A very long, hot somewhat routine day of shooting the Indianapolis 500 for the Greenfield Daily Reporter newspaper turned ugly very quickly. After a 198 laps of the constant repetition of cars going by, the unthinkable happened instantly right in front of my eyes. I still don’t know what caused me to react and start shooting the car flying by in front of my eyes; somehow I managed to quickly compose and then follow the action as Mike Conway’s #24 car disintegrated right before me. Once the accident was over, my first thoughts were of the driver; I thought there was absolutely no way that he had survived the wreck. I was both hyper and a bit sick to my stomach for the first hour or so after the accident. Needless to say, I, as everyone else, was greatly relieved to hear that he did not suffer life-threatening injuries.
A few hours after the accident I walked back to gasoline alley and into Conway’s garage area. I came across one extremely shell-shocked crew member standing dejectedly over what was left of the car, all in pieces and piled into boxes and 5 gallon buckets. It was he who informed me that Conway had suffered only a broken leg (..it was later disclosed that he also had a compression fracture in his back). I was greatly relieved, but will always remember the look on the crew members face in the garage.
Getting the sequence of shots was a combination of luck and skill. Even as I drove into the track that morning, I had not decided from which turn I was going to shoot. My choices were either at the south short chute between turns 1 and 2 or up in turn 3. As fate would have it, I decided to stay up in turn 3 since that was where I was parked and also the lower fence would make shooting much easier on my back than having to stoop down to shoot through the protective fence in the photographers area at the south chute.
The day had become very monotonous as the cars droned by lap after lap with the only excitement coming occasionally when there would be a pass coming out of turn 3. Around lap 175 I vowed to myself that I would be extremely alert and ready should anything happen. There was to be no chimping, no looking at the crowd, no eating, no drinking , etc., etc….just watching the cars come off of turn 3 and keeping the camera up to my eye. Then the unthinkable occurred:
Added 6-2-2010: I had one person leave a comment asking whether or not I had shots of the fence after the accident. At the time I really didn’t even think about photographing the fence, but in looking back through my photos, I actually do have a couple of shots that show the fence (or lack thereof!). The first one is pretty clear in that you can see a lot of lower part of the fence has been ripped away, but the main cables are intact. In the second shot (not really a very good picture in and of itself) the fence is a bit out of focus because it is way in the background, but you can tell that there is a large part of the fence missing.
Yet Another Flying Race Car
6-7-2010: Also if anyone’s interested, I dug up some shots I took at Talladega in the spring of 2009 when Carl Edwards did his flying act into the fence at the end of the race. The shots aren’t quite as good as Indy as I was attending just as a fan and was shooting from the stands just past start/finish line and had a lot of fan interference. You can see the photos here.
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Hello Scott
Thank you for your incredible photos. This is awesomely scary and not only am I happy that Mike Conway did survive this with non life-threatening injuries, but also, as far as I know, no spectator injury.. When you see the violence with which the car hit the fence and the amount of shrapnel projected all over, you can’t help but think of the spectators, many of which are not even aware of what is going on before their eyes. How long before the back side of the fence is covered in clear Lexan, like Hockey rinks…
Hi Scott
absolutly brill shots, as a photographer its great to be in the right place, right second? thankfully mike will be back? perfect definition
ScottR: It got to say I’ve seen some incredible racing shots of an accident, and these may be the best! I’m talking about shots of Eddie Sachs, Gordon Smiley, and an incredible shot of Nelsen Piquet having a tire save his life. The clarity is unbelievable. I’ve watched the video many times, and I’m sure you’ll agree that these stills make a better case of what really happened. Couldn’t be happier that Mike Conway wasn’t injured more severely. Just incredible photos!
Great shots!
Did you happen to get any photos of the fence afterward? I noticed on the telecast that one of the wheels apparently went through the fence. Fortunately, it looks like it bounced harmlessly under the grandstands rather than into the spectators. We had pieces of carbon fiber hit us in Turn 1 in 2005 when Dixon and Richie Hearn crashed but having a wheel go through is a different story all together.
Yes, I do have some that show a part of the fence. I’ll get them fixed up and then post them up to the site. Thanks for asking about that…I didn’t even think to shoot the fence afterward; the couple of fence shots I do have were just “accidental” when shooting other subjects.
Holy cow! Thanks for posting the fence photos. The spectators are lucky that the grandstands are elevated there or that wheel and other debris could have done some serious damage. Judging from the reaction (or lack thereof), many of the spectators were watching the video screens of Dario trying to nurse his fuel consumption and Wheldon trying to catch him and didn’t even realize what was going on in front of them.
Last time I have seen photos like this; is when Stan Fox had that wild crash in turn one.
