Stock Car History Online - Bobby Allison Commentary

Bobby Allison At Talladega …Breathtaking!
Reprinted from May 7, 1987 edition of Grand National Scene
By Deb Williams

The Winston 500 at Alabama International Motor Speedway was only 21 laps old when a cut tire launched Bobby Allison’s Stavola/Miller American Buick LeSabre into the steel-mesh catch fence separating thousands of race fans from the 3,500-pund stock car, creating one of the most horrifying crashes in NASCAR Winston Cup history.

After ripping away a large portion of steel fence, just 15 feet from NASCAR flagman Harold Kinder, the car suddenly veered from the fence, landed on its wheels and began spinning.

But that didn’t end the accident. Phil Parsons’ Jackson/Coppenhagen Oldsmobile Delt 88 slammed into Allison’s car, rear end first, while several other cars went spinning and crashed into the outside wall. The count showed Ron Bouchard, Alan Kulwicki, Cale Yarborough, Richard Petty and Mike Waltrip.

When the crashing cars finally sat silent, several spectators were injured, debris was strewn across the track, about 150 feet of fence had been stripped away, nine poles torn down, eight cars had been involved and all the drivers had escaped serious injury.

Allison arrived at the infield hospital while rescuers also were bringing in three injured spectators, all on stretchers. One fan was shirtless and had a white cloth over his face; another wore a neck brace. The third wore a cutoff T-shirt and shorts.

Track officials indentified the most seriously injured as James Townes of Union City, Tenn., and Kenneth Goldman. Townes was transported to the Anniston, Ala. Regional Medical Center, then transferred to the Eye Foundation Hospital in Birmingham, Ala., with a possible eye injury. Goldman was treated at the Anniston center for a puncture wound in his chest and released. No identity was available on the third spectator, who was treated and released at the speedway. A track official said at least 15 onlookers were treated for lacerations at one of the track’s two first-aid stations. One fan treated at the first-aid center sought additional medical attention after seeing an opthalmologist.

Allison, the race’s defending champion, said he believed the incident was caused when he ran over something.

“I couldn’t really tell,” the 49-year-old Allison said as he walked from the infield care center. “Something bounced under the car and then a tire exploded. I think I ran over something and cut my right rear tire down. It spun the car in the trioval there. Up in the air it went, around backwards. There was nothing I could do.

“I knew I hit the fence, and I recall that quite well. I could tell it was tearing out the safety fence. I don’t know who else was involved, but I’m very disappointed anyone was involved. I’m very sorry about that.

“I’m thankful to the good Lord that I’m not hurt and I hope no one else down there is hurt too bad. No one had any escape,” he said.

Susan Goodwin of York, Ala., echoed Allison’s sentiments.

“When it started coming up, I thought it was coming through,” she said. “There was not enough time to do anything. It was a mess.”

Gary Duibley of Dayton, Ohio, said he saw Bill Elliott go by and “the next thing I knew the fence came down. There was a loud boom. Then everything just ripped apart.”

Allison said this probably was his worst crash since his car flipped several times at North Carolina Motor Speedway at Rockingham, N.C., in 1976.

“I don’t keep count,” he remarked.

Geoff Bodine, whose Hendrick/Levi Garrett Chevrolet retired with a broken piston shortly before the incident, left his car immediately with wife Kathy and headed for the infield care center to check on Allison when he heard what happened.

Benny Ertel, a spokesman for the Miller American team, was in radio communication with Allison.

“After the car stopped, I asked him if he was OK and he said he was,” Ertel said. “Then Phil (Parson) came along and hit him in the driver’s door. I asked him again if he was OK and he said he was.”

Parsons said he had slowed when someone hit him from behind.

“Then, I don’t know whether that knocked me into Bobby or someone else hit me after that,” Parsons said. “I got a real hard shot after that. I don’t know if I hit Bobby or somebody else hit me then. I’m not sure.”

Ertel said one of the first things Allison asked was if the fans sitting in the area where the wreck occurred were all right.

“Just the fence went into the stands,” Ertel said. “The (car’s) body part went onto the race track.”

Ertel, who was standing in Allison’s pits watching the terrifying crash, said if the Buick had not returned to the track when it did, Kinder would have been hit by it.”

“Harold never stopped throwing that caution,” Ertel said. “The second group (of cars) never saw it. The cars were spinning everywhere. I think the fence rolling up was what sent him back onto the track.”

