When I came across this 1951-52 photo of Greensboro Fairgrounds Speedway it took me a moment but I noticed something disturbing...a man with his helmet flying off next to the fence behind the white
#1 car. I would like to hear your opinions on it, or maybe someone knows about this incident. What happened here?
Is there something or someone in the dust cloud? And what is that above the '35 or '36 Ford coupe #1?
I have heard of parts flying but HELMETS?
To me it looks like more than just helmets. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, and then size your sreen up to 150% you can see it a little better. The object to the right is clearly a helmet, but the object just to the left of it looks like a face...as if maybe one of the drivers had gotten out of his car only to be struck by the #1 car and maybe the #12 car also. But what should be where his body is looks to me like a square wooden beem. Hard to say for sure, though.
I ALSO BLEW THE PICTURE UP TO 400%. THE NUMBER 13 DOES NOT HAVE A DRIVER INSIDE THE CAR UNLESS HE'S LYING ON THE FLOOR. I BELIEVE HE CRASHED AND EXITED THE CAR AND WAS TRYING TO GET TO A SAFE PLACE WHEN THE OTHERS CRASHED INTO HIS CAR. IT LOOKS LIKE HE'S TRYING TO DODGE DIRT AND CARS AND IS HOLDING HIS HELMET UP AS HE DOES SO. YOU CAN SEE HIS BACK ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE POST....I WONDER IF HE GOT AWAY UNHURT........THAT'S A SPOOKY PHOTO
Kind of reminds me of this old Far Side comic:
looks like the driver is walking to the right between the posts and the fence maybe swinging his helmet or maybe throwing his helmet --any way you look at it thats not a safe place to go
Yes, if you click the photo and when it opens click it again to enlarge you can see the driver running for his life with helmet in hand. The Ford Sedan sliding in there backwards must be the party crasher of the 3-some
Thanks for the observations, everyone. Sounds like the consensus is the driver isn't being run over like I thought at first. I couldn't really make out those wooden posts from all the dust, but I see now he is behind one, maybe in the middle of jumping out of the way of the #1 & #12 car and his helmet is flying off or he's throwing it. I hope he didn't get hit. I agree it looks like he had gotten out of the #13. You can see the 13 and the black car took out a couple of the posts. Good thing one was there for him to jump behind!I found another photo of the incident...what looks like a whole lap earlier because the #13 is crashing but the #1 is passing him. They must have been racing back to the caution flag and the black car and the #1 got tangled up. Pretty crazy!
I'm going to add another theory here. It seems like the helmet looking item is too new, a full face type for the era of the photo and I wonder if it even is a helmet or perhaps some type of light. It is also funny that you can make out the guys face right next to it but very little else. There is a sort of glare of light that looks like a post but I don't think it is, heading up to the head. I wonder if perhaps this photo wasn't a double exposure of some kind.Dave Bayer
I'm also seeing like three of those fence post looking things like his face is coming out behind of, one on either side of him, but they are very faint and almost transparent looking. My best guess is indeed this is a double exposure on the film, in otherwords, two pictures were taken on the piece of film and that the guy was on one picture, the cars are on another, and that the helmet looking item isn't that at all but some part, maybe flying off one of the cars. It looks to sharp to not be part of the pictures of the cars and be in with the photo that was taken of the guy in some other location.Dave BayerDave Bayer
One last thing, the helmet looking item would be too small to go on that particular guy's head.
Hi David, double exposure is an interesting theory and certainly a possibility, but I disagree. Did you see the second photo I posted in the comments? It shows the #13 as he's crashing and you can see the wooden posts in front of the fence more clearly. I think it is the driver of the 13 jumping for his life behind a post and his helmet, which looks correct to me, is flying off. If it was double exposure I think you would see other things showing up on the image.
Hey Robert, no, I saw your comment about the second photo, but I didn't see it, or how to get to it. Could you help me out? It's certainly very interesting!Thanks.Dave Bayer
Dave, you just scroll down through the comments under the photo. Here is the other photo again -
Robert, It must be on my end I'm having the trouble because I see no photo in the comments at all. Even on your latest comment, I see nothing on my end, nothing even to open. Its been a while actually that I've been able to get the thumbnails on the huge photo album here, only the caption for the picture. If I click on that, a box opens up with the caption that the poster has put with the photo but no photo unless I click on "View full size." Then I can see the picture, but only then. I can also get your photo album on your page and watch the slide show, or do the same thing to look at the individual photos, but again no thumbnails. I love this site but it just started doing this one day a few months ago and neither Jeff nor Robbie and the group and I have been able to figure it out. So, whatever is causing this problem is probably why I can't see the picture that you are posting in the comments. Oh well. I know you tried. If you know what might be going on with my dumb computer, (or its dumb operator) that can help me cure this, let me know. Thanks.Dave B.Dave B.