Great job Scott. I was relieved when I heard Mike’s injurys were not more serious.
man, you sure kept your cool as the action unfolded
it’s incredible you didn’t even know which end of the track you were going to that day- you sure picked the lucky one for shots of a lifetime!
The radiator splash on Helio’s in-car cam hid the fact that he just missed taking a tire off his helmet…had things gone just slightly differently this could have been Indy’s first multiple fatality since…1964, I think. Don’t forget Tony Renna whose flier into this same area of fence in an identical car (I think) didn’t end as happily. No one was there to photograph or video that one.
Incredible.I am ninetyone years old and have been taking pictures for seventy five of thoes years.Yours are among the the most spectacular I have ever seen. thanks for having the talent to record same. Don Stevens
Scott, Great job of being ready when this happened after so many laps of cars just racing by. I spent 30 plus years shooting at IMS and other race tracks and became known as “Crash” because I shot so many incidents. I know you can easily get lulled into a sort of stupor. This takes instant correct action to get these results. The video shows how suddenly this happened. These images show what really happened. Back in the days of B&W and before video many drivers, crews and car owners reviewed the images I captured and those of other still photographers to learn what really happened to cause wrecks and what happened during the crash. The last big one I captured was the Stan Fox crash at the start of the ’95 race. One image is on my web site.
Mr,. Richards, Sure you were in the right place at the right time but you also pulled it off. I have been right there in roughly that same spot and I know how hard it is to just sit there and keep waiting, holding the camera up to the eye seemingly forever. It’s why most of the old time shooters actually have their own bar stools to sit on all race long, which I’m sure you saw (last time I was working there was 2006). Congrats on beating those lazy bastards – who hog the photo hole all day long – to the best shots. Do not sell to an agency, LAT, Getty, etc, without a rep. Nice shooting and congratulations again. I look forward to seeing your stuff in print.
Scott, It sure is nice seeing that a fellow Hancock County resident captured these great photos. Just a comment from Mr. Richards from Iowa, the Red Cloud is not rust, it is fluids being released, after the LF corner makes contact with the fence. Great job Scott, and it is always better to be lucky than good. In this case, you have maximized the moment with these shots.
Johnathan Richards,
It’s amazing that you noticed the red spray from the rust as Conway’s car hit the fence. I sit down low in Turn 1 every year and as you noted, these seats are not elevated. We have been hit by small pieces of car coming through the fence before – primarily from the Dixon-Hearn crash in 2005 and to a lesser extent the Meira-Matos crash in 2009 – but I’ve always wondered about the integrity of that fence. It’s all that protects us from disaster.
If you go back and look at the ABC video of the crash, you will clearly notice one of Conway’s wheels bouncing against the concrete pillars that support the grandstands in the north chute. If that crash had occurred in Turn 1 and the wheel had come through the fence………..
My husband and I have been involved with NHRA drag racing for 36 years and have seen our fair share of wrecks. This wreck was awful, but, my reaction to the audience was one of shock. People just sat there and some didn’t even pay attention. I once heard some one in the audience, at a major race of funny cars, say ” I just like to see the wrecks”. All I see is $$$$ and the pain it can sometimes cause the driver/owner/family etc. Not to mention the hours of work and the love of the car and sport. Shame on all of you who don’t understand that. Great pictures. Keep up the good work.
Scott, I don’t know how you do it! Such clarity! Looks like his visor came open. I wonder if there are any shots of Simona De Silvestra’s firey accident at Texas.
Dave Harris
Funny fact about picture 0776……I am the fan that is standing on the railing hold the red cup. I am also wearing a Dad’s rootbeer hat that was given to me by Mike Conway during an event we did with him. I did not have seats in that turn, it was just a crazy series of events that I ended up at that point for the wreck. I hope to never see a wreck like that again. Can I buy that pic?
Thanks for sharing these Great Pic’s!
I’d like to thank each and every person who has taken the time to comment and leave so many kind words and compliments here. Due to my high workload this last week I have gotten way behind in responding to everyone. I have had a major project going on at work this last week and it’s finally winding up so now I’ll be able to catch up on sleep and getting replies out to everyone.
I’ve also been asked several questions about my shot settings, camera setup, etc. I’ll do a blog post very soon that will detail how I have my 7D set up; including the scary moments I had during the race when I was inexplicably losing power to my 7D. I can’t imagine how I would have felt if I had not found and fixed the problem and had the camera die on me in the middle of shooting the wreck sequence .
Again, I’d like to thank everyone who has posted comments, emailed and even called me on the phone. It’s been a very overwhelming experience so far and I am extremely humbled by the response.
-Scott
Wow. Incredible shots. I would have to say that this crash probably gives us a pretty good idea of what Tony Renna’s must’ve looked like when he lost his life in that practice accident a few years ago in the same turn. Mike Conway is a VERY lucky man!
Scott, excellnt work! I will be share this page with my social media friends.