1965 Harold Kite fatal crash @ Charlotte (extended footage)

[@JasonNation72]

As the broadcaster on the left reports a fatality, the guy on the right is all giddy and smiling and is looking forward to many more races like that. 🙄 Uh...what?

[@MMAALL]

Yes. I was thinking the same thing. Yep, those sweet, innocent 1960s, when people were more empathetic and kind. Seriously, though, death at that time in all forms of motorsports was simply accepted as a job hazard and it happened a lot. Very different times. I mean, compare what happened after the Greg Moore crash and the Dan Wheldon crash? One race went on. The other, 12 years later, was stopped. Times change.

[@derrickgibson3240]

I wouldn't blame him, it's just the sign of the times, everybody had a cavalier attitude towards fatal crashes including the drivers themselves, they certainly didn't dwell on death like we tend to do nowadays.

[@RolfeK]

Same, especially at the end of the race, where he states he hopes to see more races like this one.

[@RRaquello]

The "guy on the right" is Rodger Ward, two time Indy 500 winner. He had seen fatal crashes before and was in the middle of one of the REALLY big ones in racing history when Bill Vukovich was killed at Indy in 1955. He was also a fighter pilot in WW 2. People weren't as insulated from death in those days. It was part of every day life. Younger race fans suffer lifetime trauma from watching an accident where the driver doesn't even get hurt and their pants are still wet about it years later (example: Grosjean). I don't know which attitude is worse.

[@jwelliott738]

​@derrickgibson3240 like Dan Gurney said, they had a WWII mentality then.

[@davidreichert9392]

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?

[@cal_nevari]

Yep. A guy died and there is "Rog" standing with a stupid grin on his face after the race, saying "Well I'm looking forward to many more races like that! Boy, I'll tell ya this is a great place to be in a race like that." At least the other guy doesn't say, "Yeah, Rog, if he could make a wish and have it come true, Harold Kite might wish he had traded places with you for this race, boy." Anyway, Rog is probably in a similar state now as Harold was then, unless Rog is still alive & probably be in his 90s - sipping cool tea somewhere and going "Boy I'll tell ya this is a great place to be sipping cool tea!"

[@briantaylor9285]

Wow, that other guy didn't give a single f___k about Harold Kite's death 😳

[@afridgetoofar1818]

Savage.

[@bluesguitar1973]

It was like they both didn't

[@mikecumbo7531]

It was racing back then. Safety was unknown. Roger Ward was a fighter pilot during WW II, death was common for those folks. The great Jackie Stewart said back in the early part of his F1 career that if you saw three drivers together, two of them would likely die. He once told a story about his son asking him “when are you going to die?”. Stewart then started working on driver safety for F1. Luckily, safety isn’t a foreign concept today but people still get hurt and occasionally die.

[@langston3286]

Imagine if these 2 were the ones breaking the news of JFKs assassination 2 years earlier. 😮

[@admiralcraddock464]

@@mikecumbo7531 Back in the 70`s hardly a year went by withouth a top F1 driver being killed. In the 1955 Le mans tragedy where 85 spectators were killed, the race just kept going; no red flag was used.

[@jdaddy5965]

That guy on the right didn't give a shit that that poor man died. Then he said that this is the kind if race I want to see.....heartless.

[@heavenlyblue]

Being in my 60's year of age, when I was young, it was not unusual to see fatalities at Nascar races or Indy 500 races when I was watching on TV. Am glad this does not happen so often as it did when I was young and that the cars are significantly safer.

[@MrThumbs63]

'73 Indy 500 was wild. F1 in the '70s was brutal too.

[@sjb3460]

I remember those days. Do you remember "The Wide World of Sports?" How about the skier crashing out??

[@johnmarksmith1120]

⁠@@sjb3460Are you kidding me? A Sunday afternoon didn’t start until my Dad and I saw “The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” as the ski jumper yard sales off the edge of the jump. I always liked how the stock cars zoomed by inches from the wall. Don’t quote me on this but I think it was Jim McKay that did the voice over.

[@ronaldclary]

@@johnmarksmith1120 It absolutely was McKay. And the skier actually survived that fall.

