Rick Mears 1981 Pit Fire - Rocket Rick Mears

[@indycarcomplainer2304]

Fire was totally invisible, back then. It’s always tough to watch Rick describe that incident. A horrible moment, but so much was learned.

[@michaelhogg324]

I agree and I have to say that Derrick Walker is LUCKY that he didn't get seriously burned worse than he did!

[@DonTruman]

So I take it they have changed the fuel so it no longer burns invisibly, based on your comment.

[@fromonedaytothenext]

They used methanol then. I believe they run ethanol now.

[@Praktical_]

​@@fromonedaytothenextbelieve it or not they are still using Methanol. It's seen as safer because it doesn't burn and spread as quickly as petrol (gasoline) and a Methanol fire can be extinguished with just water. Additionally they see the invisible flames as a benefit because if a fire starts it won't cause a distraction for the drivers still on the track.

[@borntoclimb7116]

So true

[@unvrknow22]

What an absolutely terrifying situation. An invisible monster. Thank God nobody was killed.

[@Deimonos85]

Brave men. Women wouldn’t survive. They would whine and cry waiting for men to save them

[@gpipeline]

@@Deimonos85shut up

[@ATIMELINEOFAVIATION]

@@Deimonos85 wtf is wrong with ur 0.5 braincells?

[@furydeath]

​@@Deimonos85like you?

[@PoliticallyInCorrect1]

Can you tolerate 7 days of blood and pain tough guy ​@@Deimonos85

[@jameshoran8]

His father saved him because he knew how Rick reacted in life and that he was on fire.

[@chapelhill6556]

Crazy, I was there sitting under the overhang. I actually was watching him pull into the pits with a pair of binoculars I saw him trying to get out of the car. Because the flames are clear I couldn’t see the flames. Incredible to see it again.

[@georgemallory797]

I remember them doing a retrospective about this at the 1982 Indy telecast. This was an excellent accounting. I love Rick Mears. Best there ever was. True professional.

[@D2Kprime]

Yes, he was.

[@SIGMAMAN69]

Very hard to argue otherwise

[@SIGMAMAN69]

In 1982, the year Mears barely finished 2nd at Indy, he dominated the rest of the CART schedule. If he had won Indy, that would have likely been the greatest Indy Car season for any individual driver of all time

[@mearsfan1]

I was there in the second turn. Being a still very devoted Rick Mears fan, I could see the smoke and was crying not knowing what was going on!!!! If he was ok……

[@jwrockets]

I was working in the press box that day, handing teletype sheets to press reporters. I watched him come in for that stop. It was scary and confusing to see people running from an invisible threat.

[@TheMouseAvenger]

Interesting! :-) Always neat to see witnesses to this kind of stuff, even fatal race crashes. Also, I know what teletype is, but at this time, I completely forgot about it! Would it be all right if you could perhaps refresh my memory? :-)

[@Michael-gu5kl]

And then 7 laps later on Lap 64 Danny Ongais had his serious accident and being that I was 9 at the time I talked to Mom and asked her did he just die as that was a scary crash! Fortunately, he recovered from it! How was it working with Bob back then?

[@Banyo__]

The day I learned there was such a thing as invisible fire...like what fresh hell is this?

[@jl-gw3gi]

I was down from Rick's pit. I have pictures that I took of this. Thank God Rick was okay.

[@TheMouseAvenger]

You should put them on the Internet Archive. :-)

[@hmdwgf]

Wow! Tell us more about your experiences at that race and this incident. So much happened during that whole race.

[@zyloproductions4870]

I am really glad he went on to be an Indy 500 winner years after this.

[@_artorical_]

Wished the audio commentary was turned down, you can barely hear his recount of the story.

[@martinvannostrand8488]

Yeah you should never have two voices talking at once

[@randy4768]

I was there across from pits on straightaway about 3 pits down towards turn 4. This was my first Indy 500. I latter saw Rick's three wins and AL'S fourth.

[@yvlakhtionov]

That’s why race drivers those days were having this heroic aura: they were playing with death at every session.

[@stellviahohenheim]

heroic my ass

[@D2Kprime]

@@stellviahohenheim Your "arse" is not heroic I'm afraid.

[@Wrutschgeluck]

WHAT? no one talk about the pit-worker which was without helmet and burning longer? poor guy.

[@crusherbmx]

The last time I set myself on fire with methanol i did remember to stop drop and roll, it worked...and no, I'm not joking. Rick Mears called himself a "dummy" for forgetting that, I'm calling myself a dummy for setting myself on fire with methanol i nthe first place...

[@SIGMAMAN69]

When you’re on fire and panicking, it’s easy to forget that

[@Wrutschgeluck]

at some point you will lay on the ground... but if you can still roll is an other story :P

[@crusherbmx]

@@SIGMAMAN69 That's a good point, I was actually impressed at myself for not panicking...and yes, that was true.

