1958 Indianapolis 500 Film

[@davidmichaelclemens5757]

I was the local rep for AP MUFFLERS for 20 years. After Jimmy Bryan died, racing, the company no longer sponsored a car. We sponsored the" Oldtiners banquet at the speedway.I was fortunate to be the person that would present a brick to the old time of the year .Great experience!

[@jcarby86]

i love watching these, wish there was longer footage of 1920' and 30's races , this was darn fast for 1958 , metal coffin with crappy breaks

[@buckzx12r]

Yeah,they were dangerously unsafe by todays standards,but the drivers and cars of this era were the most famous ever,and really put Indy at the top of the racing world.

[@donroberson1027]

Pat O'Connor was a fan favorite from North Vernon Indiana...my hometown...Pat and Wilbur Shaw 3 time 500 winner 🏆 are both buried in Vernon Cemetery...both still have family in North Vernon...nice folks...

[@tonnywildweasel8138]

Love these old races! Thanks for sharing, appreciate it a LOT! Greets, T.

[@kenmurray4902]

I was at the race with members of Pat O'Connor's family what a sad day

[@soonerwhirle]

Are you from North Vernon? My parents lived down the street from O'Connor.

[@kenmurray4902]

@@soonerwhirle Pats mothers sister lived near Rensselaer IN we were neighbors ,also a brother lived in Monon IN

[@billr8667]

Jimmy Bryan's Belond Special was the same car that Sam Hanks drove to victory the year before, Quite a machine!

[@The300savage]

My mother worked for the company that sponsored the #61 car driven by Eddie Johnson. The Bryant Heating and Cooling Special. She has pictures of her and the car, with the builder Joe Scopa and sitting in the car waving. It finished 9th at an average speed of 130.something mph. Not too bad for that era. I have read of the car still around and owned by someone who bought it at an auction a few years ago. I would like to find out who and send them copies of the photos .

[@buckzx12r]

I will never forget the roadster era of the 50s and 60 s.

[@briantaylor9285]

Jeez...landed square on his head 😳😞 RIP Pat O Conner

[@pazooter]

And then there came... "roll bars." Thank you Lefties.

[@ksmmoto]

@@pazooter jerk

[@w.rustylane5650]

That was so long ago, I was 7 years old. Can't believe they used "knock offs" (not what you think of today's knock offs as in products) which they need a mallet to take a wheel on and off. That's what is meant by knock offs. The one center lug nut had 3 wings on it and one would use a mallet to tighten or loosen the lug nut. This was also the era of separate front and rear lift jacks which was current technology back then quite unlike today's pneumatic jacks. I believe the engines back then were mostly V-8's. Cheers from eastern TN

[@timford3599]

4 Cylinder Offenhauser normally aspirated engines that ruled the speedway from 1950 thru 1964.

[@nyc4044]

Some spectacular footage of Paul Russo taking charge and fixing his broken radiator on his Novi at around the 7:16 mark. Just like A.J. Foyt!

[@Mikey300]

That cigar-smokin', always-jokin' racer--Jimmy Bryan!

[@ThePretzelHead]

Mikey300 spoiler....

[@Mikey300]

@@ThePretzelHead Where have you been the last 62 1/2 years?

[@asd36f]

A little known fact about the '58 Indy 500 was that 5-time Formula 1 World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio practised for the race, but then didn't start.

[@cjs83172]

Graham Clayton Because he failed to qualify for it. The irony was that, even though the Indianapolis 500 was officially part of the F1 World Championship from 1950-1960, only Alberto Ascari and Ferrari (in 1952) qualified among the European contingent in an attempt to gain on their F1 rivals for the World Championship in any one of the 11 years in which the Indianapolis 500 was part of the World Championship, and Ascari finished 30th in his one and only Indy start. And in another irony, John Cooper and Jack Brabham brought their Cooper-Climax to Indy in 1961, the first year that it no longer counted toward the World Championship.

