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in 1963, and he did make it to victory lane two years later. The small, light car, dwarved by the giant roadsters, was clearly the future.

Further technical innovations appeared in the late sixties, including a gas turbine car which very nearly won. Cars also began sprouting aerofoils, increasing downforce and raising speeds considerably. The cars themselves were not strong enough to deal with high speed crashes and there were several fatalities. In 1973 alone two drivers and a crewman died. In a cruel twist one of the victims, Swede Savage, who suffered a horrific fiery accident, may well have survived had he not been given contaminated blood in hospital.

Dr. Stephen Olvey worked for many years at Indy and has first hand experience of the consequences of very high speed accidents. He described Gordon Smiley's fatal qualifying crash in 1982 as, the most devastating crash ever witnessed at the Speedway.' The destruction of the young driver's car was absolute and, throughout all his medical experience, Olvey said that, I had never seen such trauma.'

Happily, cars are far safer these days, being constructed of extremely strong carbon fibre composites. The circuit at Indy is safer too. The track is now lined by state-of-the-art energy absorbing barriers. A split in the mid-nineties led to two rival series emerging, the Indy Racing League (IRL) and Champcar. Many people feared for the future of the 500 as only IRL cars competed and interest waned, but for 2008, a merger has ensured that once again it will be the jewel in the crown of American auto racing.

Sources:
The Power and the Glory' (BBC TV)
Rapid Response; My inside story as a motor-racing life-saver' (Dr. Stephen Olvey)
CART Official History, 1979-1998' (Rick Shaffer)
132 of the Most Unusual Cars that ever ran at Indianapolis' (Lyle Kenyon Engol)
Wikipedia

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