[@vaughnmojado8637]

I remember that day. There was one more very similar to that one. Fire is terrifying.

[@niko-sivov]

If you'll have a chance - visit that museum that is literally inside the track. Dozens of sport cars from last century. Also you for additional fee employees will let you go upstair to the observation deck, where all the TV-reporters sits

[@lazier96]

Chilling account.

[@ryancahill4789]

Most of the time bad things have to happen for safety rules to be made good thing it wasn’t worse

[@TheMouseAvenger]

That's very true! 💯

[@B3RyL]

@@TheMouseAvenger yes, true, but also absolutely understandable. You want races and similar sports to be exciting. Those people are daredevils, they cheat death with every lap, that's why it's so exciting. They are walking (or driving) that fine line between life and death. But you can never be a 100% sure where the line is, until someone finally crosses it. So all you can do to both keep the fans happy and keep the drivers safe as a race organizer is to react quickly when they do cross that line and death finally comes to collect. If we implemented all the safety rules all at once, this wouldn't be racing. It would be a 5pm traffic simulation.

[@Meekimotosyoutubechannel]

Rick Mears.. Legend.

[@borntoclimb7116]

Methanol fire is a true nightmare

[@SIGMAMAN69]

Hell yeah! You don’t know you’re on fire until you’ve been burned!

[@cjs83172]

One of the controversies regarding the 1981 Indianapolis 500 that got completely overshadowed by what would happen later in the race is why USAC never brought out the caution flag for the Mears pit fire, because of the safety personnel that had to be dispatched, as well as the severity of the situation. And of course, the way things played out, had the caution come out for the Mears pit fire, as it should have, Danny Ongais' terrible crash, would likely never have happened, since that happened just eight laps later after his own ill-fated stop during the same pit stop sequence.

[@D2Kprime]

You can't do "if-come-maybe" on something like that. One thing didn't affect the other. Danny had fire coming out of the back of his car which brought him into the pits where he eventually stalled. This happened AFTER the Mears incident. You might be getting him confused with Tom Sneva who was in the pits with an overheated-engine nearby Mears. His car probably should not have been put back into the race or at least not without checking what caused the fire in the first place. That probably played more of a factor in his crash than anything else. They should have done like what Michael Andretti's team did in the 1990 race where his right-rear caught on fire, but they made absolutely sure on what the cause of it was and repaired it before sending him back out there. He was actually fast after that even though he was many laps adrift. I do agree with you that USAC was a hot-mess in those days.

[@cjs83172]

@@D2Kprime With the exception of trying to make up the lost time (and he didn't lose anywhere near as much time as Tom Sneva did), I don't think what happened during Ongais' pit stop had anything to do with his crash a few laps later. Why I believe that crash should never have happened was because the caution should have been brought out during the Mears pit fire because of the number of safety personnel that had to be used to fight that fire. And nothing out of the ordinary brought Ongais into the pits. It was a scheduled pit stop (he was leading at the time he pitted because others had stopped and he hadn't). But that was a sequence of botched pit stops. Sneva, Mears, and Ongais all had botched pit stops, while Gordon Smiley, driving Pat Patrick's third car, also had a slow pit stop. Even Bobby Unser, who went on to win, had a fire that he drove out of during that pit stop sequence.

[@karlcorrz]

@@D2Kprime butterfly effect, things wouldve played out differently with any simple change.

[@SIGMAMAN69]

Coulda woulda shoulda, doesn’t change anything

[@brandynhenry7107]

Caution shouldn't have been thrown. It had nothing to do with the race on the track

[@xwhalerfann6]

herm johnson had the mother of all pit fires at michigan

[@thomashallman5436]

i know the flagman they had there was smart enough to red flag the 81 michigan 500 kudos to the late great nick forono 4 doin the right thing i know nick saved some lives i love the late duane sweeney but damn duane learn from the late nick forono just 2 months later i m sure it made duane sweeney a better flagman r.i.p. nick forono and duane sweeney

[@kairohmann4350]

Rick. 👍❤

[@JL-ec1by]

I was there. I was 11, and we were seated above that pit (the farthest one).

[@motorsportfan1246]

Eerie seeing Smiley in 3rd in 1981

[@TheMouseAvenger]

Gordon Smiley, I presume?

[@motorsportfan1246]

@@TheMouseAvenger yes

[@kennymarshall6899]

Ricky Bobby was really on fire!!!!!!!

[@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606]

NASCAR runs ethanol

[@Santoasty1117]

@@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606ruined the joke

[@geezer4962]

I haven't seen this before now. Roger Penske said it best, "motor sports is not a sport for little boys in short pants".

[@smittywerben1849]

Ironically methanol is safer than gasoline or other fuels. In fact its for this reason why they use it for safety, invisible fire doesn't block visibility, doesn't make smoke and it burns slower.

[@Wrutschgeluck]

did you know if they still use methanol still in other race cars?

