You are nearing the transfer limit for memorials managed by Find a Grave. Emily Kasriel explores the art of plague from the Black Death to current times. (Jackson dropped his first name, Paul, about the time he went to New York in 1930.) My car hit another and then spun down the track with the wheels off it. Born in Dragon, Utah, and raised in the Portland, Oregon area, Pollard drove in the USAC Championship Car series, racing in the 19651973 seasons, with 84 career starts, including the 19671971 Indianapolis 500 races. In 1937 Pollock began psychiatric treatment for alcoholism, and he suffered a nervous breakdown in 1938, which caused him to be institutionalized for about four months. safety truck, speeding up pit road in the opposite direction of normal traffic, hit Teran He is believed to be the first driver from Southern Oregon to race at Indy. For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab. Thirty-two cars returned to their original positions. Art drove in the USAC Championship Car series, racing in the 1965 through 1973 seasons, with 84 career starts, including the 1967 through 1971 Indianapolis 500 races. His tires were warmed, his four-speed gear box in high. "He came off the wall and almost landed on the front of my car," said Lee Kunzman, whose first Indy start carried him only a few hundred yards. Over the left hand I wear a glove, a black glove. Year should not be greater than current year. Unser led early, then Savage went to the front. google_page_url = document.location; English Then I thought: Well, shit. Invalid memorial. | He turned the car over to its owner, Foyt, who had gone out on Lap 37 with a failed bolt. Make sure that the file is a photo. Raw speed ruled. Please enter your email and password to sign in. google_ad_width = 728; He was very courteous as a driver, but very strong and aggressive on the trackbut with respect for the other driver.. he also had the rookie of the year, Graham McRae, who finished 16th. Car trouble ends his day early on lap 45. He started twenty-fifth and finished twenty-second after a spin. "It really tries on a driver hard. Art Pollard - driver We just took to each other, Green said. A. But he never forgot about his old friends. An email has been sent to the person who requested the photo informing them that you have fulfilled their request, There is an open photo request for this memorial. His racing was not professional in the Northwest and the Western states. A scarecrow.". His car exploded in an angry orange flash. google_ad_format = "728x90_as"; He unstrapped and pronounced the day "the happiest of my life.". Foyt had already went up that way and had walked back and grabbed a hold of me and said, In time trials, with a car with the new air wing design, and running in high winds, the car went out of control and flipped several times at speeds over 190 miles an hour. At Indy, the closest grandstand seats were moved back from the fence, and the wall He moved up the ranks, eventually testing himself against the best in the United States Auto Club Championship Car Series. Drivers who survived an earlier era now openly wonder how they did. He was a true sportsman, a very strong competitor, and wouldnt hurt a fly. I actually had an opportunity to meet him once in Lexington. He went to a hospital locally and started visiting that hospital and bringing drivers with him. Other cars were losing parts. His death was the first at Indy since 1973 when Art Pollard and Swede Savage were killed and, to date, the last driver to die during qualifying. friends . Johnny Rutherford remembers May 12, 1973, the day of Arts fatal accident: I was the first one by the scene of the accident where he crashed, I could tell it was not good. The grid was reset without Walther. He was a mechanic and car dealer at the time of his death. Driver Salt Walther suffered disfiguring burns in a fiery first-lap crash that injured 13 spectators. "Terrible. (HTTP response code 503). I couldn't believe it was that bad. Mike, then 25 and a steel fabricator in Fresno, Calif., didnt want to believe what he was hearing. the condition of Savage. Maybe not to dad, because I think he took the relationships he had for granted, because he was that way though his whole life. All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. Plain and simple. Its just like driving a passenger car. 'You don't want to go up there.' It came out in the papers that i said that maybe I didn't get bumped. And that soon became a tradition, and he was the first one to do that. Yesterday Art Pollard left us. Party Approximately one hour after the accident, Art Pollard was pronounced dead. Pollard had clipped a wall, an impact that sent his car skidding into the infield grass . This is a carousel with slides. This account already exists, but the email address still needs to be confirmed. Photo courtesy of Bob Pollard. Flowers added to the memorial appear on the bottom of the memorial or here on the Flowers tab. builder who was credited with discovering Savage. We were listening to the radio broadcast of the activity at Indy when they announced that Art had crashed and later passed away in the hospital. Main Magazine and eBay Motors. In 