[@FlatOutMatt]

@@sjb3460”The agony of defeat.”

[@michaelmorgan9825]

I lived off Old Concord Rd in Charlotte NC in 65. I was a young teenager. I used to ride my bike to N. Tryon St. The next light was Eastway Dr., Kite's shop set at the corner of Eastway and N. Tryon. I remember his shop had two or three bays and from that spring up to Memorial Day week, his racecar sat in one of the bays. Me and my friends rode by it dozens of times, but we never had the courage to stop and say hello.

[@WaldiNASCAR]

I believe NASCAR accidentally uploaded this full ABC broadcast to the Classic races site without remembering this crash was in it, but by the time it was taken off the site, the broadcast had already been reposted. The same thing occurred with the 1965 Southern 500

[@threepea1151]

I hope they forget the 1983 Twin 125s had a fatality*, I’d love to see Wallace and Jacobi’s flips in high quality

[@Romax-pg2is]

Yep, someone saved and uploaded the broadcasts to KZbin. 1965 Southern 500: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n5qYpKxrjtCee5Y 1965 National 400: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bIbcc6qPm6iKjpI

[@joe-hp4nk]

Why would they take it off the site?

[@JohnJohn-zn8ib]

There have been many Nascar accidents on video, it's not nice but they do show them.

[@geoffhipwell2198]

I just can't believe the 'happy' attitude of the co-commentator!! He was just excited to be there!!

[@nickakers7985]

Up until Dale’s death it was generally expected that a driver would die on occasion, and the farther back you go that was a yearly occurrence. In the 60s it would be more newsworthy if someone didn’t die in a race season of any given series.

[@lancehurley9743]

For anyone who doesn’t know ,the dude on the right is Roger Ward, a Indy 500 master..he was used to seeing death in races…

[@theophilhist6455]

Not the main announcer, but rather the shorter associate. Saw Roger Ward win his last race at Trenton Speedway in 1966. You are right about "seeing death in races". Check out his biography, he was also a WW2 fighter pilot.

[@badgumby9544]

Ward was one of the worse announcers to ever work a race.

[@michaelholder3933]

@@lancehurley9743 In the early days all the way up to the late 70s it was common to see a driver seriously injured or killed. I love auto racing but it is a true blood sport. Not so much today with NASCAR but in a lot of other divisions if you aren't willing to risk dying you aren't going to win.

[@mikelord9860]

Didn't see a damn ounce of sympathy in the guy in that last segment. Heartless.

[@lancehurley9743]

@@mikelord9860 he raced Indy in the 1950s and 60s , he probably shouldn’t be alive anyways..he don’t give a shit

[@Rayburn58]

Race broadcasters: "Oh by the way, Harold Kite was killed in that smash up we saw earlier on the first lap. Now here are the race results....."

[@clementsfamily7002]

It's the game they chose. That's back when men were men. It wasn't celebrated when a driver was killed, but when they were, it was time to move on. They would learn what they could from what happened and try to get safer. They'll never make a race car death proof, but they'll keep trying.

[@vicv.2720]

How the driver in car 53 survived is a miracle. That front end was completely smashed into the firewall.

[@hughgabalski510]

Isn’t it interesting to see how little emotion the commentator shows announcing his death, and then they move right on to the next story.

[@Ultimate23Dragon]

This was an ABC Wide World of Sports broadcast which was tape-delayed. The racing commentary sounds like it was done in a different place compared to the 2 guys standing what appears to be at the track. That last clip was probably done days after the crash which is why the tone was off.

[@hughgabalski510]

@@Ultimate23Dragon yeah I can understand that. But even days after, imagine how the motor sports community would treat a death today, back then possibly dying in a crash was almost a fact of life as a driver

[@pd4104lang]

Unfortunately, back then, loss of life was a fact of life in motorsports. I did find it a little weird that Indy car driver Roger Ward was smirking as the other commentator was announcing Harold Kite's unfortunate demise. No emotion whatsoeve, but drivers back then had to harden themselves to the reality that it could be them next!

