Dan Wheldon Accident/Death

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SycamoreStateofMind

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[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfnjd01GR5o[/ame]

Not that anyone wants or needs to see this. But Dan Wheldon Indy Car Champion and Indy 500 Champion (just won for the second time this year) has passed away in an on track crash. He becomes the 4th driver to die in a race car the same season that he won the Indy 500.

Just a sad, sad scene in Las Vegas. Personally not a big fan of Indy car, but am a huge Nascar fan. I was a little kid when my childhood hero Dale Sr. died and I remember how terrible of an event that was for me as a kid. Still have pictures of Dale Sr. in my house.

Dan is survived by his wife and 2 younger boys.

Thoughts and prayers go out to all of Indy car today.
 
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A touching tribute with the silent pace laps at LVIR but what a tragic way to end a great weekend. Racing death is part of the sport but damn, it hits so hard to those of us that love the sport. I too love Nascar but Indy Car is where my heart has always been. My heart is so heavy I am mostly speechless.
 
Yeah it's Indiana - so many of us have grown up watching racing. Be it at the dirt track at the Action Track in Terre Haute or at the Indy 500 - we watched racing since we were little kids. I was in the stands when Stan Fox had his terrible accident in turn 1 of the Indy 500 - I was a little kid then also.

Have a picture of Stan's legs dangling outside the car in my house aswell just to remind me of how fragile life can be... Sad, sad day for the racing community.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWKbmS12ZKA[/ame]


I was 9 years old - think it was my first or second Indy 500. I was sitting in turn 1, it was like a huge BOOOM when he hit. I will never forget that crash.
 
Was watching the race when it happened...not a huge IRL fan but a huge loss! Seemed like a good guy and he could clearly drive the wheels off a race car...honestly luckily more didn't die or get seriously hurt.
 
I know this is not a "race" forum but I was very nervous about 34 cars in the field on a 1.5 mile oval at 220mph+ speeds. Indycar has a formula on the number of cars vs. the length of the track and speed, i.e. the 33 cars in the Indy 500 are determined by that formula and it is not simply a choice of the track promoters.

I am pretty sure that you will be hearing on a regular basis after today that LVMS should NOT have had that many in the field. It is hard to say if a normal 24-car field would have saved Dan's life, and it probably would not have, but Randy needs to look at sending those driver's out in the crowded field at such fast speeds.

Sad day indeed but look for some changes in the sport, and most likely aimed at the 1.5 mile tracks!
 

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Very sad. Wheldon was a great driver and seemed to be a nice guy when it came to the public. By the way, whose car is it that comes flying up from the back of the pack and crashes through multiple other cars that are by then just sitting on the track? It was as if that driver was the only one who didn't slow or react at all. Your link says private video and I am unable to watch it here.
 
The tarps were to keep as much of the car intact as possible so IRL could study it for safety issues. I agree with Bally on putting 34 cars on a 1.5 mile track doing 220mph plus there was several "part time" drivers in the field. Tough day for IRL losing one of it's best drivers along with the leagues PR image in Danica.
 
Bob Evans said:
Very sad. Wheldon was a great driver and seemed to be a nice guy when it came to the public. By the way, whose car is it that comes flying up from the back of the pack and crashes through multiple other cars that are by then just sitting on the track? It was as if that driver was the only one who didn't slow or react at all. Your link says private video and I am unable to watch it here.
Click to expand...

Hard to react when your doing 220mph and packed in like sardines.
 

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I understand that they are going fast. However, s/he (whichever) was going considerably faster than those next to him/her, so I assume there was a blatant difference in reaction time. From the aerial view, that car passed several on its way to plow into the pile while others were already crawling.
 
Bob Evans said:
I understand that they are going fast. However, s/he (whichever) was going considerably faster than those next to him/her, so I assume there was a blatant difference in reaction time. From the aerial view, that car passed several on its way to plow into the pile while others were already crawling.
Click to expand...

You gotta also figure that the drivers were trying to avoid debris that was EVERYWHERE...that might be part of it.
 
I must have been seeing things then as no one else saw what to me looked like really bad driving from someone in the back of the field that could have easily made a terrible outcome even worse.
 
B.E., one of the "flaws" in this world championship format was that there were 25% more cars than a normal event with driver's of several of the teams being MUCH less experienced than the regular 24-28 drivers. At 220+ mph and cars running 3-wide on this banked bowl, it was an accident waiting to happen. They have been pretty hush-hush about the person that tagged the red car in turn 2 that triggered it but it will come out eventually. As I stated early on in this thread, IndyCar screwed up on this. There should have NEVER been that many cars on this course. There are names in the field I had no idea who they were and that is not a good thing. There was a reason the driver's showed a serious concerns about this race BEFORE it happened yesterday. It could have been a special event and now, I am not sure that IndyCar will ever race there again. I',m better today but this will hurt for awhile.
 