The modest Kinder, a flagman for 20 years, said he just did his job.

“It’s just another day,” the 59-year-old North Carolinian said. “I just hope nobody was seriously injured.”

Allison’s airborne, fence-ripping car missed Kinder’s stand by 15 feet.

“That is the closest I have come to being injured,” Kinder continued. “Anytime you are out there, anything can happen. They’ve hit the wall under me and I have seen tires go flying up before but nothing like this. I have been very fortunate.”

Through the melee, Kinder’s own safety never entered his mind — it centered on the drivers and his assistant.

“I heard something blow and I saw the car coming up the fence,” Kinder said. “I had the yellow flag between my legs and I reached for it. When the car came up, I pushed Marian (Johnson) out of the way and came up with the flag with my other hand. My main concern was getting the yellow flag out for the rest of the field. I looked around and saw cars sliding and tire popping.”

Tom Roberts, who handles public relations for the two Miller Brewing Co.-sponsored teams, said he was in the team’s pit, as was Allison’s wife Judy when the accident occurred

“When he started going sideways he was in front of the Miller pits,” Roberts said. “The radios were silent. Everyone saw what was going on. Everyone was standing there, watching in disbelief. Then Judy started running toward the car. She was stopped and told he was OK.”

Roberts’ wife, Joni said, “All I know is I heard screams.”

Allison’s son Davey, who eventually won the event, was running third at the time and saw his father’s terrible crash in his rearview mirror.

“That was the lowest emotional point I’ve ever had in my life,” Allison said. “That has to be the worst crash I have ever seen him in. Just the fact how the whole outcome is. I just hope all the people up in the stands are OK.”

Allison said the first thing that went through his mind when he saw the wreck was “I knew it was bad.”

“I wanted to get back around as quick as I could,” he continued. “The anticipation is probably the hardest thing on anybody when something like that happens, knowing the answer, whichever way it is. And I tell you what, I don’t think I’ve ever breathed as strong a sigh of relief as when I saw him climb out of that car.

“I’m just glad the good Lord wanted him to be on Earth with us some more.”

Ertel said it was the fence that channeled Allison back onto the track and prevented him from hitting Kinder. At least one race fan also noted the fence did its job.

“I thought it might whip backwards and flip (Allison) over,” said George Perek of Parna, Ohio. “The posts put the car back down on the track.”

Bill Elliott also complimented the track’s protective fence system.

Many of the fans in the area said they would sit in the same seats again.

Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip both had closer views of the incident than either one of them would have liked. They were right behind Allison.

“I drove to the bottom to miss him,” Earnhardt said while sitting on a tire in his pits during the race’s two-hour, 38-minute and 14-second red flag. “Maybe if I had bumped him, he might not have turned around and went up like he did. I don’t know. They said the wind picked the car up. But you’re trying to miss a wreck, not drive into one.

“The wreck undoubtedly messed the caution lights up for that lap because they never came on until we came all the way back around. The leaders had all slowed down. They said Harold was still up there flagging. Maybe, in the mass confusion, he just didn’t hit the switch or maybe the wiring was torn away. I don’t know. Luckily, Harold wasn’t torn away.”

Waltrip said he saw Allison’s right rear tire go down as if he ran over something.

“The car dropped when it cut the tire and when it dropped the wheel hit the race track and turned the back of the car around,” Waltrip said. “When the back of the car turned around it went airborne and went backwards up onto the wall, up into the fence and slid down the fence.

“I was trying to get my. A piece of the car flew off and broke out my windshield. Then I couldn’t see. As I went by, apparently he came back out of the stands and rakes down the right side of my car. The guys said it was pretty bad.”

Waltrip said a lot of things happened, technologically speaking, today with the race cars at high speeds that no one fully understands.

“When you start approaching barriers you’ve never approached before or breaking barriers that you’ve never broken before, then technology becomes of the utmost importance. That is the thing you rely on,” Waltrip said.

“I’m not sure we have an adequate amount of technology — drivers, crews, NASCAR, everybody involved — to know exactly what it is we need to keep these cars on the ground.”

During the red flag, the younger Allison said the cars would react the same way as his father’s did even if they were slowed by 30 mph.

“I guess we’ll have to some aerodynamic work and ground effects like the Indy Cars. That is why the Indy Cars are able to be as stable as they are at the speeds they are running,” D. Allison said. “I think this is going to stir up a lot of thoughts about what all of us have to do now.”