[@dennisbowen452]

This was a generation that fought in ww2, and death was a common and sad reality to them. Couldn’t show emotion in those days either. They were sorta desensitized to the whole idea anyway.

[@TheTotallyRealXiJinping]

You can’t look at the past through the lense of today.

[@johngore7744]

I remember Wide World of Sports when I was a kid. Born in 1961. Cheers from Montreal

[@KenKurkowski]

It was CTVs Wide World of Sports here. Basically the ABC show with some Canadian content inserted.

[@threepea1151]

I never thought nascar classics wouldve uploaded a fatal race

[@Da_SpongeGun]

They’ve uploaded plenty

[@TheIceman13]

They removed this one in particular, in fact I called them out on it when it happened saying that by removing these races with Fatal accidents yourself doing more to bury your own history than you are commemorating the life of someone who gave their life for the sport we all love.

[@bertdashurt5202]

Those were the days. Not a somber moment right after reporting Kites death and extending sorrow for the loss to his friends and family. I can only imagine what his pit crew thought of the last remark. More races like that?!?

[@michaelmcinerny9859]

It's history

[@avalon1rae]

You didn't see jack!.😢

[@maggiegarber246]

I liked what Sid Collins said after Eddie Sachs was killed during the Indy 500: “We are all speeding toward death at the rate of 60 minutes every hour, the only difference is, we don’t know how to speed faster, and Eddie Sachs did. So since death has a thousand or more doors, Eddie Sachs exits this earth in a race car. Knowing Eddie, I assume that’s the way he would have wanted it. Byron said, 'who the Gods love die young.' "Eddie was 37. To his widow Nancy we extend our extreme sympathy and regret. And to his two children. This boy won the pole here in 1961 and 1962. He was a proud race driver. Well, as we do at Indianapolis and in racing, as the World Champion Jimmy Clark I’m sure would agree as he’s raced all over the world, the race continues. Unfortunately today without Eddie Sachs. And we’ll be restarting it in just a few moments."

[@jimmcmahon217]

Having watched a man burn to death in a traffic accident, I highly doubt Eddie Sachs or anybody else would want to go that way.

[@lofisfuneral]

Thought it said Harold Clot at first . . . My heart almost sunk

[@yaboyblacklist2431]

May I ask why? If you don't mind me asking, that is.

[@VaticalliX]

based TOECAR enjoyer

[@studs31]

toecar fan in the wild

[@lukmaanpratomo6866]

Ah yes, the favorite family of the Band-Aid sponsor.

[@Tunda2]

Oh god me too. The Clot brothers are national treasures

[@asd36f]

This was Harold Kite's first race after a 9 year break - his last race was at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds on Friday, July 27, 1956.

[@gehlen52]

So many summers ago, in Junior High and watching Wide World of Sports Saturday afternoons.

[@pl5624]

Guy died but great race says the announcers with a smile...

[@theophilhist6455]

Thought the same....but then thought.... better die loving what you do than living to be 90 and not know who you are or who is visiting you.... just saying having seen both ends of this spectrum young and old

[@Vpmatt]

0:25 "Chest Rockwell spun. Then Brock Landers spun. Then Johnnie Wadd spun. Then Dirk Diggler spun. Then Eddie Adams from Torrance spun...."

[@Aussies22]

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@shivadasa]

Harold Kite, from East Point (Atlanta), Georgia. Purple Heart, Wounded in action, Italy, WWII. RIP.

[@BoberMcBoberson]

Guy on the right doesn’t care about the fatality at all. I know it was a different time, but wow!

[@RonRussell-sj1zf]

I'm sure he cared, but he had seen a lot of deaths in his years racing Indy cars.

[@Mark-pp7jy]

Guy on the right is Roger Ward. A two time winner of the Indianapolis 500. It's not that Roger didn't care, but racing was a tough go in those days.

[@ericwiliiams9540]

@@Mark-pp7jy , and he was a fighter pilot in WWII.

[@jrm2383]

It’s kind of out of context. This is after the race, probably 2 hours or more. Maybe they talked about it earlier

[@BoberMcBoberson]

@@jrm2383 Even if they had. He smiled through the entire segment, then talked about it like it was one of the best races ever. I just think the good old days were emotionally cold in a lot of ways. Not that I think he’s a bad person for it. It’s just crazy how different they handled situations like that back then. Could you imagine if this is how Dale’s death was covered?