[@asd36f]

***** Fangio withdrew his entry after passing his physical and drivers test, according to this blog post: walterzoomiesworld.blogspot.com.au/2008/09/juan-manuel-fangio-at-indy-1958.html

[@cjs83172]

Thanks for pointing me to that article, and correcting my error. The car he drove in those sessions was the one Paul Russo ended up driving in the race, and his pulling out may have been a good thing, because that car was one of those involved in the massive first-lap crash that killed Pat O'Connor and sent Jerry Unser, the older brother of Bobby and Al, OVER the third turn wall.

[@blouie18]

Fangio was first given the Dayton Steel Foundry Special to drive but complained that it had steering problems. Since his English was not good, he could not explain the problem to his crew. After testing the Novi that Russo drove in the race, he tried his original ride again. He spun in practice and decided to leave Indy. Mike Magill was given the car and also complained of steering problems. It turned out the chassis was cracked. The car was fixed and Magill qualified it 31st on the grid and finished 17th after being black flagged.

[@jtp2007]

Looking at the part of the clip where Amick, Bryan, Bettenhausen and Sachs were up front, I could not help but think that all 4 of those drivers would be gone within 6 years. Amick in 1959, Bryan in 1960, Bettenhausen at Indy in 1961 and Sacks at Indy in 1964.

[@cjs83172]

As Brock Yates noted at the end of this presentation of the 1958 Indianapolis 500, no fewer that 16 drivers in this race, about half the field, would eventually be killed in race cars, including Pat O'Connor in the lap one melee, George Amick, Jimmy Bryan, Tony Bettenhausen, Sr., Eddie Sachs, and Jerry Unser, the older brother of Bobby and Al. All of them (and ten others in this race) would be killed in race cars by the end of the 1964 Indianapolis 500.

[@gary24fan]

I find it hilarious you guys sound like huge racing fans and racing historians of the era but you can't spell the name of one of the most talented and popular drivers of the era correctly. It's Eddie Sachs.

[@thevmanvj]

It was a dangerous era in open wheel racing as a whole. Survival rate of a race driver at that point in time was 1 in 3. We were losing drivers on the average of one per month.

[@jtp2007]

@@gary24fan I find it sad that you are such a tool. People make mistakes, we are all human. Just because I spelled a name wrong does not automatically mean I don't know about racing. Either way I changed it tool.

[@cjs83172]

@@gary24fan Thanks. I had not noticed that error regarding Eddie Sachs' name until just now, and that error has now been fixed.

[@skyhigh335]

First indy 500 start for AJ Foyt

[@cjs83172]

+33kalam Right. This was not only Foyt's first Indy start, but also the first for a member of the Unser family, as the 1958 race marked the only start for Jerry Unser, the older brother of Bobby and Al. But Jerry never completed a lap, as he went over the wall in the melee that killed Pat O'Connor and involved a total of 15 cars, 7 of which could not continue. But George Amick's performance completely overshadowed those of the other rookies, as he finished second and challenged the leaders all day long.

[@ziggy2shus624]

Ed Elisian, who crashed on the first lap, was not a rookie. He had raced in the 500 several times before, but this was the first time he had a good car and it went to his head.

[@cjs83172]

In fact, he stopped on the backstretch after the crash in the 1955 race that killed Bill Vukovich and helped Johnny Boyd out of his car. I believe that, under the rules at the time, by doing that, he effectively disqualified himself from that race.

[@darrylruiz2573]

It is claimed that drivers blocked emergency.workers.from reaching Elisians burning car where he died as payback for O Connors death

[@mrgobrien]

ed elisian was certainly "involved" in the deaths of a few drivers - it is difficult to say who was to blame in each case though - e.g. i've seen the bob sweikert video and yes they were dicing for position but ed elisian didn't swerve etc or anything like that and there definitely wasn't a collision - it seems like bob sweikert came up fast behind 2 cars that were nearly side by side and he swerved to avoid both and his car went out of control and crashed.

[@MrChristopherHaas]

Stunning to hear Yates. comments on Elisian. Loopy. I rarely hear or read anything wherein so many people flat out don’t like a driver. Lately I’m STILL reading angry posts in regards to Elisian.

