lafnatu
Street Stock
limp dik jerk off's pretty much make people sick!
Posts: 434
|
Post by lafnatu on Jul 20, 2011 21:17:16 GMT -5
We lost Rich Vogler 21 years ago on July 21st at Salem, Indiana. Rich was leading the Joe James/Pat O'Connor Memorial and got crossed up with a lap car coming off of turn 4 to take the checkered flag and got into the catch fence cage first. Rich was an on the gas racer with a degree of determination to win seldom seen in any sport. He won the very first Chili Bowl and qualified for the Indy 500 5 times with an 8th place finish being his best.
Rich was to make his Winston Cup debut at Pocono the day following his death and NASCAR paid tribute to him by leaving his starting position empty on the parade and pace laps.
I can still see him throwing a Silver Crown car around the Indiana State Fairgrounds Mile back in 1988 & 1989 while running the Hoosier Hundred.
R.I.P. Rich. You were one of the best!!
|
|
|
Post by Bandman on Jul 24, 2011 13:51:50 GMT -5
And on national tv, at that.
Bad deal.
|
|
|
Post by recurve on Jul 26, 2011 2:42:36 GMT -5
The most ironic part of the entire accident was that Richies helmet was rolling down the racetrack with his head still in it without his body attached !!!!
|
|
dewton
Fan in the stands
Posts: 2
|
Post by dewton on Jan 4, 2012 13:22:14 GMT -5
His head was NOT in the helmet! What a stupid comment! And he was headed for the white flag not the checker. I was there, one of the first to his car and I saw him strapped in the car with his head attached. Bleeding like no one I ever saw before. I assume the fence caused the damage to cause the bleeding. He was so soaked in blood that they dropped him on the track while getting him out of the car. ESPN told me he was alive when he left the track, but I doubt it...
|
|
lafnatu
Street Stock
limp dik jerk off's pretty much make people sick!
Posts: 434
|
Post by lafnatu on Jan 4, 2012 16:13:25 GMT -5
Hey dewton, that must have been an awful deal. I think where the confusion may come into play on the helmet deal is there was a driver way back whose helmet rolled down the track at either Winchester or Salem and it in fact did have the drivers head in it. I'm almost sure I read an account of that deal in Open Wheel Magazine.
The accounts at the time of Rich's death made mention of his helmet being on the track following the accident but I never heard he was decapitated. I humbly stand corrected on the fact he was about to take the white not the checkers.
I can't for the life of me remember who Rich was lapping when this happened. Vogler was a demon behind the wheel of a racecar. Saw him set a new track record in a Silver Crown car at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Mile back in the 1980's. That record lap was more entertaining than the whole 100 mile race, and the race was pretty good!!
Hard to believe that Rich Vogler would be 61 years old if he were alive today.
Mac McClellan's wreck at IRP was about as bad as it gets and incredibly he survived.
|
|
|
Post by recurve on Jan 4, 2012 19:18:21 GMT -5
ESPN had televised that race as well as another earlier race where Vogler locked the brakes up,spun sideways in order to avoid hitting a wrecked car,and then came to a complete stop for about 4 seconds and then drove off still with the lead pack leaving the announcers debating that he may have had a clutch cheated into the car contarery to the rule book !! Had you heard the story of another open wheeler named Leland McSpadden who had been born with one eye that looked straight at you head on and the other eye was always looking about 45 degrees to the left side.He was an excellant sprinter that was credited to the fact that he could watch the track ahead and see whoever was running the inside of him both at the same time ! Lore has it that he was involved in a teriffic roll over and when the the carnage was over and the medical examiners were all done with him they had found that he had both of his eyes looking straight ahead and his vision was upgraded to 20/20 perfect vision. By Lelands own admission he had " KNOCKED MYSELF NORMAL" [ although he never enjoied quite the sucess as before the accident ] ! !
|
|
dewton
Fan in the stands
Posts: 2
|
Post by dewton on Jan 19, 2012 14:30:12 GMT -5
lafnatu: The Accident you remember was Gil Hess and it was as Salem, July 1970. My Dad worked on the rescue team back then and was there but I wasn't. I've heard lots of sad stories from that day, and have saw many photos, some of which I wish I hadn't of at that young age. The lap car of Wayne Hammond was the car that launched Rich into the fence when Rich ran over his right rear. I believe Wayne retired from racing shortly after that, if not immediately after. There was also a red flag thrown for a fire before Rich's accident. I haven't saw the pictures, but the same guy who took the Gil Hess photos is rumoured to have a photo of Rich loosening up his chin strap on his helmet during this red flag. His speculation as to why his helmet came off is that he forgot to tighten his chin strap back up. I guess that's something we'll never know. I need to look up Ron and see if I could look through his photos. I remember watching sprints at Salem on 8mm movies he had from the 60's.
|
|
lafnatu
Street Stock
limp dik jerk off's pretty much make people sick!