1956, Time magazine gave Pollock the name "Jack the Dripper," referencing his unique style of action painting. Among his contemporaries, he was respected for his deeply personal and totally uncompromising commitment to the art of painting. Driver Art Pollard was killed in an accident during a practice Driver Swede Savage and mechanic Armando Teran also died A crowd estimated at 250,000 swarmed Indianapolis Motor Speedway's. He turned away from the flatbed truck he was working on when the radio news mentioned his fathers name. Bobby Unser, in Dan Gurneys Eagle chassis with turbo-Offy power, set the second fastest average speed of 169.507 mph. None of the men ever forgot about May 12, nor did they let their glowing recollections of the man they called friendly, loving and one of a kind fade. from behind at 60 mph and killed him. Art Pollard, American race car driver (b. Methanol, at 70 degrees, weighs about 6.6 pounds a gallon. Just didn't go that way.". The back end jumped out and I caught it. 'George, he was a great lover of . March 18, 1972 - At Phoenix Art qualified 21st in the #11 Quality Racing Scorpion now with a turbocharged Foyt powerplant. "He said, 'You don't want to see it.". and trigger another explosion of fuel and car parts. Map Bob Stewart was a member of his first crew at Indianapolis, and a life-long friend. Colin Chapman had returned to Indianapolis and Parnelli Jones was lending his expertise to the Granatelli team. It was 5:30 p.m. Only 10 cars were still running. Art won $941.00 for his 14th place finish and Bobby Unser won the race. To use this feature, use a newer browser. google_color_text = "000000"; Are you adding a grave photo that will fulfill this request? google_color_border = "DDAAAA"; Art Pollard's story deserves to be told, from his humble beginnings in Dragon, Utah to his untimely death on Pole Day at Indianapolis in 1973. overturned, flaming car came to rest right in front of Dallenbach, who helped firefighters He made speeches at schools and churches and visited the troops in Vietnam, but his pet project was the LaRueCarter Memorial Hospital for retarded children in Indianapolis. He was rushed to Methodist Hospital, but died shortly afterward. He served time in jail. google_color_bg = "ECF8FF"; Minutes later, Pollard's car smacked the outside wall in Turn 1, spun, flipped and slid to a stop in Turn 2, engulfed in flames. "This is what everybody feared," ABC's Jim McKay told the worldwide television audience. Can You Match These Lesser-Known Paintings to Their Artists? By Wednesday, tension and exhaustion infected the track. But it was his love of adventure that got him into racing stock cars and midgets in the 40s and 50s. "Friends and Family Remember May 12 1973", "Art Pollard Racing in 1973, the Tragedy and Reactions", "Art Pollard: Early Years and Personal Facts", https://web.archive.org/web/20071205052904/http://artpollard.tripod.com/1972-73.html, https://web.archive.org/web/20110810203442/http://www.judydippel.com/cmsj/, https://artpollardracedriver.info/art-pollard-by-years/art-pollard-racing-in-1973-the-tragedy-and-reactions/, https://oilpressure.com/2012/02/27/art-pollard-somehow-always-overshadowed/, https://www.historicracing.com/driverDetail.cfm?driverID=5062, http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20160430/SPORTS/160439978, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Art_Pollard&oldid=1091444970, Pages using small with an empty input parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 4 June 2022, at 11:04. Johncock, who led 64 laps, was declared the winner while sitting in the pits. People came to see the storied track's first 200-mph laps. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Pollock was employed by the WPA Federal Art Project in the fall of 1935 as an easel painter. As the race started, Salt Walther and Jerry Grant touched wheels, launching Walther's car into the catch fence . Schwankovsky gave Pollock some rudimentary training in drawing and painting, introduced him to advanced currents of European modern art, and encouraged his interest in theosophical literature. And you dont always get that from, not just race drivers, but also other stars so-to-speak. google_color_link = "0033FF"; You have to anticipate the throttletheres a lag there. ), "If you really stop and think about it and you follow racing, it seems like before I had no brows and almost like a burr haircut. Pop-off valves cut boost and the horsepower generated by turbochargers. Contact Bob Kehoe, author of Art Pollard:The Life and Legacy of a Gentleman Racer.Request an autographed copy. squeezing Jerry Grant against the wall. I told 'em I was at the Indy 500. Mike couldnt believe what he was hearing. You have to get on the turbine much sooner. When they got me up to walk, I'd get dizzy and go sit back down. A popular super-modified champion in the Western States in the 1960s - to . Close this window, and upload the photo(s) again. People in the pits recall the searing intensity of the heat. Growing up in the small. Hell, we'd take him on hunting trips, fishing trips, everywhere. Pollard never regained consciousness, and his injuries were reported to include pulmonary