanta etc, means that the g-forces wouldn’t be as extreme as the 2001 Texas CART race. Part of that race’s issue was going that fast on a relatively (to Daytona) short oval. But it will never happen bc of NASCAR. I’d love to at least see a test there or Talladega in today’s cars. Cool video, thanks for sharing. Man they’d be flying though, if an unrestricted stock car can turn laps at 221 mph (Rusty Wallace did this around 2003 in a test session), IndyCars, maybe 240+ laps??