acerogers58 wrote: ↑4 years ago
There’s a photo of Fedewa’s one in the CPDB, but yeah the cameras didn’t quite catch it. Just an onboard showing him starting to get air before he goes out of shot. Newspaper reports seem to explicitly state he didn’t flip.
Ohh yeah! I think me and someone else have discussed that newspaper report! That's what I've been basing the exclusion of it from the list off of. It's always been confusing to me. I engaged in a brief conversation with a guy on racing reference who claimed he was sitting in turn 1 and saw the car do a "360 corkscrew" (or something like that) in mid air. You can see the conversation in the race's comments, #25 thru 29.
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.
Hmm yeah I guess we will have to wait and see if more photos surface in the future, same with Chuck Bown at Charlotte. I only really started debating Pressley after finding a couple more angles today, including one from the backstretch grandstands which appears to be from the initial lift-off.
I will be removing Freddie Farmer's 1951 Oakland flip from the list until further info surfaces.
Comment on racing reference:
"...I have heard that Freddie Farmer rolled 3 times from the top to the bottom of the oval..."
"...Just to confirm that, it isn't true, but he crashed out..."
However a "Freddie Lee", flipping at Gardena, is on the other list on the first page. That name is not on the results (nor has ever raced in NASCAR) but I put two and two together and figured it was confused with Freddie Farmer.
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.
So, contrary to what we have concluded, this is in fact NOT Nelson Applegate's crash! Multiple reports say that "Applegate suffered severe head and chest injuries after tumbling over the guardrail."
Chuck Garrett flipped during the race, and has been added to the list, however it is not the wreck in this video.
So we have a confirmed #3 car, but no confirmed driver. The only possible names it could be are Felix Wilkes or Gene Darragh.
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.
So, contrary to what we have concluded, this is in fact NOT Nelson Applegate's crash! Multiple reports say that "Applegate suffered severe head and chest injuries after tumbling over the guardrail."
Chuck Garrett flipped during the race, and has been added to the list, however it is not the wreck in this video.
So we have a confirmed #3 car, but no confirmed driver. The only possible names it could be are Felix Wilkes or Gene Darragh.
I wonder if that’s a #5 and not a #3, Gene Darragh ran a #5 at Darlington in 1951 and 1952, Number in his other races apart from his first (#24) are unknown. It also mentions in newspapers a three car pileup occurred just before the Mann accident, Darragh is listed to of crashed on his 171st lap but he could of been multiple laps down. Mann in newspapers is listed as crashing on his 191st lap although RR says he completed 211. Gene Darragh could be an alias too, like Larry Mann was the racing name of Larry Zuckerman. There's no birth records of someone from florida named Gene Darragh or Eugene Darragh, which is probably why this guy seems to not exist after 1952.
Brief shots of Darragh’s car can be seen in this video at 3:54 and 4:09
Felix Wilkes ran #5 in his first three career races in 1949 then it appears he switched to 57 in 1950 or 1951. He completed 141 laps before crashing.
Last edited by acerogers584 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
I agree that it could be a #5 car too, in which case it adds up that it would be Darragh given that the Darlington 500 was only two races before the Langhorne race in question. I don't think we can completely rule out Wilkes though given that Langhorne was his only race in 1952 and he may have run a different car number.
I think the verdict is going to be Felix Wilkes until any new info comes up.
Although there is one frame as the car flips where the number looks like a 5, it does look mostly like a 3. If Gene Darragh was running his dark blue on grey paint scheme at this race, you'd think it would show up on the video. It's very hard to figure out who this is, but it looks like Felix Wilkes is the common denominator in this scenario.
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.
Hmm, the way the car ends up facing I’m not sure he did roll, 0:35, he seems to correct “Flipped over on its top, on its side” also 1:22 “The car did not come all the way over”This aftermath picture was posted last year in the crash forums, no obvious roof damage.
Last edited by acerogers584 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
We figured out Jerry O'Neil did not flip at Watkins Glen in 1992. Him and Greg Sacks started on the same row, and during the starting grid, Bob didn't mention anything about a flip until he started talking about Sacks, who as we all know did flip.
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.