[@toddtudor2636]

Damn that one on the right was a heartless bastard to say that he was grinning from ear-to-ear like you couldn't wait for another one to lose their life

[@jimmullis5582]

I was there as a youngster. 1965 was the year Chrysler pulled out all it's "factory backed" cars when NASCAR banned the HEMI engine.. Pretty much all Ford shows that year. The announcer on the right is two time Indy 500 winner Roger Ward.

[@revelationakagoldeneagle8045]

Many more races like that? That was cold, ice cold.....

[@DrSamwpepper]

NASCAR classics uploading a race with a fatal wreck was NOT expected...damn.

[@RRaquello]

You don't actually see the accident and I suppose if they didn't put up the tape that means it never would have happened.

[@DavidPayne-j5z]

Such beautiful cars back then

[@mirrorblue100]

Real cars - not fabrications.

[@Marko137-em8nx]

​@@mirrorblue100Motorsports has changed blud.

[@BiBo24-]

amazing how good the audio is!

[@ecardona53]

I've heard that apparently Fonty Flock was part of the radio crew for this race, and either shortly before or after the crash, he called Harold Kite's return to NASCAR "suicidal". MRN's classic races vault goes all the way back to 1962, so maybe one day the radio call for this race will come up.

[@joaquinperez9146]

Thanks for this information, but I wonder why Flock thought Kite's return was suicidal. I checked up on him and found out that he hadn't raced in 9 years, so maybe the sport had passed him by.

[@SL-sy8ix]

I grew up in the 60's and 70's and don't buy this line that everyone was so insensitive to death back then. Actually people mourned over a death way more than they do these days. Many women used to wear black over the deaths of their husbands or close relatives for a good while after their deaths as one example. Wakes used to last for several days. These days you rarely see someone waked more than a few hours. These days many people can't wait for a loved one to finally die and get buried so they don't have to deal with them anymore. All that people care about these days is themselves. I don't care if this Roger Ward was a race car driver and fighter pilot or whatever. Him just grinning happily on TV after a fatality showed that he was nothing but an insensitive moron.

[@royboy9361]

Man! #53’s fenders were pushed into the firewall. Brutal crash. #RipHaroldKite

[@rodneybray5827]

I still can't tell what happened.

[@jouster100]

At the end it felt that Harold Kite's death was an afterthought, I can't understand the insensitivity

[@bcask61]

That was bizarre. “So to recap, Billy Bob Smith won, Bobby Jim Jones. Second and Harold Kite died. So long from Charlotte!

[@Camska427]

being a uni-body car did not help.

[@piedpiper8355]

These we not unibody

[@Camska427]

@@piedpiper8355 it's a Mopar c body. Unitized construction.

[@garymckee63]

I owned a 65 Dodge, and it was a dependable vehicle. Getting hit in the side like this wreck, unfortunately, no matter well constructed with the small amount of side protection in that Era would protect you.

[@dannyhaines385]

Wasn't a unibody.

[@Camska427]

@@dannyhaines385 looking at it closer, it looks like a 64 plymouth fury, which i stand corrected as it is a b body, but is still a uni-body car.

[@TrentonDominy]

So there’s basically only a handful of races that we will not be allowed to see on the nascar classic races site because of fatalities. Even though there are already some videos of those races on KZbin including the infamous 2001 Daytona 500.

[@BrianBoyd-cu5uq]

Insane! Talking about what a great race it was. No humanity.

[@johndowdy2590]

I agree that guy was oblivious. I have never seen this clip before The infancy of NASCAR on TV, I was 6 watched the wide world every weekend.This was the real NASCAR.

[@magicmatt1969]

Good god, the one reporter at the end could care less about the death that occurred....crazy

[@scottywalker4312]

God bless the men that made NASCAR what it is today! 🙏❤️🙏❤️

[@jasonallen9208]

'I'm looking forward to many more races like that he says' seconds after the other guy announces a fatality.