[@smittywerben1849]

@@Wrutschgeluck i dont know about racing but i am fascinated by chemistry so this is why i knew about this fact. They either use methanol or ethanol or mixture of something alcohol based because of its high octane rating. If they use anything else that would be news to me.

[@Wrutschgeluck]

@@smittywerben1849 thx :)

[@Pagan0Kharmatr4n]

​@@Wrutschgeluck they still use it

[@Wrutschgeluck]

@@Pagan0Kharmatr4n then congratulations...

[@住吉折り紙夢]

Was this the first methanol fire incident? Also does people during that time knows that when methanol is burning it produces invisible flames?

[@ZackScriven]

What ever happened to stop drop and roll?

[@anntrejo]

Stop, drop and roll?

[@ladyscarfaceangel4616]

The extreme pain & panic is probably responsible for that. I've never seen anyone on fire actually do that. They just flail around in pain.

[@SpielkindFR]

@@ladyscarfaceangel4616 Also the fact that you don't know where the fire is. Might drop and roll right in the middle of it without realising.

[@PTS-Maid]

​@@ladyscarfaceangel4616 not to mention this was in the early 80's Not sure how popular that was back then

[@vapeonemusic]

What's messed up is I am only here because Will Ferrell thought he was on fire in talladega nights. Lord, forgive me.

[@mobucks555]

"Safety does not take breaks"

[@stevenkilsdonk2046]

Has the video in the Mears exhibit been updated? I went on opening day and the videos only really covered up through 1979.

[@SIGMAMAN69]

I loved the color scheme on the Gould Charge

[@ikshields]

Yep. The Penske cars have always looked mighty classy. They’ve always been like Armani suits among everybody else’s coveralls and cheap party dresses.

[@ZeacorZeppelin]

Damn that was scary.

[@codyrisling3253]

I understand that Ricky Bobby reference now

[@davidpayne4315]

I was there

[@OverlordGrizzaka]

So Ricky Bobby wasn't bullshiting.

[@ihavefallenandicantreachmy2113]

Oprah is, in Fact, a Witch. Her Car goes "Broom! Broom!"

[@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606]

He was, NASCAR runs Ethanol-gasoline, similar to what you put in your gas tank.

[@TripAloney-rn9ck]

Saw that

[@szilard16]

What happened? Fire under his jacket?

[@SpielkindFR]

Methanol burns clear. You can see it in the dark, but in sunlight you can't see it. No visible flame, no smoke, just heat and pain. One horific thing to imagine, much less experience.

[@D2Kprime]

I think that it is "peculiar" that they just happened to have filmed a segment detailing the fireproofing and resistance each piece of the gear a driver wears in the cockpit of an Indy Car and ran it right after all this happened. Could be just a coincidence and I hope that it was but..... 🤔

[@bagtv2327]

that was one of the cheapest ingredients of gasoline, it should be ehtanol and not the methanol

[@FrankTichenor-hz2td]

Racers suffer from concussions'

[@FrankTichnor-un4td]

30$ I clean it

[@fesham5811]

So Ricky Bobby was really on something then

[@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606]

No, NASCAR doesn’t use methanol they use ethanol gasoline which is basically the same as what you put in your car

[@Scrighton88]

whats with the fuckin' inception WAMMMMMMMMS

[@adambriggs626]

It’s Ricky bobby 😅

[@user-sp8eb6iz7f]

Don't use Methanol.

[@gavinhinojosa6349]

It's safer believe it or not since it can be put out with water burns slower and also no smoke so that the sight of other divers is not blocked by smoke

[@user-sp8eb6iz7f]

@@gavinhinojosa6349 Yea and lead in the gasoline just makes the garage smell sweeter.....

[@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606]

It burns cooler than a ethanol fire, and can be put out with water.

[@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606]

@@user-sp8eb6iz7f they’ve not used lead in gasoline since the 1990s

[@user-sp8eb6iz7f]

@@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606 VP’s experts design more than 70 proprietary blends of leaded and unleaded race fuel for every application. When someone cheats to cheat, they are a cheater, if someone cheats *to win* they are a competitor!

[@davidharrid8217]

“Help me Jesus! Help me Jewish god!!! Help me Allah!!! Aghhhhhh!!!!”

[@Wrutschgeluck]

haha yes, try this instead :) natural selection

[@edoardodalpra4742]

​@@Wrutschgeluck ...what?

[@Wrutschgeluck]

@@edoardodalpra4742 i wrote: "haha yes, try this instead :) natural selection" did you now understand it?

[@thomashallman5436]

i saw this footage as a little kid i really regret thinkin that the fueler i thought he was doin a dance showin off i feel really bad that i had that feelin 4 the guy know i know thatb i mean that poor ol boy and everything was a scary invisible fire i m suprised that the flagman duane sweenet did not red flag the race like ol nick forono did in the ,81 michigan 500 for herm johnson s fire thank the lord no one died that day

[@ZackScriven]

What ever happened to stop drop and roll?