Death
On the first lap of his first Indy 500 race in 1964, MacDonald passed at least 5 other cars. As MacDonald passed Johnny Rutherford and Eddie Sachs, Rutherford noticed that MacDonald's car was very loose. Rutherford later said that, watching the behavior of MacDonald's car, he thought, "Whoa, he's either gonna win this thing or crash."
On the second lap, MacDonald spun coming off the fourth turn. As the car began to slide, he came across the track and hit the inside wall, igniting the 45 gallon fuel load which caused a massive fire. His car then slid back across the track and six more cars became involved. Ronnie Duman crashed, spun in flames and hit the pit lane wall. He was burned but survived. Bobby Unser hit Johnny Rutherford's car on its left rear tire and crashed into the outside wall. Chuck Stevenson and Norm Hall also crashed. Popular driver Eddie Sachs, blinded by the smoke, broadsided MacDonald's burning car and died due to blunt-force injuries. Dave MacDonald died two hours later at Methodist Hospital of Indianapolis. Eddie Johnson retired the other Thompson car after only 6 laps.
The crash was well documented on film and still images, and shown worldwide. For the first time in its history, the Indianapolis 500 was stopped because of an accident. Partially in response to media pressure, USAC required that cars carry less fuel, a change that also led every team to switch from gasoline to methanol prior to the next year's Indy 500.
Carroll Shelby, Mickey Thompson, Bill Stroppe and Don Steves served as pallbearers at MacDonald's funeral.
Read more about this topic: Dave Mac Donald
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