These Are The Crashes That Will Haunt Racing Fans Forever

In 1973, Roger Williamson was offered his first chance in Formula 1 after winning back-to-back British F3 championships. He was killed in his 2nd start. Williamson’s March 731 suffered a tire failure going through Zandvoort’s high-speed esses during the eighth lap of the Dutch Grand Prix.

The March flipped and burst into flames. Williamson was still conscious but trapped inside the overturned burning car. The trackside marshals, not wearing flame-resistant clothing, essentially just stood by and watched.

David Purley, another driver, saw the incident and pulled his own March over to help. He grabbed a fire extinguisher from the marshal to fight the blaze and lift the car single-handedly. It was ultimately a fruitless effort. Williamson died at the scene of asphyxiation. Purley stated he could hear Williamson’s screams as he tried to save his life.

Later in the 1973 F1 season, François Cevert was killed in a crash during a qualifying session at the United States Grand Prix. The charismatic Frenchman had become a staple at Team Tyrrell with a single F1 win on his record, the 1971 USGP. With the pending retirement of three-time champion Jackie Stewart, he was slated to become the team’s number-one driver.

Cevert’s Tyrrell 006 hit a curb while driving up Watkins Glen’s Esses. The car swerved into the inside Armco barrier before rebounding and slamming into the barriers on the opposite side. The Tyrrell flipped and landed on top of the Armco, tearing Cevert’s body in half and killing him instantly. Tyrrell withdrew from the next day’s race in what would have been Stewart’s 100th and final start.

Niki Lauda’s infamous crash at the Nürburgring during the 1976 German Grand Prix nearly cost him his life. Before the event, the Austrian wanted to organize a boycott because of how dangerous the circuit was and how ill-prepared the race organizers were to hold an F1 race on a 14-mile-long track.

During the race’s second lap, Lauda’s Ferrari 312T swerved off-track, hit an earthen embankment and burst into flames. American driver Brett Lunger struck the burning Ferrari as it carried back across the racing surface. Lauda’s ill-fitting helmet came off during the crash, exposing his face to the blaze. Lunger and other drivers were able to free Lauda from the wreck, and Arturo Merzario pulled him out of the Ferrari.

As documented at the time and retold in the 2013 movie “Rush,” Lauda’s injuries were so severe that he was given the Last Rites. He not only survived but returned to F1 that same season.

Tom Pryce competed at the Nürburgring in 1976 and he would die early the next season. The British driver was killed in a surreal incident at Kyalami during the South African Grand Prix. His teammate Renzo Zorzi’s Shadow suffered a mechanical failure and the car caught fire on the main straight. The Italian struggled but eventually escaped and put out the fire with the onboard extinguisher.

Frederik Jansen van Vuuren, a 19-year-old marshal, ran across the active track with a 40-pound fire extinguisher to assist. Pryce driving down the straight, unable to see Van Vuuren beyond a crest, hit and killed the marshal. The fire extinguisher hit Pryce in the head, killing him instantly.

Gordon Smiley died in a crash during qualifying for the 1982 Indianapolis 500. During his second warmup lap, his March 81C began to oversteer and he overcorrected. His car slammed into the concrete wall head-on at nearly 200 miles per hour. The car disintegrated with a flash of flame. CART medical director Steve Olvey described the incident as one of the most gruesome he had ever seen. Olvey noted in his autobiography that Smiley’s brain was smeared across the track.

Bobby Allison’s crash at Talladega during the 1987 Winston 500 drastically transformed the nature of stock-car superspeedway racing. Allison’s Buick blew its engine on lap 21, and debris from the motor cut down the right rear tire. The car spun around at over 210 miles per hour, went airborne, and soared into the catch fence. Allison walked away from the crash, but a significant portion of the fence was torn down. In the incident’s aftermath, NASCAR introduced restrictor plates in 1988 to limit the speeds on superspeedways and unintentionally create pack racing.

Stock-car racing wasn’t only dangerous on its largest tracks but also on its short tracks. Michael Waltrip miraculously escaped a brutal wreck during the NASCAR Busch Series’ Budweiser 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway in 1990. Waltrip’s Pontiac hit the exposed end of a concrete wall where the half-mile oval’s crossover gate is. Despite the impact tearing the car apart, Waltrip was relatively fine.

Two-time CART champion Alex Zanardi’s life took an abrupt turn after a crash at EuroSpeedway Lausitz on September 15, 2001. During the race on the two-mile German oval, Zanardi lost control of his car while rejoining the track after a pit stop. The Champ Car swerved off the pit exit and onto the track, where Alex Tagliani smashed into Zanardi at 200 miles per hour.

The impact itself amputated both of Zanardi’s legs, and he lost 75 percent of his blood. He would survive after a three-hour surgery to clean and close his wounds. Two years later, CART gave Zanardi the opportunity to complete the race’s final 13 laps at the Lausitzring in the specially modified car. Zanardi would continue to race competitively in other categories and sports. He won two gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games in handcycling.

Henry Surtees, the son of F1 and MotoGP champion John Surtees, was killed in an incident during a 2009 FIA Formula 2 round at Brand Hatch. Jack Clarke spun off the track and hit a wall. A wheel from Clarke’s car snapped off the tether and bounced back onto the track. The loose wheel hit Surtees in the head as he was driving past at 100 miles per hour. He was pronounced dead later that day.

Surtee’s death was one of the incidents that encouraged the development of an open cockpit protection structure that led to the Halo, which is now ubiquitously in Formula 1 and across international single-seater racing.

Surtees wouldn’t be the last open-wheel driver to be killed by debris. Justin Wilson was killed in a similar incident during the 2015 ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway. Ganassi driver Sage Karam crashed at the exit of Turn 1 while leading the race on lap 180. The nose cone from Karam’s car came loose during the crash.

The cone hit Wilson in the head as he drove past the crash. Wilson’s car veered into the inside wall and he was unresponsive when attended to by safety crews. Wilson was airlifted to a nearby hospital and he was pronounced dead the next day. In response to Wilson’s death, IndyCar mandated that pieces of bodywork had to be tethered to the car.