[@cjs83172]

I remember an episode of "Indy 500: A Race for Heroes" that focused on the Bettenhausens, and when this race came up, it was mentioned that prior to the race, there was something going on between Dick Rathmann, a 13-time winner in NASCAR's top series from 1951-'55, and Elisian about both trying to lead the opening lap. Adding to the apprehension of the moment was the fact that, before the race even started, the officials made a mess of things by erroneously placing the entire front row of Rathmann, Elisian, and Jimmy Reece AHEAD of the pace car on the pace lap, and what resulted from that was the second row drivers deliberately slowed the rest of the field down so that the front row could pass the field and be in proper position for the start. So things were already screwed up before the race even started, and what transpired was an absolute mess, and ultimately took the life of the previous year's pole sitter, Pat O'Connor.

[@MrChristopherHaas]

cjs83172 Wikipedia mentions Elisian possibly owing the mob gambling debts that he was trying to make up for in lap money. This is the same guy that pulled off course to help Vuckovich a couple years earlier. Anyhow there was enough anti-Elisian sentiment on Facebook site wherein the post of him spinning had to be deleted yesterday.

[@cjs83172]

@@MrChristopherHaas I'm not sure if it was Vukovich or Johnny Boyd he was trying to help when he stopped at the scene of that wreck in the 1955 race. I know one of the drivers involved pulled Boyd out of his car. Either way, Elisian effectively disqualified himself by stopping on the track. As for the start of this race, the entire fault in the opening lap crash wasn't Elisian's alone. After all, there had been talk all week about both Elisian and Dick Rathmann going all-out to try to lead that opening lap, and fault has to be put on both drivers for trying so hard to lead the opening lap of a 500-mile race that they practically wrecked most of the field by doing so. All six cars in the first two rows were involved in that wreck, with only Jimmy Reece, the other front row starter, even managing a decent finish (he wound up sixth).

[@MrChristopherHaas]

cjs83172 so completely obvious. There was no one around him, back end got away from him down low.

[@cjs83172]

@@MrChristopherHaas Because of how hard he drove it into the corner. My hunch is that, given how hard he drove it into the corner, even if he was able to keep control of his car, Rathmann would have dove back underneath him. There's no doubt Elisian was to blame for his role in starting that massive crash. He might also have been overwhelmed by the pressure of having a car capable of running up front for the first time, so that might also have been part of why he went after it as hard as he did.

[@steven2212]

Love this era...wish they had a more dedicated notion of safety. Lots of greats killed on the track, seems like safety took a back seat.

[@johncomstock2759]

In that era drivers had no fireproof clothing, many did not wear a seatbelt, those that did wear a lap belt simply cut an Army web belt in two and bolted it to the frame. Ed Elisian was a good driver, he started on the front row of the field. He had every right to challenge for the lead. That's not my opinion it was the opinion of the men he drove with and against.

[@harrellkerkhoff8054]

I agree. Elisian may have been “loopy” but he had a right to surge to the front. It’s as common in racing as wearing a helmet.

[@johnerickson2673]

When I dream about The Moonlight on the walbash...

[@butchknouse8316]

Ed Eliason's nickname by the other drivers was "drool".

[@wparker0123]

Thanks froor great video of the 1958 Indianapolis 500. But I will point out the footage of the Purdue Marching is not from the '58 race, as it clearly shows the band is marching on a brick front straightaway. The front stretch was paved the year before except for one yard if brick at the finish line.

[@cjs83172]

W Parker Actually, the main straightaway was not paved over until after the 1961 race, so the footage of the Purdue University marching band may have been from the 1958 race, or the 1957 event.

[@sametozkan9175]

First race the legend was born it's Chip Ganassi.

[@asianoramaagain2269]

Someone once asked a former friend of Jimmy Bryan's what he would have thought of a Danica Patrick.The friend said Bryan would have crashed her intentionally.He was being dead serious.It was a different era.

[@sdsmt99]

A former friend of a long passed driver is an outstanding source for a modern perspective of a situation that didn't exist in the past.

[@noviranger88]

If anyone could tell a racing story it was Brock Yates.

[@TheTotallyRealXiJinping]

6:20 Thise jazz hands tho. Ah-chch-cha Ah-chch-cha

[@MrChristopherHaas]

Thanks for the post. How "loopy" was Ed?

