AUTO RACING : Davey Allison Revisits Ill-Fated 1973 Indy 500 Race

The introduction for both Bobby Allison and son, Davey, to the Indianapolis 500 was in 1973, one of the most disastrous races in the event’s history.

The elder Allison, who was one of the greats in NASCAR’s Winston Cup series, made only two starts at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, finishing 32nd with only one lap in 1973 and coming back in 1975 to finish 25th.

Davey, now one of the major stars in NASCAR’s top stock car series, has vivid memories of that first visit, which turned out to be his last until a practice day a year ago.

He came back for another visit this month and talked about the 1973 race, which was filled with crashes, deaths and injuries.

“It wasn’t a good sight for a 12-year-old,� he said.

Asked if his family worried about Bobby’s racing, the younger Allison replied, “Not until he came here.�

“The first thing that set it off was he had been up here practicing, and we’re at home, and the news flash (was) ‘Driver killed in practice at Indianapolis.’ No names.

“We hadn’t heard from him in a while, you know, like a couple of days,� Davey Allison said. “We kept trying to get in touch with somebody to find out what was going on, who it was. No news. Eventually we found out that that was Art Pollard.

“When we came back up here,� Davey added, “dad really downplayed everything. He showed us how things had happened and where Art’s crash had happened, really talked a lot about it just trying to soothe some of the feeling that were starting to build at that time. I think he recognized some concern building in all of us.

“Then, on the start of the race, when Salt Walther’s car crashed, his car was almost directly behind my dad’s and painted very similar. My grandfather caught me by the ankles going over the fence.�

Rain postponed the race on Monday and Tuesday and it finally was run on Wednesday. During the race, a crewman was killed and Swede Savage was fatally injured in a fiery crash.

“On Wednesday, when they finally got to run the thing, my dad had some troubles and fell out of the race early and we were sitting up there watching. At the time, I think every kid--whether we’re sons of Winston Cup drivers or sons of Indy car drivers or whatever--he has his heroes from the other side of the fence. Mine growing up were Swede Savage, A.J. (Foyt) and Al Unser Sr. Those were guys I really followed a lot. And of course Tom Sneva, when I met him.

“I watched Swede Savage’s car come tumbling out of that corner and I turned around and told my grandfather right there that I would not come back to this racetrack until they ran a Winston Cup race, ‘til they ran a stock car race.

“Of course, as I grew up, I learned to accept things a little differently and came back here a year ago for the practice day not knowing that there would be a Winston Cup race, but came back for the first time since then. And I’ve raced right over across town at Indianapolis Raceway Park about a dozen times.�

The Brickyard 400, the first Winston Cup event at the speedway, is scheduled for Aug. 6, 1994.

ALAN KULWICKI, the defending Winston Cup champion who was killed last month in a plane crash, will be honored with a four-year scholarship at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

The scholarship in the name of Kulwicki, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in mechanical engineering, will be funded by the sale of a special poster that commemorates his 1992 championship season.

The annual scholarship will be presented for the first time in 1994 and will be awarded to outstanding high school graduates who have an affiliation with NASCAR racing.

The poster was published in February as a premium item at Winston Cup events, but the promotion was halted following Kulwicki’s death.

WITH THE ANNOUNCEMENT that Firestone will be returning to Indy car racing in 1994, Goodyear officials know that changes are coming, particularly at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“The first year we came down here was about 1963,� said Leo Mehl, director of worldwide racing for Goodyear, which has been the sole tire supplier for Indy cars since 1975.

“We’ve been through some good times and some bad times. What we’ve done or tried to do is make the tire better every year,� Mehl said.

“Indianapolis is a lead program for our whole racing division. It’s kind of why we’re in racing. It’s the first thing we ever did that was public and serious and very high tech. We’ve tried to do a good job in our last 20 years of having the monopoly.

“One thing we did when Firestone quit . . . was that we tried to give everybody exactly the same tire,� Mehl added. “That doesn’t sound like much, but if you’ve been around racing a long time, and you talk to the teams who are just trying to get started . . . , the fact that a guy that’s just come to this race can have the same tire that (A.J.) Foyt and (Roger) Penske and all the top teams have, that’s quite a good thing and it’s helped racing.