Swede Savage

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

David Earl "Swede" Savage, Jr. (August 26, 1946 - July 2, 1973) was an American race car driver.

Swede Savage (left) and Dan Gurney, 1970

Born in San Bernardino, California, Savage began Soap Box Derby racing at the age of five. He moved up to racing quarter midget cars then at age twelve to Go-Kart racing. By his late teens he was racing competitively with motorcycles and by the late 1960s was driving a Lola in the Can-Am racing series. In 1968 and 1969 he also raced in NASCAR events. Competing in the 1969 Daytona 500, he was forced out after a wheel fell off on lap 124 and he crashed. In 1970, Savage and teammate Dan Gurney drove identical factory-sponsored Plymouth Barracudas in the Trans-Am Series.

Driving an IndyCar, Savage won the 1970 "Phoenix Bobby Ball 150." He competed in the Indianapolis 500 twice, finishing 32nd in the 1972 race after dropping out on lap six with mechanical problems. The following year, Savage qualified fourth and had the lead for twelve laps until he was passed by Al Unser on lap 55. During lap 58, Savage brushed the outside wall at the exit of turn four. His car then slid sideways across the track and violently impacted the inside track wall at an oblique angle. The force of the impact caused the car to completely disintegrate in a plume of flame; the engine and transaxle tumbled end-over-end to the pit lane entrance while Savage, still strapped in his seat, was thrown back across the circuit, finally coming to rest adjacent to the outer retaining wall on his hands and knees, completely exposed. Tragically, a young crew member for Savage's Patrick Racing teammate Graham McRae, Armando Teran, ran out across the pit lane and was struck by a fire truck rushing up pit road (opposite the normal direction of travel) to the crash. Teran was fatally injured.

Swede Savage died in the hospital thirty-three days after the accident; the severity of his injuries having been aggravated by respiratory failure resulting from accidental inhalation of racing fuel vapors. He was interred in the Mt. View Cemetery in his hometown of San Bernardino, California. Married with a six-year-old daughter, his widow Sheryl was expecting their second child at the time of his passing.