[@miketype1each]

From what I've read, pretty friggin' loopy.

[@davidstout9829]

Christopher Haas He was heavily in debt to the wrong people; he’d been chastised by the USAC sanctioning body before 1958. The story is that he’d bet ($1,000) several people he would lead the first lap. Loopy? He was nuts ... and very dangerous. He was later killed in a Milwaukee race in similar fashion to Pat O’Connor.

[@pazooter]

We've come a long ways. These guys did not even have roll bars to protect them. That does not say they were brave, tho they were. But it does say that Indiana was much lagging in the social and scientific advancements that were available, were shunned. Offenhauser engines that has advances from the 20's were soon replaced by more modern technology; even Ford dared to make advancements along with better safety provisions accommodated by F1 racing. I am a Hoosier and I was there for the most of Indy racing. So let's celebrate our racing tradition and our lost heros; but we need to better appreciate the original concept of the "Brickyard;" let's advance our technology in the Indy race; potentially ignoring the VRrrooom engines and move on into a viable future and let pass its blood sport.

[@gary24fan]

Brock Yates minces no words in the intro and good for him. You'd never get that today. The sanctioning bodies and sponsors of the driver(s) being chastised would get the commentator fired.

[@timfarmer648]

My father was cotton Farmer. 🤠

[@Artessnow]

I wonder why they only changed three tires?

[@cjs83172]

Lorenzo Haskins Because for many, many years, the left front tire did not wear very much at all. In fact, it wouldn't be until at least the late 1980s that teams regularly changed the left front tire on pit stops. In fact, after Danny Sullivan spun in the 1985 race, Sam Posey even mentioned on the ABC broadcast that they never changed the left front tire, and for that very reason. There was no reason to under normal circumstances. So what they would do is to change the right front and both rear tires when they did a tire change, which beginning in the 1960s, was not an automatic thing on pit stops for quite a number of years. In fact, when Jim Clark won the 1965 race, he never had a tire changed, which was one of the secrets to his ultra-fast pit stops. They would check the tires during pit stops in the 60s and 70s, but not always change them.

[@Artessnow]

Thanks cjs83172 for the quick response. I suppose things were very different during that era. I think Jim Clark or one of the Lotus did the entire 500 on one pit stop.

[@cjs83172]

Actually, Clark pitted twice, which became the rule in 1965 after the catastrophe in 1964. Prior to that, some teams would carry insane loads of fuel in an attempt to go the full distance with just one stop, as Clark's team did in 1963. But beginning in 1965, one of the rules mandated was a minimum of two pit stops for each car, though of course, there was no limit on how many pit stops a team could take. (For example, Bobby Unser made 11 pit stops in his 1975 win, and that race didn't even go the full distance.) Clark's advantage was having the Wood Brothers as his pit crew (they made 17-second pit stops, compared to the usual 30-40 second pit stops by the competition), in addition to a perfect setup, one that did not require even one tire to be changed for the entire race. Also, when the rear-engine revolution came to Indy in the mid-60s, the cars were far lighter than what they were running in the early 60s, and that also reduced the need for as many tire changes until they got to about 170-175 MPH in the early 70s, which is also about the time when the cars got heavier (there's a stark difference in A.J. Foyt's 1967 winning car and Al Unser's Johnny Lightning cars that won in 1970-'71). Then the tires again began to wear to the point where they needed to be changed. Another change in race strategy was the fact that the teams would plan their race in quarters, planning their pit stops to come at, or around laps 50, 100, and 150, which was the game plan through the 1971 race. But beginning in 1972, the teams realized that they were burning so much fuel that they began to strategize the race with pit stops every 100 miles (lap 40, 80, 120, and 160). They were still allowed to carry 75 gallons on board, but since they were getting poorer mileage, they had to pit more often. Then after the disastrous 1973 race, the fuel allotment was cut from 75 to 40 gallons, which resulted in taking the old 50 laps-per-tank segments, and cutting them in half, resulting in seven planned pit stops for a complete race, about one every 25 laps. In addition, it wasn't until the early 70s that the method of changing tires changed. Prior to that, the teams had to manually knock of the lug that held the tire on the wheel. But the air wrench came into being in the early 70s, which made changing tires far easier and far quicker than it was prior to that.