Bally #45 said:
B.E., one of the "flaws" in this world championship format was that there were 25% more cars than a normal event with driver's of several of the teams being MUCH less experienced than the regular 24-28 drivers. At 220+ mph and cars running 3-wide on this banked bowl, it was an accident waiting to happen. They have been pretty hush-hush about the person that tagged the red car in turn 2 that triggered it but it will come out eventually. As I stated early on in this thread, IndyCar screwed up on this. There should have NEVER been that many cars on this course. There are names in the field I had no idea who they were and that is not a good thing. There was a reason the driver's showed a serious concerns about this race BEFORE it happened yesterday. It could have been a special event and now, I am not sure that IndyCar will ever race there again. I',m better today but this will hurt for awhile.
Click to expand...

Agree that they should have capped the number of qualifiers.

Who are the unfamiliar names (to you)? Granted some of the rookies make me think twice but; am pretty sure most of the qualifiers have either driven a full season or have a ton of seat time (Wheldon, Tracy, Hamilton)
 

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4Q_iu said:
Agree that they should have capped the number of qualifiers.

Who are the unfamiliar names (to you)? Granted some of the rookies make me think twice but; am pretty sure most of the qualifiers have either driven a full season or have a ton of seat time (Wheldon, Tracy, Hamilton)
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I had to get the Sunday paper to answer that. To begin with, they might be Indy lights drivers but they were new to me. Wade Cunningham, Charlie Kimball, Jay Howard, James Jakes. If they are IndyCar regulars, they MUST be always in the back of the field. I don't know their resumes so maybe I have just overlooked them but in a normal race, I could say something about the drivers most the time and I don't have a clue. I pay attention to ALM and Grand Am so I know most of those drivers but those 4 drew a blank (although Friday and Saturday night in TH might have affected my though process).

That said, even among the names I recognize, there are a few questionable drivers in there, at least on a course that would be as technical as this one was. Thanks heavens Milka stayed home.
 
Bally #45 said:
I had to get the Sunday paper to answer that. To begin with, they might be Indy lights drivers but they were new to me. Wade Cunningham, Charlie Kimball, Jay Howard, James Jakes. If they are IndyCar regulars, they MUST be always in the back of the field. I don't know their resumes so maybe I have just overlooked them but in a normal race, I could say something about the drivers most the time and I don't have a clue. I pay attention to ALM and Grand Am so I know most of those drivers but those 4 drew a blank (although Friday and Saturday night in TH might have affected my though process).

That said, even among the names I recognize, there are a few questionable drivers in there, at least on a course that would be as technical as this one was. Thanks heavens Milka stayed home.
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Cunningham is an IndyCar rookie; he might still be driving some Indy Lights races; Kimball and Jakes are rookies as well. I think Howard is splitting some time in Indy Lights or he doesn't have a full ride.

I don't think any of cracked a top ten finish all season.

Agree on Milka; were it not for her sponsor, she wouldn't have been in IndyCar. (also never understood the cheesecake promotions there were doing of her; know not everyone is a Danica fan but Patrick is fare sexier than Milka)

I saw that IndyCar is going back to Belle Isle next year; I may hit that one, went several years ago, good time. I like road courses over street courses but the Belle course was nice.
 
Tony George's "dream" of American racer's on ovals is certainly not coming true. Thanks for the info. I do not follow lights that often but when Connor Dailey got involved I did a little. I believe that the "less" experienced drivers played a part in this incident and I also, as an experienced race goer that knows what looks right and what looks dangerous, tilted that needle quickly to dangerous when I was watching it. Pretty much the same look as we will see at Talledega this week but with much more dangerous cars when they are close. All three evening network news led the news tonight and most of it was about whether or not those cars in those numbers and at those speeds should have raced at LV. I doubt they should have and I am VERY confident that those cars will never be back back there. In fact, listening to the people I respect, including Robin Miller and Dave Despain, they are saying pretty much what I think they should about this.

I REALLY want to see the IndyCar series take off but between bush league officiating (Barnhardt) and this issue, they are heading in the wrong direction. I hope Randy figures it out. I really do.
 
Bob Evans said:
By the way, whose car is it that comes flying up from the back of the pack and crashes through multiple other cars that are by then just sitting on the track? It was as if that driver was the only one who didn't slow or react at all. Your link says private video and I am unable to watch it here.
Click to expand...

So, how fast do ya think any human can react, when goin' 220 MPH, in a severely banked curve? How many details do you think these drivers have to proces in mili-seconds anyway? This ain't I-465, or U.S. Highway 41 traffic. These drivers are closing distances, and closing them fast, and closing them in split seconds.

These guys are going the distance of an above average city block, in the blink of an eye. Hell, we got people doing 40, 50 and 60 who can't slow or react at all...let alone 220.....and those people cause untold amounts of carnage, mayhem, and death...in doing so.
 
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