Hearts Can Be Broken on Valentine's Day

The words are stark, cold and brutal. The facts are similarly so.

A quick check of   Seventhgear.com   finds that Web site noting, "According to Associated Press reports, the crash of Bettenhausen's Beech Baron twin-engine aircraft was reported at approximately 11:45 a.m. near Leesburg, Kentucky with no survivors. According to a Federal Aviation Administration official, the plane was en route to Eagle Creek Air Park in Indianapolis from Tri-City Airport in Blountville, Tenn."

Nevertheless, if you've followed American auto racing long enough, a name like Bettenhausen warps you back to a different world than what you see around you today. The name calls to us from a time when cars weren't covered with logos, when drivers didn't start out in karting and work their way up through formula this and formula that.

Racing was family. Racers raced because Dad raced. Racing started with midgets on dirt and got rougher. Racing was heavy, front-engine, rear-wheel-drive roadsters, with the driver sitting up and exposed. Sometime too much so ... no shock absorbing carbon-fiber cockpits, dinky little roll bars, no fire suits.

Tony Bettenhausen, Jr. came from that world. Tony Bettenhausen, Jr. gave enough to that world that he doubtless had no tears for the "good ol' days."

The Bettenhausen history is chilling, even for someone like me who can remember his hero Bill Vukovich dying while trying to win his third Indy 500.

Stark, cold and brutal ...

Tony's father Melvin "Tony" Bettenhausen dies while practicing for the 1961 Indianapolis 500.

Tony's oldest brother Merle suffers serious burns and the loss of his right arm while racing at Michigan International Speedway.

Tony's other brother Gary nearly loses his left arm in a crash at Syracuse, N.Y in 1974.

The bitter dark side of racing also touched the family of Tony's wife, Shirley. The daughter of driver Jim McElreath, she lost her brother James McElreath during a USAC sprint race at Winchester Speedway in 1977.

The Bettenhausens never stopped racing. Both Merle and Gary came back to race, modifying steering wheels so they wouldn't be forced to race with one arm. After trouble getting his career on track, Tony made more than 100 starts and then became a car owner.

Andrew Craig, CART chief, said the right words. So did Tony George, president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

I struggle to find words to fit my own feelings. I sometimes think we can love something or someone so much we hurt ourselves. I sometimes think we have something burning in our souls that means more than life.

Go To Page: 1 2