[@patricktaylor4997]

@@cjs83172 I guess that tire wear also increased once the ban on airfoils was lifted. (1969 was it?) The increased downforce on the cars must have made for some serious rethinking on tires.

[@cjs83172]

@@patricktaylor4997 Actually, the rule change allowing bolt-on wings for the 1972 race (and season) had virtually no effect on tire wear. What it did was to dramatically increase cornering speeds, and that, combined with the fact that, in 1972 and '73, the cars ran with unlimited turbocharger boost, resulted in the cars having so much horsepower that they actually spun the tires on the short chutes. One reason why that rule change had virtually no effect on tire wear was because the increase in speeds from the horsepower the engines were now producing, resulted in the teams having to pit every 40 laps, instead of every 50, as had been the case in the years leading up to 1972, and they could change tires more often, if needed, since there was at least one more pit stop required to run the full 500 miles.

[@WildwoodClaire1]

Dick Rathmann was just as responsible for the crash as Ed Elisian.

[@cjs83172]

There was something going on heading into the race between him and Ed Elisian about wanting to lead the first lap of the race, something that was aggravated even further by the botched lineup of all three front row cars, which were erroneously placed ahead of the pace car, requiring an extra warm-up lap (and the second row leading the field at a slower pace) for Rathmann, Elisian, and outside front row starter Jimmy Reece to get back in their proper positions for the start. So the start of the race was fouled up before the green flag even came out, and when that was combined with both drivers trying as hard as they did to lead the first lap, a crash was almost inevitable.

[@almostfm]

@@cjs83172 It wasn't the first or the last time that USAC fouled up the start.

[@cjs83172]

@@almostfm It was probably the first time USAC fouled up the start, because this was just their third year as the sanctioning body for the Indianapolis 500 after the AAA pulled out after the events of 1955, but it certainly was far from the last. But what made this particular foul-up unique was that the field was misaligned coming onto the track, which was what forced the extra pace lap. What USAC and IMS decided to do when the pit wall was erected in 1957 was to line the field up single file leaving the pit area and then form the rows of three behind the pace car, and they ran into trouble both years. In 1957, the problem, which had nothing to do with any procedure, was a backstretch crash on the pace lap involving Elmer George (Tony's father) and Eddie Russo, which delayed the actual start, and then the fiasco of having the front row ahead of the pace car in 1958. Beginning in 1959, they went back to the way it was before the pit wall was built, which was to line the field up on the track behind the pace car, already in their rows of three, which alleviated the line-up problems they had in '58.

[@therealelderlybrothers2914]

Was this years race (1958) sanctioned by Formula 1 and or considered a formula 1 race. I have never heard this before just wondering

[@cjs83172]

While I don't believe it was not a part of the official F1 calendar, the Indianapolis 500 was an official part of the F1 World Championship from 1950-1960, and the Indianapolis 500 winner in those years is officially on the list of all-time race winners, as well as all-time point scorers, since the top finishers officially got points for the world championship corresponding to their finishing positions, since it did count toward the world championship. The irony was that, in the 11 years in which the Indianapolis 500 was officially part of the F1 championship, only once did a F1 team compete at Indy. That would be Ferrari in 1952, as Alberto Ascari ran in that year's Indianapolis 500 in a Ferrari, but they were way off the pace and retired early in that year's Indianapolis 500. And another irony was that the year after the Indianapolis 500 was no longer a part of the World Championship (1961) was also the year that John Cooper brought his rear engine car to Indy with 2-time reigning F1 champion Jack Brabham, setting off what became known as the rear engine revolution. Brabham's car, while superior to the Indy roadsters in the turns because of how much lighter it was, proved to be no match for the roadsters on the long straightaways because it was giving up about 200 HP to the Offy engines, and while it was running at the finish, it was next-to-last among the ten cars that finished the race.

[@therealelderlybrothers2914]

wow! thank you!! just when you thought you knew quite a bit, you find it was no that much lol

[@Asiaguydude]

What was so idiotic about Elisians driving? I don’t see it.