damage due to flame inhalation, third degree burns on both hands, face and neck, a fractured right arm, a fractured leg, and a severe spinal cord injury. Over the course of time, speeds have continued to increase but safety measures have A proud family man, a well-respected competitor, a humanitarian, and a friend to all, was gone. This position gave him economic security during the remaining years of the Great Depression as well as an opportunity to develop his art. His death hit my family very hard, and to this day we miss him. google_ad_height = 90; Please try again later. Art was buried in McMinnville Oregon. "After the second day, you started thinking: 'Who's next?'" Generated by Wordfence at Wed, 1 Mar 2023 22:21:11 GMT.Your computer's time: document.write(new Date().toUTCString());. Evergreen Memorial Park. Plump organized charity basketball games that Pollard helped promote with other drivers, in addition to his own charity work at an Indianapolis hospital. For a while though, it was touch and go. Mike lives in Reno, Nev., and works at a jewelry shop. Place of Birth - Dragon, Utah which became a ghost town shortly after his birth.. Siblings - A sister, Christine, 3 years older and a brother Robert, 3 years younger (shown in a 1930 photo).. The race started four hours late under threatening skies. He never looked back. He went to the hospital with Patrick to visit Savage. I've been lifting weights since I was sixteen years old. Pollard, an internationally known portrait painter, who painted four presidents and a pope, movie stars and basketball players, died at home last night. The impact tore off two wheels immediately, and the wings were also torn off during the slide. Try again later. They said it was my fault. | It was a lot of fun.. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. another driver," Johncock said. Johnny Rutherford won the pole position. Born in Dragon, Utah, Pollard died in Indianapolis, Indiana, as a result of injuries sustained in practice for the 1973 Indianapolis 500. google_ad_channel ="0983136519"; It erupted in flames with the green flag still waving. ", Meanwhile in the pits, Teran, an STP crewman, headed toward the accident scene. . "When somebody's hurt, he goes through a helluva rehabilitation process. Meanwhile, the infield continued its metamorphosis into a bog of mud and stinking Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Art Pollard (7232111)? Art Pollard was crowned Champion (shown above) and awarded a 9 2 trophy after compiling 1,150 out of a possible 1,200 points over the two days. And I was wasted. Fuel capacity was reduced from 75 to 40 gallons. He had suffered internal lung lesion due to flame inhalation, a broken leg, a fractured right arm, third-degree burns and a severe spinal injury. Artle Lee Pollard, Jr. (May 5, 1927 May 12, 1973), was an American racecar driver. He went on to become a popular super-modified champion in the Western States in the 1960sand finally, the Indy Racing circuitachieving the pinnacle of racing, the famed BrickyardIndianapolis Motor Speedway in 1967. I'd lost fifty pounds or so. Some of the pieces flew up in the stands. I had a lot of skin grafts on it. The men invested countless evenings in the garage, burning the midnight oil to help transform an old 1933 Chevy Coupe into a bonafide competitor. One of the top athletes probably in the country. It was just a week after the local heros 46th birthday. A month later, after Savage's kidneys had failed, he died of pneumonia. Then Johncock recorded an unofficial lap of 199.4 mph during tire testing in March 1973. For these pieces, many made during his poured period, Pollock dripped paint onto canvas to convey the emotion of movement. Unfortunately Art slipped in Johnny Rutherford's oil and crashed in turn 1. cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Art was buried in McMinnville Oregon. He did everything so well. After these experiences, his work became semiabstract and showed the assimilation of motifs from the modern Spanish artists Pablo Picasso and Joan Mir, as well as the Mexican muralist Jos Clemente Orozco. It was the Golden Era of IndyCar racing. I suppose there is truth in the 7 degrees of separation theory. Born in Dragon, Utah, and raised in the Portland, Oregon area, Pollard drove in the USAC Championship Car series, racing in the 1965-1973 seasons, with 84 career starts, including the 1967-1971 Indianapolis 500 races. It was one of the most miserable weekends of his life. Its a shame she had to hear about Art over the radio, but thats the way things happen when a sporting event is being broadcast., As Harvel Pollard (Arts cousin) remembers, One of the fellows I coached with for a number of years wasnt feeling well that day. The message was stressed in the costliest of terms "Everyone's friend," Unser called him. "I couldn't see where I was going or what I was doing. "I was astounded. 