Salt Walther RIP

[JohnHKart]

http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2012/12/28/salt_walther_dead_at_65.html/

[Gnam]

Sad story. RIP. :(

[Andrew Longman]

His 1973 wreck was a hugely formative event for me. The Swede Savage crash days later cemented for me the seriousness of the sport and the importance of safety in the engineering solution.

So sad his addiction demons from that accident brought him so much agony. It may have killed him. We will see.

I always grinned to see him in that episode of the Rockford Files.

RIP

[Napoleon]

RIP Salt.

I recall my local paper running a picture of his feet hanging out of his car.

[Indy]

I hope he rests in more peace than he had in his lifetime.

It makes me think about the Speedway, though, and how they have learned little over the years. Walther was a playboy ridebuyer who probably had no business being in a car at Indianapolis, and most consider that 1973 accident to be his doing. Yet despite this sort of thing happening over and over, they still put unqualified people in cars and send them out. The owners get their money, the speedway gets its publicity, and drivers are killed and maimed.

[SteveH]

I was at the 73 race, in C grandstand which would have been across from the pit entrance. I couldn't see the crash but could see the catch fence bow in towards the crowd and the fuel spray in that direction, also.

1973 was a terrible year at the Speedway. 3 deaths during the month.

http://www.indymotorspeedway.com/500d-73.htm

[RTKar]

I hope he rests in more peace than he had in his lifetime.

It makes me think about the Speedway, though, and how they have learned little over the years. Walther was a playboy ridebuyer who probably had no business being in a car at Indianapolis, and most consider that 1973 accident to be his doing. Yet despite this sort of thing happening over and over, they still put unqualified people in cars and send them out. The owners get their money, the speedway gets its publicity, and drivers are killed and maimed.

So true, now though, most of the field are ride buyers to some degree.

[Andrew Longman]

3 deaths during the month.I forgot Art Pollard died that year too.

Sadly, according to Dr. Trammels book Savage shouldn't have died and was killed by medical error in the hospital. And the wall he hit should never have been there.

And Teran should never have been run over by a fire truck going the wrong way up the pit lane. It was a complete disorganized and unprofessional emergency response.

And it was insane to load those cars with 75 gallons of fuel. You think they would have learned from the MacDonald/Sachs crash nine years earlier. But the serious upside was that the sport finally got serious about fire safety. Up until that time it seemed every crash produced a fire (that's what killed Pollard too) and from 1974 on it seems that crashes almost never produce a fire.

[Gnam]

I always grinned to see him in that episode of the Rockford Files.

http://www.offcamber.net/forums/showthread.php?t=11535

Did he play the guy who loans Rockford his car so he can race the rich guy?
http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/9203/300pxjimmyjoemeeker22ju.jpg

That was a good episode.

[Jervis Tetch 1]

RIP to Salt.

[Gnam]

http://www.offcamber.net/forums/showthread.php?t=11535

Did he play the guy who loans Rockford his car so he can race the rich guy?
http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/9203/300pxjimmyjoemeeker22ju.jpg

That was a good episode.
Nope. That character (Larry Litrell) pictured above was played by Gary Crosby, son of singer Bing Crosby.