Eldon Rasmussen (7 July 1936 – 5 June 2022) was a Canadian driver in the USAC

Championship Car American open-wheel car racing, also known as Indy car racing, is a category of professional automobile racing in the United States. As of 2022, the top-level American open-wheel racing championship is sanctioned by IndyCar. Competitive event ...

series. He raced in the 1971 and 1973–1979 seasons, with 23 career starts, including the 1975, 1977, and 1979

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of India ...

Career

Rasmussen was born in

Standard, Alberta Standard is a village in southern Alberta, Canada. It is surrounded by Wheatland County, approximately east of Calgary. The Canadian Pacific Railway tracks pass south of the village. The village was originally settled by Danish immigrants. Sta ...

, on July 7, 1936. In lap 125 of the 1975 race

Tom Sneva Thomas E. Sneva (born June 1, 1948) is a retired American race car driver who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1983. He primarily raced in Indy cars, and was named to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2005. A former math teacher from Spok ...

, attempting to lap Rasmussen, ran over his left front wheel and was launched into the Turn 2 wall, exploding and disintegrating before tumbling to a stop. The spectacular nature of the accident, and the fact that Sneva escaped serious injury, have led to its being replayed on television. In his Champcar career, Rasmussen finished in the top ten 3 times, with a best finish in 7th position in 1975 at the

Ontario Motor Speedway Ontario Motor Speedway was a motorsport venue located in Ontario, California. It was the first and only automobile racing facility built to accommodate major races sanctioned by all of the four dominant racing sanctioning bodies: United States Aut ...

Ontario, California Ontario is a city in southwestern San Bernardino County in the U.S. state of California, east of downtown Los Angeles and west of downtown San Bernardino, the county seat. Located in the western part of the Inland Empire metropolitan are ...

. He built his own race chassis which he dubbed the "Rascar" which he campaigned with limited success from 1973 to 1979. In all 3 of his Indy starts, Rasmussen qualified his Rascar on the last row. Eldon Rasmussen was a fabricator of race parts in Indianapolis for years and was inducted into the

Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame The Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame (CMHF) is a hall of fame run by the Canadian Motorsport Heritage Foundation as a not-for-profit charitable institution that "honours and recognizes the achievements of individuals and institutions that have m ...

Indianapolis 500 results

Notes

External links

Driver Database Profile
1936 births 2022 deaths Canadian people of Danish descent Indianapolis 500 drivers Racing drivers from Alberta Sportspeople from Edmonton {{Canada-autoracing-bio-stub

Career

Indianapolis 500 results

Notes

See also

External links