1927) Artle Lee Pollard, Jr. (May 5, 1927 - May 12, 1973), was an American racecar driver. Instead, he survived with multiple burns, particularly to his GREAT NEWS! Art Pollard: The Life and Legacy of a Gentleman Racer. "It was amazing to come back the next year and it was as if people had not forgotten about it, but cleansed it from their minds and were ready for another 500-mile race.". with crashes that killed drivers Art Pollard and Swede Savage and crewman Armando Teran He had burns, broken bones, and a severe spinal cord injury. We got treated terrible until we qualified. Fast forward 36 years. He was killed during practice on Pole Day for the 1973 Indianapolis 500 when his car hit the wall and caught fire. Foyt, although Foyt then took to teammate George Snider's car. To add a flower, click the Leave a Flower button. Granatelli was the CEO and affable pitchman of the car's sponsor, STP oil products. They shared hamburgers at the Burger Chef restaurant on West 16th Street, just east of the track. "I would do my racing, get in an airplane and go Thanks for using Find a Grave, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you. His fathers Studebaker dealership sponsored his midget race car. google_ad_height = 90; On-board fuel capacity was cut from 75 gallons to 40, turbocharger boost pressure After a while, I told my friend that I had to get back home to watch the time trials. a driver's body of accidents, some of which have a force of 70 or 100 times that of He had just turned 46 one week before he died. He was 88. In 1968, all three of Andy Granatelli/Colin Chapman designed turbines made the field on the first day of qualifications. A lot of fans - and drivers too - said that Walther blew it. At last glance, Granatelli had seen Teran standing alongside McRea's crew chief, Granatelli's son Vince. Pieces tumbled down the track and Savage slid to a stop, still strapped in the cockpit amidst a pool of burning fuel, but fully conscious, somehow speaking to safety workers and medical officials. 1961 Art Pollard won the 1961 Western States Race of Champions with the 34 Willys racer with a longer chassis and some added body work and a new fuel tank which increased the weight to 2050 pounds. Paul Jackson Pollock was the fifth and youngest son of Stella May McClure and LeRoy Pollock, who were both of Scotch-Irish extraction (LeRoys original surname was McCoy before his adoption about 1890 by a family named Pollock) and born and raised in Iowa. And I set to work to build myself up. Art went on to win his first Champ Car race after a wild start (shown above). Ken Glass, a long-time Roseburg resident, sponsored Arts car until Indianapolis came calling and the rates simply got too expensive. Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s). Pollard dominated racing on the super modified circuit on the West Coast in the late '50s and early '60s. He finished in the top ten 30 times, with 2 victories, both in 1969, atMilwaukeeandDover. But the luck and success ran out preparing for the 1973 Indy 500, a race remembered for deadly accidents. That point was clearly emphasized in Art Pollard: The Life and Legacy of a Gentleman Racer. From a small hydroplane on Oregon's Umpqua River to micro-midgets and modified stock cars on a half-mile oval in Roseburg, Oregon. He was found unconscious, and was rushed to Methodist Hospital in the new Cardiac ambulance. He and Pollard were close friends. Jim Malloy had crashed in this same turn 2 days before and would die 2 days later. The traditional victory banquet was canceled. In 1968, he teamed up to drive one of Andy Granatelli's famous STP Lotus Turbines. He died Dec. 27, 2012. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7232111/art-lee-pollard. "It was January 1, 2016, and I was just like, 'Eh,. Afterward, Patrick and Johncock held the most muted of victory banquets. Kind, generous, friendly, outgoing, persistent, honest, gentlemanly, optismistic, competitive, even-tempered, vibrant - these words describe a few of the qualities of this exceptional person who was also a great race driver. For my hands I got a box of sand. driving on the track. Pollard's lap prior to the crash was timed at a speed above 192 miles per hour (309km/h). Swede Savage, driver of another Patrick Racing, STP-sponsored car, and Armando Teran, mechanic on a third Patrick/STP car, also died. If you have questions, please contact [emailprotected]. Art and his crew started 28 main events and won an astonishing 22 of them., Perhaps his most admirable quality (off the track) was his ability to take a moment of his time and make everybody he talked with feel important. "I've seen the movies of that start hundreds of times since. MEDFORD, Ore. Among those starting their engines in the 1950s, 60s and early 70s were two Southern Oregon natives, Bob Christie of Grants Pass and Art Pollard of Medford. They saw, instead, the fatal first day of the old track's deadliest May since 1937. You never saw him when he wasnt smiling, Mike said. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. I remember, though,that when they pulled me out of the car right after it happened, they asked me first, what was my name? As manager of this memorial you can add or update the memorial using the Edit button below. Art's Parents - Artle Lee Pollard Sr. (1903-1964) & Bobbie Marie (Jaynes) Pollard (1907-2000). She is the daughter of Art Pollard. The death drew notice, but the loss of one more driver wasn't all that unexpected.