[@ronmann2755]

Roger anything else to say? "Yeah, I'll be looking for many more races like that!"

[@douglapointe6810]

OMG what a lack of empathy from the TV guys.

[@michaelgarcia1018]

The broadcaster on the right is totally oblivious to the severity of the situation smiling and shit. And why the f*** is he staring at bro like that as he announces the tragedy. That guy is weird AF.

[@kh40yr]

Back when ABC promoted their announcers to drink on the job. Knee high knucklehead is looking forward to many more races like that. Rest in Peace Harold, you made others more safe down the long road.

[@michaelroberts6450]

Talk about oblivious to the seriousness of what occurred . Wow that's about as insulting and disrespectful to that man's family as it could possibly be.

[@Tunda2]

I hope the ABC crew member that did a film switch instant replay in 1965 knows how much better he is than Fox network 60 years later

[@moclips1]

Longtime ABC Sports Reporter Jim Fleming on the left...

[@Woody615]

Bill Flemming, not Jim.

[@wmw3629]

Rodger Ward showing no sympathy whatsoever 🤬

[@michaelholder3933]

We do not have drivers of this caliber today. Nascars are all identical, nothing remotely like what the dealer sells and the drivers arent allowed to modify them and run flat out. A modern NASCAR without a restricter plate can hit 250mph on the straight at Daytona and can go from a dead stop to 150 mph in about nine seconds. I dont believe there has been a single driver in fifteen years that could drive like Petty or Earnhardt.

[@daleweis3712]

This race was most likley NOT aired live. Probably shown on wide world of sports a week later.

[@RooneyMac]

Back when there was only one microphone *and they all had to share it*

[@RobD-v3h]

Don't recall Walter Cronkite ever smiling and giggling on his newscast after he just reported on American losses and casualties in Vietnam.

[@keithkellogg5325]

That guy said I’m looking forward to watch ing more races like that right after the guy said Kite died what a rock soul

[@MarcosLuisTheSecond]

Tyler Reddick flipped, time for another classic NASCAR Flips upload.

[@jondrew55]

I forget who was in the crash, but I remember watching a NASCAR race on TV back in the day where one car had the entire front torn off and turned it around backwards. You could see the driver sitting there. And then another car slammed right into it, killing him.

[@indianapatsfan]

Don Mactavish

[@otrdriverchris]

Rog didn't even mention dead driver? Laughed about "looking forward to next race"? I don't get it.

[@JAMESPATTERSON-mk9sr]

i believe that was Bill Flemming who was the announcer . Fleming also did many other sporting events for ABC mainly college football .

[@ordinaryk]

Auto racing (not just NASCAR, but any form) was inherently deadly in the 1960s , and fatalities wouldn't start decreasing until many years later. Death was seen as an occupational hazard, rather than the freak occurrence it is in the modern era of safer cars.

[@raymondmeyers8983]

You don’t really see the crash itself but looking at the damage of the vehicles, it’s pretty evident it didn’t end well.

[@markgreenwell5830]

dude looking forward to races like that, wtf?

[@alfx5432]

Long live. Harold Kite. RIP

[@Bigchet1223]

Very unsympathetic announcers. Nascar drivers were like kamikazes.

[@scubasteev]

Actually, they were crazy, but also very careful....they knew the consequences...today's drivers are the kamikazes who don't have much to worry about if they go too hard into turn 1 or wreck someone coming to the line

[@alandesouzacruz5124]

Rest in peace Mr Harold Kite

[@SuperHero-dq4jc]

These guys were WWII vets. They saw a lot of death - not to mention that racing killed a lot of people back then.

[@DougMcDave]

This was like the stone ages compared to now. Safety tech has come a long way!

[@nascarkid9792]

Buddy is bout to make more money

[@robertphelan8512]

Granted, the cars then weren't as built as they are today, and, for the record, I was either 4 or 5, depending on the raceday, but, the way ABC announced the driver's death was quite nonchalant, especially given this was within 2 years of the tragedy in Dallas. I don't even know if the family had been made aware yet....it seemed so fast!

[@JohnRichard-f3q]

"This is a great place to be with a race like that" What the ? ? ?

