Joe Weatherly, 1964, and NASCAR's not-so-good “Good Old Days.” (Pt. 2)

Nineteen-sixty four was perhaps without precedent, in terms of its tragic events, both for NASCAR and for American auto racing in general.

In addition to Weatherly and Roberts, a number of other drivers died during the year.

More fire

After the 1964 World 600 NASCAR race on May 24, the Indianapolis 500 ran on Memorial Day, May 30, 1964.

At Indianapolis, another fiery tragedy visited American motorsport.

Veteran driver Eddie Sachs (known as the Clown Prince of Racing) and rookie Dave McDonald were killed in a fiery crash on the second lap of the Indy 500.

McDonald crashed in Turn Four at Indy during the second lap of the race.

Sachs’ car plunged into the fireball that resulted from McDonald’s accident.

While McDonald’s death was fire related, Sachs died from blunt-force trauma that occurred when his car stuck the other cars in the accident.

The Sachs/McDonald accident resulted in the Indianapolis 500 being stopped.

This was the first time in the history of the event that the race had been stopped for an accident 

As a result of this accident, the use of gasoline in the race cars at Indianapolis was banned beginning in 1965.

After these fiery accidents, Firestone began developing a version of a fuel tank they produced for helicopters to use in race cars.

This “fuel cell” featured a tear-resistant reinforced rubber ‘bladder’ filled with 90% void foam designed to prevent sloshing gas turning into explosive vapor.

This ‘bladder’ was encased in a steel container (secured to the car with steel straps) with the fuel capacity, in NASCAR applications, of 22 gallons which was the same capacity as the production gas tanks that the fuel cell replaced in the stock cars.

The Firestone “Racesafe” fuel cell was introduced January 1965.

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