Ok for you YOUNSTERS out there. Back in the 1950's they did not throw a Yellow or a Red unless someone was laying on the track OR a fire. That was typical for the racing back in the day. Check out some old pictures from back then and you will see an empty car just sitting there. Look at the Daytona Beach race and you would see the same thing you crashed, crawled out and ran like hell. If you where hurt the you HOPED that they would notice you.
The number 1 car went a whole lap around and then ran into the wreck.
Here goes my theory.#13 looks to be in fine shape, paint and all, except where the left rear fender is wrinkled, so i think he got hit there by the #1 coupe when he went a little wide into the turn.He started to spin into the turn, applied too much opposite lock, and spun himself out, almost flipping his car along the way. Next thing you know, here comes the black sedan, who has overshot the same corner(big drums got overheated), and slides right up to the fence, about 30 feet short of nailing #13. "Well, wadja do that for?" thinks the first guy to hisself. " I just painted this car, and got my new white helmet. Ya'all HAD to've SEEN me!" So he gets out to see the damage to his front, and talk to the other guy, Fred( they knew each other).Fred gets out to go look with him, up there at the fence, and they both took off their helmets (Fred's is black, to match his car), and their mouth-covering 'neck'erchiefs and goggles(well, only Fred, the other guy thought it looked cool to wear them around his neck) and set them on top of Fred's roof while they surveyed the damage. Well, here come the official from the infield, and yells and waves for them to come across the track, which they do without a seconds thought.Meanwhile, the #1, who didn't get his number by accident, tries the same 'pit' maneuver( so THAT'S why it's called that!) on the #12 car as he tried on the rookie car, only this time it doesn't work out so well. He manages to spin the #12 inside his line, and is forced out on the black cars line, only with out all of the brakes. So both cars hit the black car,#12 in the side, and #1 in the rear. HARD. And pushes the black sedan right out from under those helmets, and the hankerchief under the black one giving an impression of a young Erroll Flynn, for the fraction of a second it takes to push a button, before they fall to the earth. Click!The fence is stamped tin, galvinized, like we put on barn roofs, and around junkyards, and it's lag-bolted to the posts, every other post being shorter. The black helmet is facing the short post(see the goggles?), and the neckerchief is hanging below.That's what i see.God Bless.
God Bless is right. That was awesome RJ! From now on, you are writing my photo captions.Now, take a look at this photo and tell me what you see...
i see Oliver Stone making 60 milllion dollars, on a theory.
RJ, assuredly I appreciate you joining in on the fun here, especially if the driver has cleared all of this unhurt, which it appears given the way he is headed and the car is headed he was, ( assuming my initial theory of the double exposure is debunked and there is enough room between the shorter fence posts and the stamped steel wall posts for a person to fit, and there must be, as to the helmet I still think it is too small to go on his head, also the opinion of my 25 year police chief dad) and I'll admit it invites analysis of photos of the Kennedy assassination.I don't want to start anything here as this is our fun stock racing history site and not the place for tradgedies, no offense, again because the photos invite the analysis, but your theory, while maybe not a conspiracy theory which is what I like about it, and I'm not a buff about this, but I like your theory. The bushes which as I recall came early in the Zapruder film always interested me, much more than the grassy knoll as an alternative to the book depository theory if there is one, because after the shot, all the people who flee, flee towards the grassy knoll. You don't flee to the location where you hear the shots coming from which would have been unmistakable at that distance.Dave B. But again, no offense, I just look at this most interestingly from the historical racing standpoint.God Bless.
And one last thing, I don't think you necessarily, from what I can tell, are supporting the bushes theory which ultimately I agree with too to be unlikely. Too close to get away and not enough, as they say in the NFL, to overcome the ruling on the field. The angle of trajectory, from the book depository, while steep, would not be steep at all from that distance. Some luck would have been involved, but not that much as Oswald was a crack shot in the military from which he was dishonorably discharged recently, had been to Russia and Cuba where the Bay of Pigs and Missle Crisis would have had everyone riled up, providing the motive in his twisted mind, and that's about it. As to Ruby, many probably thought about it, he acted on it' being a bit of a shallow albeit patriotic character, plenty of motive for someone wanting to make amends for a less than stellar life, and as for the inside information, cripes look at all the people that were there for this allegedly secret move of Oswald to one place or another. The answer in my mind, the perfect storm, the comedy of errors, and nothing more, not perfectly, but pretty well explainable. Now as to our accident photo.......Dave B.