[@bruce-z6g]

The show must go on.

[@TheWiNiZ]

Your knees and collarbones were your car's deformation zone back then.

[@barrybebenek8691]

The lack of sincerity of the announcers when the tell the camera of the death, is so disrespectful that ABC should’ve been tossed off the air back then.

[@w2vkylebuschfan713]

It was the 60’s unfortunately nobody gave a shit about death and it really sucks

[@ericwiliiams9540]

That was the WWII generation, so death was something they were more comfortable with. The commentator was a WWII fighter pilot himself.

[@afridgetoofar1818]

Calm down.

[@mikecumbo7531]

@@w2vkylebuschfan71320 years prior the world was in a global war. Compared to today, people were a little more brutal but remember, passenger cars didn’t have seatbelts, five people probably died coming or going to that race.

[@CatsClaw44]

Ok Trump. 🙄

[@kkampy4052]

Don't want to go back to the days of fatalities but miss the cars that looked like the cars you could buy. Not to mention the big block V8 sound. NASCAR is pretty sterile now.

[@SPCNY88]

TYLER FLIPPED

[@Fuller17HD]

Bag incoming

[@Gman1044]

Cars were so much bigger and safer in those days.

[@VictorDiaz97]

Absolutely disgusting demeanor from the commentator on the right, Roger Ward. RIP Harold Kite.

[@danielkrebs3870]

Those two broadcasters sure didn’t seem to concerned about the fatality!! 🤨

[@davidwainwright2816]

Guy on R Smiling as fatality newsread out….😮😮💩

[@chet3louisiana558]

So sad they both are as jolly as ever while announcing the death of driver Kite. I'm sure they both look back at that time and are embarrassed as ever.

[@wrsawy]

Unreal how different things were during that era. Casually rambling on about death and stuff.

[@TJTeddyTube]

Boy, they didn’t give an F at all.

[@NASCARBullHaulerFan48]

TYLER REDDICK FLIPPED!

[@easygoing2479]

HEY - Those announcers weren't wearing their MASKS!

[@oldjarhead386]

Those stock cars actually look like highway wrecks back then. Go figure.

[@BiBo24-]

dam the guy on the right couldn't hold back a smile and laugh seconds after they announced a death..... very strange! And he looks forward to many more races like this. wtf!

[@Jefferson1969-u4s]

That guy is evil ! Nil empathy

[@thomasrobinson182]

Reminds me of Fireball Roberts crash.

[@Thecarguy-2jz]

Reddick flipped, come out of your hibernation

[@geraldbaker4019]

That was cold

[@Jerry-p3v]

Jesus!! The man died, live, on tv and you don’t blink??😮😮😡😡How insensitive, even by 1965 standards!!

[@RossOrr-r6o]

Nah, not at all insensitive. Just a different sensitivity compared to today. Do not judge those times to today's sensitivity.

[@JTNFOfficial]

We got another flip! Wake up!

[@JohnWilkieMusic]

Bone chilling sign off.

[@terrymann1341]

That was handled with tact and sensitivity- NOT! "I'm looking forward to more races like that". What, ones that end with one of the drivers dead?

[@ethanedwards7557]

There was a dude named Rock Hard?

[@Sargebri]

This was just a year after the wreck that killed Fireball Roberts.

[@rondrake3720]

Different times indeed

[@TheHandymanQld]

Did the commentator say one of the drivers name was 'Rock Hard?'

[@BulldogGTX-i2f]

I hope the next of kin was notified before these two jerk announcers blabbed the news to the rest of the world.

[@virtualstatman]

I would have imagined it was not broadcast live anyway, tape delay was so prevalent back then

[@mattskustomkreations]

@@virtualstatman There may have been a radio simulcast though?

[@virtualstatman]

@@mattskustomkreations I mean perhaps, I’m certainly no expert on this subject!

[@davidrice3337]

You didn't know them and it's impossible to understand the context back then - Those racers back then were hard men - you had to be

[@c.d.8975]

The family received a text message prior to the announcement on the broadcast📱

[@timbetts8993]

One guy is giddy.