Posts: 434
|
Post by lafnatu on Jan 19, 2012 18:51:41 GMT -5
Thanks for setting the record straight dewton.
And in the case of Wayne Hammond I believe you're correct that he quit that night or very soon after Rich was killed.
Again, correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Hammond from Florida? I might be dreaming but I seem to vaguely recollect that he was.
A lot of bad stuff happened on the "bloody banks", as the high banked half miles of Salem & Winchester were know. Wasn't there a third ultra-fast half mile in Ohio that also was referred to by that moniker but I believe that track is no longer in existence.
|
|
|
Post by recurve on Jan 24, 2012 6:47:01 GMT -5
What about the stories of the stories of the drivers who were dying in the Ritchie Evans type of modified ? Story is that thier heart was coming right on out through thier chest because the cars were built so solid that there was'nt any give at all when the front end hit.
|
|
|
Post by caveman1 on Dec 14, 2015 0:19:25 GMT -5
Not to nitpick but I guess I am: Vogler was actually coming off turn 4 to take the white flag when the crash occured. I was actually there that night at Salem. Jeff Gordon was in 2nd at least half a lap behind. Vogler of course wasn't aware that he had such a huge lead (no rear view mirrors on sprinters) and was still hammering around the highbanks in true Mad Dog form. He came up on Wayne Hammond & Steve Butler going into three and was attempting to lap Hammond when Hammond got a bit loose at the worst possible time for Vogler who appeared to be trying an outside pass coming off 4. Vogler's #69 climbed over Hammond's right rear launching him into the fence & light pole. Nasty crash of course and I won't go into details. However, I will say that Rich's head was NOT in his helmet as it rolled down the track as I've seen reported here and in other places! Really violent but, I've seen others pretty similar where the driver was badly skaken but fine afterwards. The death of Rich wasn't reported at the track, but we had a pretty good idea, especially when USAC declared him the winner with only 28 of 30 laps completed. We were staying in a motel in Scottsburg, In., about 20 miles away and heard the announcement of his death on ESPN about an hour after the accident.....
|
|
|
Post by recurve on Dec 14, 2015 21:54:05 GMT -5
Oh how I long for the Thursday night thunder! After the latest NASCAR debacle of a season and mine and many others boycott of watching it anymore it would be great to use that to help us get our racing fix. Formula 1,Lucas,NHRA.Motocross, anything but any of the NASKY world of entertainment !
|
|
|
Post by caveman2 on Aug 13, 2021 20:59:11 GMT -5
The most ironic part of the entire accident was that Richies helmet was rolling down the racetrack with his head still in it without his body attached !!!!
|
|
|
Post by caveman2 on Aug 13, 2021 21:03:31 GMT -5
His head WAS NOT IN THE HELMET! Why would you even make that statement if it WAS true? Wasn't it bad enough that a great racer lost his life without clowns like you making up sick lies to somehow enhance the "thrill" factor?
|
|
lafnatu
Street Stock
limp dik jerk off's pretty much make people sick!
Posts: 434
|
Post by lafnatu on Sept 8, 2021 9:35:09 GMT -5
His head WAS NOT IN THE HELMET! Why would you even make that statement if it WAS true? Wasn't it bad enough that a great racer lost his life without clowns like you making up sick lies to somehow enhance the "thrill" factor? couldn't agree more, caveman2. Racing accidents that involve serious injury and death are not to be embellished or trifled with! It's amazing that the rumor that Vogler was decapitated in his fatal crash has persisted all these years.
|
|
|
Post by recurve on Feb 26, 2022 17:23:08 GMT -5
The most ironic part of the entire accident was that Richies helmet was rolling down the racetrack with his head still in it without his body attached !!!! It turns out that that the account of the story as it was conveyed to me turned out to be nothing more than an ugly urban legend !
|
|